Seriously, I just finished responding to a thread on general and a comment about it's a career killer just ticked me.:angryfire
Why isn't it viewed as just a viable career direction?
My DON is one of the nicest, down to earth, supportive, awesome people I have ever had the pleasure to meet, much less work for and she started in an ICU and hated it.
I really thought I would stay in the direction of critical care. I loved my rotation in the burn unit and that was my goal. However I've noticed that it seems to take a certain type that flourishes in the BTU, ICU, ER type environments. It seems they have to lose the compassion since it's a cold, clinical type atmosphere. No matter how much I would love to have the skills that critical would provide, it's in no way worth a trade off to work with those types of people.
I do not work with any backstabbers. All the nurses from all 3 floors will lunch together. It's a place that fosters respect and realizes that if you treat your employees with dignity and optimism, those people will in turn treat the residents and each other with dignity and cheerful attitudes.
So I guess unless I figure away to gain skills in a critical environment on a casual basis, it's just won't be meant to be. Because I'm not willing to lose a really important component of wanting to go to work and really enjoying those that I work with and for. vs getting some really great skills but being stressed out and not liking where I work.
I'm just sick of reading that LTC is a dead end or someplace to go when no one else is hiring. And it seems like there's an attitude that you're less of a nurse if you work LTC I make a difference and I go home feeling good, I don't think that's a small thing or a less worthy career path.
Yes I unfortunately took this place off my radar when I first graduated b/c my school pushed the whole "gotta have hospital experience". Strange blessing for me that the economy tanked and my original plan of the exact place that I'm now working, came back into view. And timed as such that they were willing to hire me b/c of "me" as they're not one of those that has a constant demand for nurses. They retain who they hire.
I just wish the negativity towards LTC would stop. If you are seriously that miserable then look for another direction, Life is far to precious and short to be that unhappy and it's a choice to be unhappy.
Okay vent over, I'm just tired of reading the same thing...maybe I should stop reading!
I was in the hospital ER to have some staples removed after my c-section, and low and behold the er room next to mine was one of our residents, a very confused man with alzheimers and they had him restrained, and I overheard 2 staff one nurse -- said I cant wait until they send him back to the dog pound. I was so sad by that whole thing. I have totally lost respect for this nurse. What is even sadder is almost everytime we send a resident to the hospital, they demand we leave a staff member to "watch" them. but it is not the whole staff over there, because I have been there several times with the baby and they are so great, so yes does seem to mean they feel the elderly dont matter much. I guess since I work for the dog pound I am a real B#####!
That hurts my heart. What place does someone so lacking in compassion have in nursing?? I hope some day the nurse who made that ugly comment will have an epiphany about the art of caring. Just wake up one day and go, " Oh... treat people like they matter. Now I get it!"
Moogie I really enjoyed your last post. You made several very good points. I wish all the sucess in the world in obtaining your goal of a PhD and wish you luck in pursuing your goal of working in gerontological research. This is an area that needs to be researched and some realistic changes need to be made in the care of the elderly.
We are in a time of change at this time and nobody is being very realistic in the changes. Maybe with research and education not only to nursing home employees, but to the public, residents of nursing homes, doctors, and hospitals some great changes can occur.
Sadly, I personally do not think that I will be able to last in this field long enough for positive change to occur. The residents, families, and administration is demanding more from their employees than it is humanly possible to achieve. Personally, I cannot blame the families and the residents for their demands because if that was my loved one in a nursing home I would demand the best for them.
There is a hierachy in nursing. There is a hierarchy in MDs. It stinks, but it's there. It's a matter of what you consider important/valuable in nursing. If you think monitoring chest tubes, central lines, ventilators,......is impressive nursing, you might look down on LTC. I think it's beyond impressive that one nurse can manage the care of 30-40-50 pts at a time, and know each of their names.
I have to say I have worked in various LTC facilities, and I have to say it would be a cold day in Hades before I voluntarily worked in one again. Why? Because they are (and I have worked in 4 of them for 1-8 years each plus untold numbers as a agency gig) usually short staffed, extremely old school as to documentation, etc, and show little respect for the staff by the families or administration. But that, in my opinion, is the usual thing for bedside staff in any facility, and why I am so glad not to be there any longer!!!!!
But, that being said, I definitely do NOT look down on the staff or anyone who works there. Some people enjoy it and I say more power to you!!! Someone has to do it, and if it is someone who finds it rewarding, it benefits both the employee and the patients.
Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.
let me tell you ....i worked in nursing homes and ltc all my career and now i work in a hospital....since i have seen both sides this is my assessment on the situation.....ltc nurses are absolutely extraordinary .....
ltc nurses
work with little direction
work with limited resources
have no access to a doctor when a patient goes bad
may or may not be able to get a hold of a doc by phone
there may not be a rn present
are responsible for the total care of the patient.....
when i say being responsible for the total care of the patient i am talking about ltc generally don't have other disciplines coming in like respiratory or wound care....this is what makes ltc nurses excellent in their are they can do it all.....where i work i'm the do it all nurse and others are just stunned because i have just replaced a dressing or start messing with the o2 when i am suppose to be calling the other disciplines to handle this...its almost like they don't feel like the nurses are not qualified to do these type of things....i feel lucky to have people that do wound care , respiratory, charge nurses that do all my orders ,techs to do vitals and collect specimens....cause i have been the ltc nurse and i have done it all.....kudos to all the ltc nurses you are wonderful in what you do and the care you give..........:redbeathe
This is the crabby mentality when others demean their colleagues which I read a lot from sites such as this. Just because others started out at the hospital to gain clinical experiences in their career doesn't mean they may not end up in LTC or Home Health later down the road.
When egos are bigger than themselves, they're usually hard to work with.
Anyone who thinks LTC is somehow 'less,' is mistaken. We have less technology, more hands on, less patient turnover, more connection, less backup, more opportunity to really know our residents and make a difference in their lives. Long ago in nursing school, an instructor told me to 'nurse the patient, not their machines.' That is what I do.
Specializes in med/surg; LTC.....LPN, RN, DON; TCU.
LTC has challenges that I didn't find at the hospital and vice-versa. I really feel that the issue is more on a level of I am better than you plus the rep of nursing homes hasn't been the best in the past. In this area LTC offers better pay and job security and some resent that. We all have a place.
It's sad that society devalues the elderly, I mean if we live we will all get old, right? Working in the ER I see a lot of septic patients that come from LTC and I wonder why? Are the nurses caring for these people, why the bed sores, why do the patients come to us in such bad shape..........I dont look down on the nurses, I just wonder why?.............................................
i should have probably read on to the end of this thread before replying but i just HAD to reply to this post.
I have a patient that last friday and saturday was completely A/O x 3, feeling great, about to d/c to home this week. he had an appt with his surgeon on friday and was doing so well the surgeon felt he was ready for surgery #2 as he was s/p choleycystitis with a choleyostomy that was barely draining anything. all V/S were WNL. no change in BP, no change in HR and no change in his baseline T either. he went out for his mother's 95th birthday that evening and then again on saturday.
fast forward to sunday morning:
he complained of just general malaise that morning "i just dont feel good" but got up, got dressed and went to church. after church he went back to bed for a nap. when lunch came he told his family he was nauseated and asked for just soup. by 3pm, i was called into his room by the charge nurse and his family.
he was hot to touch, diaphoretic, very difficult to wake up and would fall back asleep while talking. he was also confused. lungs were junky all lobes, HR was near 150 and bounding and he winced with palpation of right lower quad abdomen. his ostomy was draining as normal. his BP was still WNL but i wondered "for how much longer?".
I transferred him to the ER pronto. guess what it was?
Sepsis. He was actually dx with septic shock and placed in the unit quickly.
I would really like your opinion as to what I DIDN"T see.
i should have probably read on to the end of this thread before replying but i just HAD to reply to this post.
I have a patient that last friday and saturday was completely A/O x 3, feeling great, about to d/c to home this week. he had an appt with his surgeon on friday and was doing so well the surgeon felt he was ready for surgery #2 as he was s/p choleycystitis with a choleyostomy that was barely draining anything. all V/S were WNL. no change in BP, no change in HR and no change in his baseline T either. he went out for his mother's 95th birthday that evening and then again on saturday.
fast forward to sunday morning:
he complained of just general malaise that morning "i just dont feel good" but got up, got dressed and went to church. after church he went back to bed for a nap. when lunch came he told his family he was nauseated and asked for just soup. by 3pm, i was called into his room by the charge nurse and his family.
he was hot to touch, diaphoretic, very difficult to wake up and would fall back asleep while talking. he was also confused. lungs were junky all lobes, HR was near 150 and bounding and he winced with palpation of right lower quad abdomen. his ostomy was draining as normal. his BP was still WNL but i wondered "for how much longer?".
I transferred him to the ER pronto. guess what it was?
Sepsis. He was actually dx with septic shock and placed in the unit quickly.
I would really like your opinion as to what I DIDN"T see.
More times then I care to count in the past 20 years, I have started a shift with a "well" resident and ended with a septic resident. Some elderly people really just turn that quickly.
More times then I care to count in the past 20 years, I have started a shift with a "well" resident and ended with a septic resident. Some elderly people really just turn that quickly.
thanks NN!
this topic just burns me up sometimes. i am so tired of being looked down upon by nurses that have placed themselves on some pedestal because of where they work.
it's sad that instead of educating themselves on geriatric care, some nurses like to throw a sister nurse under the bus and talk about what idiots they are or how lazy they are.
and as for the bed sores...we deal with people that are many times so compromised that they are NOT going to heal no matter what you do. your only hope is to keep it from leading to osteomylitis. when you have patients that will not eat no matter what interventions you try, they are going to get ulcers. so what does she propose we do about that?
i've said it before, i'll say it again....before you throw one more LTC nurse under the bus, try working ONE shift in LTC. maybe then they'll lose their condescending attitude.
I make a difference and I go home feeling good, I don't think that's a small thing or a less worthy career path.
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calliesue
328 Posts
That hurts my heart. What place does someone so lacking in compassion have in nursing?? I hope some day the nurse who made that ugly comment will have an epiphany about the art of caring. Just wake up one day and go, " Oh... treat people like they matter. Now I get it!"