walkingon

J.Adderton…I wish I knew. Maybe they had to interview a certain number of candidates or something. Just wish they’d have been straight up about it. Frustrating with no feedback to know what I’d done wrong. But the job hunt carries on.

This happened to me very recently. Red flag #1: not hearing from the company for nearly three weeks after the initial interview. (at this point, I already knew they probably weren’t interested and wasn’t hopeful, but played along anyway because I really wanted the job). Red flag #2: job shadow scheduled nearly two weeks after that phone call. Red flag #3: noting that the job kept getting re-posted while waiting. Red flag #4: showing up to said job shadow and told I could observe two different employees for 15 minutes apiece, then being rushed out. Rejection email 3 days later. I had enthusiastic recommendations from several of the company’s own employees that I’ve been working with at my present job for years and was very confident I could handle the work. I did everything I could think of; had answers for interview questions prepared, showed up a little early, dressed appropriately, didn’t ask about pay or benefits, kept my body language as relaxed as I could. 3 days after the job shadow, I got an email rejection. Not gonna lie, it was pretty hurtful.

Thanks for raising awareness on this topic! Just wanted to add that, for those on Reddit, there is a sub with a wealth of information and support for menopausal women. It’s been super-helpful to me and lots of others. r/menopause

Thank you for that useful comment! No sarcasm intended at all. We did, very recently, get a new phone system with a phone tree and voice mail that automatically routes the calls to the appropriate staff (mostly), and that’s solved about 75% of the problem. I’m now using the “and then what” approach to answer the calls that still come through, because I do truly need to take some of them, but still waiting for management to complain about it so I can ask about how I’m to prioritize.

I’m no longer happy at my job in AL memory care and haven’t been for awhile but not wanting to leave nursing because there are so many other opportunities out there. I’m not a young woman, though, and only have nursing home experience. Not sure what route to go. Only prerequisite is I have to have healthcare insurance. Just want out of the nursing home and away from bedside, been there 10 years. Any suggestions for this LPN?

Sounds like a dream job to me! How does one find such a position, and is 10 years as a floor SNF/AL LPN qualification enough?

Thank you so much for this! I actually made a paper with these bullet points and taped it to my clipboard for referral to make this train of thought a habit. Already knew this as well, but the biggest time-suck I face is having to answer the facility phone throughout my shift. We don’t have a receptionist nor voice mail and the nurses are expected to answer the phone, take messages and run the portable phone to residents when their families want to talk. Not sure how to prioritize around that.

No, it’s a small memory care assisted living facility. State watches us set and pass meds from our trays when they’re in the house.

JKL33, I feel really dumb asking this, but could you expound on the difference between patient’s (in my case, resident’s) needs and employer’s preferences/fantasies? Something inside really took notice of that statement and made me realize I have a hard time separating the two. I’m often the only day shift nurse with a QMA and 3 or 4 CNAs for 36 - 39 residents so any kind of direction on time management is helpful as the comments above.

The dining room is where we pass the meds at my facility. We pre-set the meds on trays with their patient identifiers and take the trays around rather than drag the cart. Never heard of not being allowed to pass meds in the dining room. We don’t do glucose checks in there, but meds, yes.

Thank you for the information! Wasn’t sure how it worked. ?

Slightly off topic here, but how does one join a union when there are none locally? I live a union-busting at-will employment state. Is it possible to join one elsewhere?

Where I work, (memory care AL) men with a hx of documented sexual behaviors are given IM Depo-Provera, which generally works pretty well from what I’ve seen. Of course, families are consulted and give consent.

As a memory care nurse, my co-workers and I work under a shadow of threat of violence daily. How do you fight back when you’re fighting restraint-free cognitive impairment? How do you deal when you’re getting your a** kicked by a delusional person who will hurt themselves or someone else without your intervention? The really bad ones we can send out to geri psych, but it’s the ones that “only” hit while having care provided that management doesn’t seem to care about, as long as said hitting is going on in the privacy of the resident’s room and CNAs and nurses are the ones being hit. I find it interesting that if a resident becomes agitated and hits another resident, it’s a state reportable huge deal, but it’s just another day at the office for staff getting hit. I can certainly understand that these people have dementia and don’t know what they’re doing, but that doesn’t keep our CNAs working when they get tired of it and find jobs elsewhere, which just exacerbates the problems of continuity of care. The violence generally gets worse during GDR attempts, which is a whole other ball of wax. I feel there is no recourse for us due to the nature of this particular beast.

I wish I had the stones to do this. I’m just a LPN working AL, but >30:1 is getting old. I will probably lose my job and be blackballed where I live, should I attempt to organize in this right to work State.