Quit First Job After 3 Days of Orientation

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the orientation is way too short and they are SO understaffed its not even funny. they are wanting me to go out on my own after only 4 days of 'training' which has only consisted of med techs that know nothing about nursing, training me!! i feel so overwhelmed they want me to take care of 98 patients by myself, pass all their meds on time, assess them, dress their wounds, answer call lights, chart, count meds at the end of the shift..all on time. i got out of work hours late tonight because there was not enough time to do this all. i didnt have any breaks today not even a lunch break and still didnt have time to do this all. but since im still only in orientation, is it horrible of me that I called and declined my position there this morning? I feel horrible.

yes it was an assisted living facility. but PSHH assisted living my BUTT! these people needed more care than LTC! it was not your 'typical' ASL. Which was fine, I became a nurse to take care of people all day. But when they think I can do it all myself as a new nurse is beyond me.

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and to let everybody know, I NEVER complain. But this job has had me sketched out since the first day.

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Specializes in retired LTC.

They did pull a few 'fast ones' on you. But if you've read some of the numerous postings here you'll see that inappropriate admissions to ALFs is not unusual. Those pts FREQ require more than just supervision! But the bottom line is that we're talking MONEY (aren't we always)!

Another thing, to my knowledge, ALFs do not take Medicaid; they're private pay. That means there are assets to spend Mom/Pop. Admissions recruiters and/or administrators (who freq ARE NOT nurses) will accept pts who are too high a level of care just to build up the census and take the money.

There's also the stigma of nsg home placement. A pretty 'retirement home' is much nicer than a 'bad ole nsg home'. So an ALF is a preferred alternative for many.

The rules & regs for ALFs are much less stringent than LTC so 'bare bones' or 'no frills' approach is freq the norm. Esp true if working for a corporate chain.

Personally, I don't know that I'd take a position in an ALF unless I did a lot of research re the facility first. You probably just didn't just know.

So sad that this is what happening in the industry. Even a veteran nurse would prob have the same issues as you. Not the place to be.

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They did pull a few 'fast ones' on you. But if you've read some of the numerous postings here you'll see that inappropriate admissions to ALFs is not unusual. Those pts FREQ require more than just supervision! But the bottom line is that we're talking MONEY (aren't we always)!

Another thing, to my knowledge, ALFs do not take Medicaid; they're private pay. That means there are assets to spend Mom/Pop. Admissions recruiters and/or administrators (who freq ARE NOT nurses) will accept pts who are too high a level of care just to build up the census and take the money.

There's also the stigma of nsg home placement. A pretty 'retirement home' is much nicer than a 'bad ole nsg home'. So an ALF is a preferred alternative for many.

The rules & regs for ALFs are much less stringent than LTC so 'bare bones' or 'no frills' approach is freq the norm. Esp true if working for a corporate chain.

Personally, I don't know that I'd take a position in an ALF unless I did a lot of research re the facility first. You probably just didn't just know.

So sad that this is what happening in the industry. Even a veteran nurse would prob have the same issues as you. Not the place to be.

Thank You, amoLucia for your explanation.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.

And when these so called assisted living facilities that are supposedly "non-medical" do hire nurses to work on the floor, they start admitting residents who need a higher level of care, such as catheterization.

98 is a lot.

I've worked with 50+ and 45+ in long term care facilities and those were barely do-able, but manageable.

98.....not so much.

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Thank You guys, I was really feeling down in the dumps today about quitting. But now i'm realizing it was the best decision for MYSELF and my nursing career.

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Not all places are like that. You just have to find a good one. I worked in LTC where we had 4-5 LNA's, MNA and our charge for 26 residents.

When I type that out it seems a little much but it flowed and no one was crunched for time or taking shortcuts.

Only once in my year there did I see my charge behind schedule. (That woman is my hero btw)

Check ratings online before hand. And if you're like me and live in a small area, ask around about places. People will tell you where to avoid.

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Run, don't walk.

Best of luck in your new position.

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Run! That is unsafe even if it is Assisted Living.

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My first job was a PRN job that I got thanks to a friend who's sister in law worked there. When I did my orientation I got about 4 days and it was a LTC/ assisted living as well. I got placed on the south hall which was patients with Alzheimers , dementia, and confusion. Most of the times, the patients are ok, but can get very violent. I saw many female nurses with bruises on their arms and one had a bruise on her face. On my first day by myself, everything was good except for that the CNA's were almost ALWAYS joking around and talking thus I had to go and hunt down patients to give their meds which got me behind. I wondered for the longest time why the facility was rated one star on most websites and when I worked there that's when it all clicked. As the day went on patients got more and more aggressive, CNA's just laughed and pointed while I tried to calm the angry and aggressive patients. People were always hanging out smoking outside. At one point I was doing my med pass and patients were aggravating other patients and I was the only one on that hallway, and this was during the day shift. At the end of the day I didn't get my charting done, but managed to keep up with signatures and verifications when it came to meds and narcs. They called me in later that week, but I had an interview for a full time job at a clinic...and I told them I couldn't come in. I haven't received a call from them since.After having that experience, I'm hoping not all LTC facilities are like that because they are the one of the few areas hiring LPN's.

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