Where Do You Work?

jb2u, ASN, RN · Jul 30, 2006

You're very welcome, jay!
I can't imagine an ALF so large that more than one or two nurses would be needed.........mine's only 42 apartments, with probable expansion to 54 units within the next couple of years. I'm the only licensed person on staff, and I'm in the building 32 hours a week, which is just about right (although I do tend to put in about 40 hours/week just because I like to work at my own pace and spend quality time with the residents and staff). I love my job!

it is a LTC, but not ALF, it's a nursing home with 3 "wings", i believe it has something like 180 residents and provided ST, OT, PT, Rehab. at times, each wing would have an RN and two LPNs.

casi, ASN, RN · Jul 30, 2006

Perhaps I can help you with this question, as I am an RN working in assisted living as a Health Services Coordinator.
This is the ALF equivalent of being Director of Nursing in a nursing home. I train, supervise, and delegate nursing tasks (such as blood sugars and insulin injections) to caregivers. I manage residents' care needs and coordinate delivery of services (such as physical and occupational therapies), as well as performing some nursing services myself, such as simple wound care and B12 injections. In addition, I'm considered an assistant administrator, and sometimes act as administrator when my boss is on vacation or out of town. I assist with the development of the resident service plan, do the scheduling, and even sneak in some community outreach and marketing in my spare time.
Oh, yes---I work the floor on rare occasions too!

We have one RN at our facility who's title is director of nursing. She does about the same. Our RN doesn't do as much patient care we do have an LPN on 24hours a day who does the injections and some simple wound care. I have seen our DON cover the LPN shift which was really neat. (It was even better to see our head administrator cover a CNA shift ) Our facility does have to have an RN on call at all times, which much get frustrating, but since we've gotten an LPN on nocs she's barely called outside of work.

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Jul 30, 2006

Yes, I too am on call 24/7, but because my staff knows their stuff, I don't get very many weekend or nighttime calls---only if there's an emergency, or on the rare occasion when an MD phones in an order because he/she doesn't have access to a fax (unlicensed personnel cannot take telephone orders). I've posted guidelines as to what is and is not an emergency (e.g., an incident in which a resident knocks himself out and has to be transported to the ER, vs. a non-injury fall), but I've also made it clear that staff are to call me ANYTIME they have questions---I'd rather spend five minutes on a phone consult, than have to come in at some odd hour and deal with the consequences if they guess wrong!:chair:

Cococure · Jul 31, 2006

hey all,

I am a pre-nursing student and i work at a hospital on the mother-baby unit and i LOVE my job...hope to work there after school

many blessings

coco

SaraO'Hara · Aug 7, 2006

Long-term care facility; considering switching to hospital after I certify.

Mountain Woman · Aug 10, 2006

I work in LTC 1st shift. Our DON is a RN. Most of the RN's we have are all "pencil pushers" but sometimes will work the floor if there's no way to get out of it.

NurseKatie08, MSN · Jul 6, 2007

I work in a hospital on an Adult Medicine unit--mainly GI/renal/infectious disease/pulmonary and some neuro pts (so a little bit of everything.)

I used to work in LTC on a dementia unit. I'm an RN student with one year left, and hope to work med-surg for a bit, and eventually switch to pedi..

Kay28 · Jul 6, 2007

I work in a long term care facility, 3-11 shift. I love it, but my back and knees are not!

bethin · Jul 6, 2007

Oh, yes---I work the floor on rare occasions too!

I know this is an old thread, but WOW you work the floor! I once did LTC and we were short staffed - 2 aides for 40 patients. I worked with the DON doing bed checks while the other aide did I&O's, answer lights, etc.

All 40 were completes. When we arrived to a room where you could smell that the pt had had a BM the DON said to me "oh, do we have to go in there? It stinks."

Keep in mind she started out as an aide.

To answer the OP's question I work primarily med surg but also do ICU when the unit is open. Love it so much better than LTC. I just could never connect with the residents and I felt so bad about it. I like med surg because I like working with the younger population. And I love the high acuity of ICU and never knowing what will happen.

casi, ASN, RN · Jul 6, 2007

Okay, I know I'm the OP but I now work in a hospital on the cardiac unit starting as of two weeks ago. So far I'm liking it a lot, but it's very different.