What is Long Term Acute Care?

[Spartan05]

I have an interview at a long term acute care facility next week and am looking to get some information about this area of nursing. As a new graduate, I know that I may have to take whatever I can get in this economy and I am very fortunate to already have a job offer in a nursing home as well.

What I am looking to get some advice or information about is whether or not a long term acute care facility would give me better experience than a nursing home. When I say better I basically mean that I would like to work in an ICU or ER one day and also keep my options open to become a CRNA.

Would long term acute care provide me with the chance to develop skills and become comfortable with procedures that would make myself more attractive to hiring managers in ICU/ER?

If anyone has any experience in this area or advice please speak up, I am excited about this opportunity but also a little stressed about making this decision.

Thanks!

Spartan05

[CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN]

Yep...we have more and more pts with extensive wound care, trachs, some places have vents (the one I'm at doesn't), more intensive rehab..IV threapy for complex infections and TPN and stoma care....BUT...we still have to take care of the typical nursing home patients on top of that. Sometimes I will have 5 or more of these type of patients plus the others for a total of 26. I'm willing to bet that a LTAC assignment might be more around 5-8 or so of these pts with the support of resp therapy around the clock, PT/OT, maybe phlebs to draw the labs, pharmacy on site, housekeeping and everything else a hospital would have.

At a LTAC..this is all you do and it is set up for that type of care.

[ris_03tdgz]

Hi I'm a new grad currently working in a busy med-surg post-op unit and our ratio is usually 6-7:1. I am planning to resign because it is too fast-paced for me, too many admits and discharges in one shift and I get panic attacks all the time when I'm there. I was even thinking of quitting nursing alogether. However, I thought about giving LTAC a try instead. Is this a good idea? Is it less stressful working in LTAC than in a medsurg unit in a hospital? I have no plans of working in ICU or anything, i just want to work in a less stressful environment. Please share your thoughts on this! Thank you!

[husker_rn, RN]

The good thing about LTAC is that you typically only see admits and discharges during weekday hours although there are always exceptions. I enjoyed it because patients stayed long enough to get to know them. The downside was that I ended up with 8-10 patients on nights and some of them were very acutely ill. Good luck with what ever you decide.