rehab/nursing facility pay expected?

buckchaser10 · Apr 3, 2020

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Anyways, I am in Michigan and am curious of what pay range I can expect to start out at?

I live in a comparable Midwest state in a rural area and our nursing homes start new RN's at ~$28. We are nonprofit and 60 miles from the nearest urban city.

On 4/1/2020 at 6:45 PM, Saraliz said:
Any suggestions of what questions I should ask,

I would recommend doing your research on the potential facilities. CMS runs nursing home compare that lets you compare rankings of facilities. Site: https://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/search.html?

Ideally you will want to be hired at a 4/5 star facility but that's not to say lower star facilities aren't worth your time. Sometimes these facilities are down on their luck or in an overhaul stage to get the right employees in place (why they are interviewing you.) At the nursing home compare website you can link in to past surveys (usually you can find them more in depth with your state's department of health or whoever is responsible for LTC.)

After you've researched the facility potential questions you may be interested in:

For profit or non profit?

Nurse to resident ratio?

CNA to resident ratio?

Resident make up- primarily Long term vs SNF?

Scheduling (how many weekends off a month, rotating days vs PM vs NOC)

Use of mandation?

Consider what your goals are in your career:

Opportunities for advancement?

Opportunities to contribute to decisions?

Other goals you may have in relation to what the job/employer can land you at.

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what questions I should be prepared to be asked?

LTC/SNF is big on interdisciplinary work. Be prepared to answer numerous questions on how well you work in teams and how dependable you are.

Resident rights trump everything but safety in long term care. Be prepared to be asked simple resident rights questions. You don't need to be able to regurgitate them but rather know what you need to do to preserve their life. Ultimately this is their home and we strive to provide an experience as close to home as possible.

Safety questions

Questions about stress

LTC isn't a sexy or glamorous job like ICU or ER but it is ultra important. It's BUSY but it's busy in volume rather than acuity, although that's increasing now too, unlike some of the other nursing fields who are busy vice versa. You are often times the only family these residents will see right up until they die. It's like having many of your own grandparents that you get to hang out with for 8 hours a day. Many of these residents will never live outside of these walls again (primarily SNF facilities is the exception.) We want employees who give a damn about our residents and are compassionate about helping the residents live their best lives in their final days/months/years.

Good luck to you, I hope all goes well! Let us know how it goes!