We were all wrong about nursing home nurses

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As someone who's been a charge nurse in a nursing home for some time now (as first RN job) I must admit that I was wrong and many on here have been wrong as well.

The position is looked down upon but I can assure you there is a lot of critical thinking, decision making and responsibility in that position. As the lone RN in charge of 8-10 Aides, 3 LPN and 65-70 residents it is a huge task and responsibility. Not to mention when things go south for a resident, you might as well be a nurse in the rain forest or Kenya (as far as supplies are concerned). All you have is your critical thinking skills.

Nursing home RNs are in fact real RNs.

I have never looked down on any nurse. There is a place for everyone of us. You just have to have the courage to go with your heart and do what you want. I have done every kind of nursing in 40 years. The last 15 have been in dialysis. Nurses usually can figure out what their heart wants to do. Geriatric nursing is a specialty. Some of those people have nobody else except the staff at the home. What a gift you give them if you truly love what you do.

Specializes in critical care, ER,ICU, CVSURG, CCU.
For me, LTC *would* be a job of last resort, not because I look down on LTC nurses but because of the insanely bad working conditions. After my last LTC job, I swore I would sell my body on the street before I worked in another SNF. Now I will only go back if my family is facing immediate homelessness.

Only being a DON, again, would be a downer, I've done that three times, while rewarding both financially and clinically, the 24/7 gets old, for me it was not the resident and families, it was mostly employee work ethics....which I really understand....

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