PDN to Acute care?

[shelbs]

I'm finding that it's almost impossible to get a job working in the hospital after spending 2 years in SNF and PDN. Is this a common problem? Not to mention I have leadership experience so I'm finding that hospitals immediately turn me away because I left bedside nursing. I mainly left bedside because I wanted to be able to spend more time with my young son but now that he's older, I feel like I can really get into acute care.

Any tips or words of encouragement?

[caliotter3]

I have seen that the people who get this kind of job are those import nurses who pass the NCLEX RN after working for awhile as an LPN/LVN. Don't know if there is a pattern there but it is what I've noticed.

[smartnurse1982]

I always thought PDN WAS bedside nursing.

It the most bedside of bedside nursing you can do.

When did this change?

.

As to the OP,i too find it is nearly impossible to get hired in acute care after working PDN and LTC nursing.

I am in the same position as you,except i have been at this for 10 years now.

One manager told me it is because we have no concept of time management,and many seem to think PDN is just glorified babysitting.

Many seem to think we also lost some nursing skills over time,but I do not think many acute care managers realize the difference between skills and tasks.

The only way I could see nurses like us get hired into acute care nursing is to get the BSN.

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

Bedside nursing has always implied inpatient acute care or subacute care

[Kitiger, RN]

I think time management would be key if trying to move from private duty to the hospital. But I thought nurses in long term HAD to be good at time management in order to survive. Am I wrong?

[caliotter3]

As far as I'm concerned I learned time management during my time working in long term care, while at the same or converging times, working in home health. But I also learned that it can be less stressful working with just one patient at a time than to be getting the same paycheck with responsibilities for 80 residents at once. I chose to opt for the one patient. There is no reason for me to even try to work in acute care at this point.

[brillohead, ADN, RN]

I worked PDN for a little over two years before getting hired in at a hospital earlier this year. It wasn't a hindrance to me at all, but then there were plenty of openings, too. My competition for the position was new grads... no competition at all.