dmb219

I've been a nursing supervisor in a large ltc facility for 18 years. My job is demanding and stressful. The DON position is overwhelming in my opinion. It is very demanding during working hours and you are on call 24/7 unless you have arranged for someone to cover you. If you are looking for a management position and want to dedicate a BIG part of your life to your job, you may do well with it. If you want to work your shift then leave work until the next day A DON job is not what you are looking for.

I work in a LTC facility and it is a beautiful place. When I walk in in the morning I see happy people (staff and residents), and I smell breakfast cooking, bacon, toast, mmm. Everyone is well dressed and happy. Many of our residents are having a better life than they ever had before they came to our home. The only priority is the well being of the people who live at our facility and that goes from the executive director to the cnas. I know that this isn't the case everywhere, I guess that's why LTC gets the bad rap it does. You don't hear about the nice places, only the bad ones.

Good answer, ditto for me. I see my folks every day and know them better than the docs. I tell them what I see but also what I think and they appreciate that. I feel that I am responsible for thier well being, not the docs.

5 months??? Wow.

In LTC borrowing is never acceptable. The nurse taking the order should either start the med at a time when they know it will be available or inform the physician of what is available as a substitute until the med is delivered. If you have a med to give and it isn't there, the supervisor needs to call the physician. Borrowing or indicating "not available" will get you in trouble.

Happy St Pats day to you too! You are so right about LTC. It makes you a very independent person. I'm thinking about moving on after 10 years to move to a warm climate. I've been the nurse, the lab, the IV team, the scheduler, passed meds, did wound care, counseled residents and family. The docs ask me what the people need because they don't see them. You know how it is. It will be tough leaving a good facility but it makes you a very capable nurse and that is what you need to realize. Thanks for your time and for sharing your experience, it is greatly appreciated.

I've been trying to think of a way to express my feelings on this subject, but you have done it for me and very eloquently, I might add. I work at a large nursing home and we have become very capable of sustaining the body, often after the spirit has left I believe. Advance Directives are so important - they put things in black & white so that loved ones aren't forced to make gut-wrenching decisions. If there are no directives, things can get tough as we all can see. Life should have some quality. Keeping a body alive with nutrition or fluids pumped into it by a machine when there is no chance for recovery is not how anyone would want to live, unless that is specified by that person. There comes a time for everyone to let it go and give up the fight; it isn't wrong to do that, and I don't think it is wrong for a significant other to make that decision if it is time.