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!
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.
Yes it happens. This attitude of placing oneself on a pedestal because of where one works reflects a lower level of intelligence.
Working in aged care is too offer care at the end of peoples lives.
Yet nurses who work in hospices are placed on a much higher rung than that of aged care nurses.
it was subacute and had a poor reputation (and poor budget)
its one of those places when you look back that you cant even really imagine what it was like working there.
i learned so much in the long year and 1 month i worked there, (that place is closed now, thank god).
i wish the conditions were better.
most of the people we have to take care of in ltc have made sure in their lives that things would be better for the next generation, and a lot of times these people are treated like c*ap. its sad.
When I started nursing school, I wanted to be a geriatric nurse, maybe even becoming a geriatric NP at some point in the future. My first clinical was in a LTC, and my clinical instructor told me, "The best and the brightest DON'T wind up in long term care." That sentiment stuck with me, even though making connections with the elderly is a particular gift of mine.
After graduation I applied EVERYWHERE, but eventually got a job in a Memory Care Unit. Those nurse who look down on what I do should indeed walk (over 15,000 steps - I've measured) a shift in my shoes. Perhaps twenty years ago geriatric nursing consisted of only passing meds to warehoused patients - these days I manage care for twenty-five patients at a time. My patients have diabetes, congestive heart failure, heart block, wounds, broken limbs, broken hips - AND they're all demented. I fall into bed exhausted every night. And, ironically, the better I get at my job the longer it takes me to do it.
Caring for the same patients day after day, managing their care and trying to give them the best quality of life that I can, and singing to them as they die. Loving them even when they don't deserve it. These may be the greatest challenges of my life.
It's the thrill of the hunt.....too many tv shows like ER. The presumed prestige of working NICU, ER, or ICU is very gratifying to some egos. The general public feeds those ego's because they do not know any better.
Nothing sexy or exciting about slaving all day as a LPN with as many as 60 or more people to care for by yourself (forget about RNs) you will more than likely be the only nurses. There is no team nursing at 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.
ellen 12
79 Posts
I have worked in both LTC and hospitals. I found hospital work to be boring and limited my ability to assess with any sort of complexity.
I think the reason aged care nurses are looked down on - is related to the lack of status the aged have in our communities.