taking my first nursing job at a LTC facility

Blackcat99 · Feb 12, 2011

You will be overworked and totally stressed out!!!! At least I was!!!! Of course, some people say there are good LTC facilities but I was never able to find one. You will have the med passes from hell. When you try to pass out your pills you will be constantly interrupted by visitors and constant telephone calls. When you think you are going to leave work on time your patient will have a fall or medical emergency about 15 minutes before the next shift arrives so you will get stuck with all of the extra paperwork. No matter how hard you try to do your best you will receive continual criticism from the visitors, your bosses and co-workers. No, I am not kidding. This is why I left LTC. I wish you the best of luck.

Blackcat99 · Feb 12, 2011

Oh you're on nights. It might be better on nights. I sure hope so. Night shift is much better than days or evenings.

However, when I worked nights it was still very busy but not as bad as the other shifts. Of course, some LTC's schedule a lot of extra work on night shifts because they think "Oh the patients sleep all night.". Not true.

When I worked night shift, I had to wake patients up at night because it was the night shift's duty to do all the skin checks. Night shift is hell on the last day of the month when the night shift is responsible for checking all of the next month's MAR's to see if they are correct. Anyway, hang in there. LTC usually pays well and you can get that one year's experience on your resume.

SquishyRN, BSN, RN · Feb 12, 2011

Hey there! I made a post on your other thread about tips for night shift, and I guess on this thread you're just looking for tips in general. I made a post on this old thread about what my day typically looks like: https://allnurses.com/lpn-lvn-corner/call-different-floor-531163.html

Even though it's for 7-3 and 3-11 shift, it think it reflects the craziness of LTC in general. Generally speaking, you're in charge of supervising CNAs, passing meds, doing all the treatments, and doing all the paperwork. Sounds easy, but it's definitely not given how many patients you'll have. When everything is going smoothly, you should be able to finish everything on time. Should there be a change in condition in even just one patient, or a fall, or a new admission, or readmission, or etc, your entire day's schedule will be messed up and you can expect to stay after your shift (sometimes long after) to finish all the charting and paperwork. While this doesn't happen daily, this does happen frequently :crying2:

Oh and EDIT: Make a cheat sheet ASAP with everyone's code status and keep that with you always... that's not something you want to have to look up when you need it...

heatheropie · Feb 16, 2011

I am working nights at a LTC also. I feel so alone, I have 40 patients and 2 aids. I dont feel like im recieving the guidance a new nurse needs and when I report to day shift one of the nurses treats me soo horrible like I have no idea what I am doing. No one respects my assessment skills and dismisses any of my concerns. I love the patient population but I dont feel equal to the other nurses. I am also an RN and most of the other Nurses are LPNs they treat me like I should not be able to have any questions because I have more education, but im still new to the profession and I feel so unsure and occasionally uncapable.

Blackcat99 · Feb 16, 2011

I am working nights at a LTC also. I feel so alone, I have 40 patients and 2 aids. I dont feel like im recieving the guidance a new nurse needs and when I report to day shift one of the nurses treats me soo horrible like I have no idea what I am doing. No one respects my assessment skills and dismisses any of my concerns. I love the patient population but I dont feel equal to the other nurses. I am also an RN and most of the other Nurses are LPNs they treat me like I should not be able to have any questions because I have more education, but im still new to the profession and I feel so unsure and occasionally uncapable.

Yes, that's another thing I hated about LTC. Nurses being unkind and disrespectful towards each other. :mad:

I hope things will work out for you. If not, hang in there anyway and get your one years experience. It will look very good on your resume to have that one years experience. :yeah:

EMP, RN · Feb 23, 2011

It all depends on the facility. Night shift nurses don't do skin checks on residents at my facility. They basically assist the CNA's with call bells, prepare paperwork for the next day/week. Go over the MARs and TARs to make sure everything has been done and signed (people often forget to sign that they did it). They do the night treatments and basically anything that still needs to be done from eve shift. And of course deal with any issues that arise during the night (falls, prns, sundowning residents). I suggest that since meds can be erratic at nights, that you make a cheat sheet of who has meds at what time.

What your experience will be like depends on the facility and its staff. If the eve and day shift have too high a work load, you may be pretty busy at night.

Hope you got a good place.