AXIDRN

Don't get me wrong, I love nursing, but, I can definately see why many leave the field and why many just get burnt out. I feel like I have aged 10 yrs in the 1 yr that I have been nursing. We are always short staffed, the schedules suck and management doesnt give a crap if you have a family that needs you to be home a few days a week. I feel like as a married mother of 2 that my job takes too much away from the people that I love the most. For example, this past week I worked 6 out of 8 days and I am sorry but I need to rest, not only for my own sanity but for the safety of my patients and the 2 small children that I have to care for when I am not at work. For the mothers out there you know that we NEVER have a day off. It just irks me that some managers think you can work like a robot. I stay in nursing bc i love my patients just wish I had another venue to take care of them. Can anyone relate?

LTC is hard work. I started out as a new nurse in LTC and had some misconceptions about it as well. I thought I wasnt going to be learning anything or that i would be losing my skills, I left that job to work for a better facilty and found that my 10 months in LTC really prepared me for the Job that i currently have. I am really glad to have had that experience but LTC is not for me. I respect anyone who chooses LTC, its really hard. I also believe you get what you what you put in to it. as a new nurse I always saw the wound nurse do treatments and I tried to get as much experience as possible. Its all about what you want to learn. I have though seen alot of rn's who went to LTC as more of a retirement job and who were lazy as sin and who didn't want to do anything. Nursing is hands on and if you dont wanna do anything then you should find another occupation.

I graduated in Dec 09 with my BSN and searched for a job for 3 months in a hospital with no luck. I broadened my spectrum and started applying for LTC facilities and got an interview and a job within 3 weeks. I worked at a ltc/rehab facility for 9 months and luckily when I started looking again for another job I finally got calls for interviews. I had about 6-7 interviews and FINALLLY got a job in the best hospital in this area. I hated working LTC, BUT, the reason i got the job was because I had that experience. Any experience really is good experience so just keep trying and remember everything happens for a reason.

I graduated last fall and worked 9 months in LTC. finding work in an LTC was not hard at all for me. They pretty much offered me the job first thing. I have spent the last 9 months searching for a hospital job but thankful was offered a job this week. Don't get me wrong in LTC you learn some skills but there is not really alot of hands on stuff. thankfully the job i will soon start required ltc experience. Any experience is good experience. At the facilities i know of they have both 8 and 12 hr shifts. I am not sure about hh but i do think that they should have at least a yr long experience worth of any kind of nursing because you are very independenet when youre out on your own.

So I am a fairly new nurse working in a LTC/SNF facility. I was enjoying my job until my supervisors decided to switch my and another nurses schedule. In short, 2 nurses were told they needed to work a portion of their 12 hr shift in LTC on a different unit and the remaining of thier shift on the SNF side. One of the nurses quit and the other nurse Told the supervisors that it was too difficult to come in at the end of a 12hr shift and try to pick up everything. It was then that the supervisors told me that I was not ready to be on the SNF side.. Here is what I do not get. When I started on that side I was told by my supervisor that the nurse i worked with gave me high remarks. The nurse who replaced me struggles and frankly she is just a poor fit for that unit as she is set in her ways already and has a hard time adapting. When I come in to relieve her, the staff complains about her. I am not trying to knock her down though. She probably doesn't like the situation either. I just do not see how she is a better fit than I am. The thing is, I feel like they are trying to just force me out. I cannot believe how immature these supervisors are to not confront me first about what I was doing wrong or try to help me inprove myself as a nurse. Is it easier to just dump someone out than to train them right and have them stay? Also I am the ONLY nurse at the facility doing this and I do not think its fair. When I leave LTC and go to the other side, I get the LTC nurses who replaced me always nagging me to do stuff for them. many times I feel like I have 60 patients and not 30. What should I do?

Thanks for the feedback. I think that many times I dont give myself the credit I deserve either.. I work damn hard and hell no pushing papers is not all I do.

So i took a job 7 months ago as an RN in a LTC/Rehab.. I thought after 6 months I would be more likely to be hired but recently i went to a job fair and found out I am not qualified for anything and if anything my current job has hurt me.. One recruiter said "do you feel like you have even learned anything?" "The nurses in LTC are more like paper pushers while the aids do everything"... UUggghhh! what do I do now? I feel like although this job is paying the bills I am never going to be able to get into a hospital. If no one gives yo a chance, how will you ever get the experience you need? I am thinking of giving up nursing all together because I am just tired of LTC. It is just not challenging enough for me.

I graduated in December 2009 and have applied everywhere but the only job i landed was in a LTC facility. I feel everyday like I am not learning very much, besides all the paperwork, and I am wondering if I will EVER be able to get that elusive hospital job. I am a good nurse and I have gained alot of confidence in this area but will an employer care about that? I have never put in an IV in my facility so I feel like I would be useless in the hospital. The hospital recruiters I have talked to said that they won't even look at any RN without at least 1 years experience. I guess my question is How do I keep up my skills and How else can I market myself and my skills to a hospital? Thanks in advance for any advice.

forgot to mention I went to NMSU and moved to ABQ bc i thought the job market would be better but its actually worse here for new grads.

After 3 months of looking I found a job but its not what I really want to do. I am doing LTC and its ok, the schedule is good and I work days but we are constantly hiring new nurses for various reasons, for example we had a bunch go to PRN and back to school or people who have moved into administrative positions. I get paid like 22/hr and luckily its a convenient drive but I know if you are from here and did some kind of externship you'd probably have a better chance. I know Las Cruces and EP both still have a bit of a shortage. just depends on what kind of nursing youre willing to do or what you want to do.

Either locations are good for you, but the area is really not good for employment I graduated in December and it took me 3 months to find a job here. I have a BSN and could not even find a job in a hospital. St.vincents in santa fe is not hiring any new grads and at minimum everyone wants at least a years experience. Unless you know people around here its hard. I moved here thinking there would be more jobs but I was totally wrong.

I am in the same boat as you, graduated in Dec and started working in a LTC a few months back. The place i work is good, its not the best from what i hear but definately not the worse. I am just getting used to having the 25+ patient load that differs from any clinicals i had in school. My orientation was about 4 weeks on and off and to be perfectly honest my first weeks i didn;t learn anything and felt more like i was picking up the extra paperwork that the nurses there didn't have the time to do. I am still learning alot but feel like I am not learning as much as i would in the hospital. I am hoping this will prepare me for something in the future. I am in NM and there is an oversaturation of GN's and the pickings for us are not great at all.

I am a new nurse and LTC was the only work I could find. Its at times overwhelming but many times I feel like I am losing everything I learned in school. Maybe its because I work nights. I have struggled with my nightly medpass but find thats its much easier once you've been doing it for like a month. You get to know who wants thier meds early, who you can reach in thier rooms if its a med like eye drops or insulin, who can wait til last and who will keep you in the room talking forever lol. Its all about prioritizing for me and now its a little easier. My DON actually did a medpass check with me when I started to let me know what i was doing wrong and that helped out, maybe you can ask for them to just do a check up and ask how you can improve. I only worked the day shift a few days and the medpass is greater but luckily we have med-techs on most wings. It takes about 3hrs for about 30 residents.