Earlybird1

As someone who has worked "willingly" in a skilled nursing facility/LTC for over 2 years, this question is very offensive. People assume nurses resort to taking job in LTC because they are not able to get into hospitals right out of school, but there are many nurses like myself who enjoy working in sub-acute, rehab and mostly the older population. I am no less a nurse for working with this population and I use my nursing assessment skills and critical thinking many times during my work day. The best part of my job is forming relationships with my patients and hearing about their life stories.

CBerries, I am also in the Twin Cities area and ran into the exact same problem as you last summer. I graduated last June but could not get any 'bites' at my applications that were sent to hospitals, even the ones that stated "New Grad program!" It was very frustrating and discouraging! I also received rejections almost immediately after I applied! I wanted to work in a hospital but obviously they only took people with experience, even for the New Grad program. Catch 22!! I finally realized that I needed experience and to look beyond hospitals. I applied at a TCU where I did my clinicals for school at, which is also affiliated with one of the main hospital systems in the Twin Cities. I've been at this TCU for almost 9 months and despite some issues with staffing, I can honestly say that I really enjoy it. Working at a TCU has given me patient assessment skills, time management skills, and nursing skills such as working with feeding tubes, placing foleys, colostomy care, etc. While it's not acute care, we get patient who are post surgery or post illness and still need to be closely monitored. My experience at my TCU is invaluable and if, or when I want to apply to the hospital, I am sure that I will have the necessary qualifications to do so! Plus, if you chose your facility correctly, like mine, I am can transfer into the affiliated hospital system within 1 year! Good luck to you!

I am a new RN who has worked for 6 months in a SNF. Overall, I enjoy my job because we work with many acute cases directly from the hospital and I have learned many new skills and feel that I am continuing to learn. The drawback is the patient:nurse ratio. On average, I have 8-12 patients with 0.5-1 aide. This means that I often need to help with aide work (which I don't mind if I had time!) but with PICC lines, feeding tubes and LVADS to deal with, I feel that I cannot give anyone the proper amount of time. I often leave work wondering what I have missed since I was running from one room to another. We are also required to punch out on time and no OT is allowed. This also means that I need to cram in my charting, often writing the same thing that I wrote the previous day. So I feel that I am not giving the proper care that I should be giving. I have read many posts on this forum about pat/nurse ratios and I realize that many SNF/LTC are like this so I am not surprised but I feel like I am working in unsafe conditions and have started looking at new jobs. My concern is if this is the new normal in other facilities such as hospitals, clinics, etc? or are these horrible ratios contained only to SNF/LTC facilities?

I wish people would stop bashing for-profit schools. They get a bad rap for being expensive and deceitful but in reality they often prepare students better than public universities would. I currently attend a for-profit school and I absolutely have had the best experience. I also teach at one in a different field and my school has a high percentage rate of students passing their national boards. Every school can have bad teachers and bad students; not just for-profits.

Actually I was the OP. I visited many schools and was curious about this one because I couldn't find a lot of information. I asked also why they only had a conditional accreditation and I was given a run-around answer. I have worked for years in for profit colleges and understand the accreditation process so I was annoyed that they didn't just come out and say that they had a low NCLEX rates. When i went in, I was told that there most recent pass rate was 99% but they couldn't tell me how many first timers took the test. I have decided against this school and I'm looking at a public community college instead. Thank you for all of your comments!

Does anyone have an opinion about NAU in Bloomington? I have a friend starting there and she's impressed but i didn't even know they had a program. Does anyone have feedback about this school?