Work At Hospital Or Nursing Home?

pagandeva2000, LPN · Jan 23, 2008

I am a new graduate LPN and I am not sure which job to take. I was offered a job at an area nursing home that has an excellent reputation, has retained its staff for a long time and pays great. I was also offered a job at the local hospital with good pay and excellent benefits too. my problem is I'm not sure which one to take as both would be good jobs. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

There are a few things that you can ask yourself and see if this helps...

1. Which one is closer to where you live?

2. Did you desire to work in a hospital or a nursing home (like where did you invision yourself while you were in school?)

3. Do you know anyone who works at either of these places that can give you insight on which you may like better?

Hospitals are more modern than nursing homes, usually, you deal with less patients, but it is more hectic. From what I see, you may have more people to 'lean on' as a new LPN to ask questions, their orientations are generally longer and you may not have to take a charge position. Disadvantage may be the fast pace, and some LPNs do not feel that they are respected as much, because there are more RNs around.

Nursing Homes (from what I hear, anyway), are generally slower paced, predictable and the patients are more stable. LPNs may basically run the floor as a charge nurse, and are more respected there. Disadvantages may be the high nurse to patient ratios, a dangerously short orientation and if you are not one that likes to be in charge, you may be stuck with that duty. Also, at night, many LPNs run their floors alone. But, since this place has a high retention rate, and great reputation, they probably decided to respect and work well with their nurses.

Good luck!

Xenawarrierprincess · Jan 25, 2008

I am also a new nurse and I have faced the same quandry as you. In Canada there are no "full time" jobs for new nurses, though, and many of us work part time in two spots.

I work casual call in for a nursing home and currently full time, soon to be part time on a busy med surg floor. They are two very different jobs.

I want to keep my med surg experience up as it will help me fine tune skills I am not yet a master of. The nursing home atmosphere will certainly allow skills to lapse.

Both of my jobs are within 15 minutes drive from home, so I am very lucky that way.

For me as a single mother of 4, how a job impacts my children is also a great consideratoin, and I can understand why people would turn down jobs that don't work for their families.

I work 8 hr shifts at the nursing home, and 12 hr shifts at the hosp. My rotation at the hospital has me doing my three nights a month on weekends. I get a lot of call ins on weekends from the nursing home. Weekends are always a great time for me to work as it has less inpact on the kids school schedule.

I would encourage you, if you are young and plan to ever work anywhere else but a nursing home to keep your options open with a hospital job, just to build skills you need. There's nothing like a med/ surg floor to teach you great assessment skills.