Working in former nursing home as new grad

[walxii]

Hello - Sorry this is long. Second and Third paragraph contain the Meat. Questions are bold.

At the moment I am in a senior in nursing school and will graduate in May with my BSN. I would like to get a job as a new grad in a hospital but considering its a major medical area with many new grad nurses around that time it is very possible that won't happen. I'm thinking of just going home to work in the nursing home close to my home town for 6mo-1yr for job experience as an RN and to save some money before apply to a hospital. Is this a good route for a new grad to take? I worked There for two years during summers and breaks from university, before I had to quite because nursing school prevented me from going to work during my arranged times. I know all of the staff there unless they have new ones and I had a pretty good relationship with all of them and always got complimented on my good work with my residents from all the LPNs, RNs, my hiring/charge CNA and other forms of management. I know many of my co-worker CNA's, even though we were friendly, felt like I "did the most".My former Charge CNA strongly reassured me that the DON would give me a job as an RN once I graduated but never considered it until now.

There was never any lateral violence/passive aggressiveness/attitude directed at me personally but I did see it happen. Especially the CNA/RN relationship and certain LPNs there. I am an observant person and silently watch what happens around me and I know that the nurses who took their job a little more seriously were the ones who got ****-talked the most (not to their face) from the CNA's. They always *****(complain is an understatement) about how that one particular RN supervisor would come around and check their rooms, to see if everything was fine, see something, and tell them to change it, tell them someone is wet before their round and then they get mad because they have to go change the person, complain about them being nosy, and the list goes on... and on... because it was always something. Not all of the CNA's had an attitude like that but a fair few did. I, personally, never had a problem with any of the RN supervisors because I was always respectful to them. If I didn't understand why they wanted me to do something i simply asked. The usually response was "Oh its just company policy" or " the reason this person's roommate can wear a brief in be and he can't is because his skin breaks down extremely easy plus the other has an order". Then on my way I went no problem and learned from what I was told.

I'm not a dictator type person, but there are some things the CNA's did there that I DO NOT agree with at all because it is just not appropriate or the right way to do it (and there are MANY ways to do things safely). I feel like if I go back to work there I'm going to be "THAT nurse". "Oh look he is back with his nurses license and thinks he knows everything". (YES, this exact sentence has been said multiple times about others). Every thing I listed above that the nurses do (especially the RNs and the RN supervisors) that a lot of CNA's get rowdy about are things that should be done! I would definitely do all of them and whatever else I am suppose to do. Most of the LPNs do not check up on the CNAs like that, hence a better relationship with them overall. I am a nice, respectful, and reasonable person but if I have others working under my responsibly I will definitely tell them if something needs to be corrected, or done a different way, and explain why. Am I wrong for being that way? Would I be "doing the most?"

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

First -- paragraphs please. It is difficult to read a solid wall of text. And for your benefit, practice good writing now and will be second nature when you graduate and need to chart in a hurry.

Second, you have eight months until graduation. If you want to work in a hospital, start getting your recommendations together now, write your resume and research different hospitals to know where you want to work. Check with your teachers and consult the web sites of the various employers re: when is the best time to start submitting applications. Start now and be ahead of the crowd.

If you want to work in LTC, a nursing home is a great place to start. But you seem to have a lot of negative feelings about and issues with this one, so think long and hard about whether this is an option you wish to pursue.

[ShelbyaStar]

I think it is a good route to take, and am doing the same myself, though I just have my ADN and therefore didn't have a great chance of getting hospital work. Some say that once you start working in LTC you get stuck there and hospitals won't want you, but I asked many nurses during clinicals at hospitals what kind of experience they had and most did work LTC at some point. I feel when I do leave LTC, I'll feel much more confident. I can say I've worked with PICCs, TPN, ostomies, and all sorts of things independently. I learned about those things in school but doing them on your own without anyone breathing down your neck is just different.

I'm a little confused by the rest of your post. I'm reading it as you being worried about being seen as the bad guy by aids that don't want to do their jobs? Too bad. On evenings I worked with some awful ones and never got to the point of writing someone up or anything (should be a last resort IMO, it's true it won't make you very popular, nor is it all that productive) and I mostly made a mental note of it and they managed to eventually get themselves canned on their own. Luckily I've since switched to nights and work with much better aides on that shift.

It's true they work under your license and you need to be sure they're doing things like they're supposed to... but reality is such that you don't have time to babysit them. Management should be understanding of this and will hopefully come down on them if they notice things are not getting done that is within their scope rather than you.

I find I have a decent relationship even with the lazier ones if I praise them for what good work they do do, they see me helping answer call lights when I'm able, I ask them for outputs, etc. It's a bit annoying to have to remind them to do things they know perfectly well they should be doing, but not the end of the world. Hopefully knowing you, you will have a little more respect right off the bat.

But, cross that bridge when it comes. Worry about graduating, then finding a job. Of course, collect good references and such in the meantime but overall at least in my area it's pretty rare to see BSN nurses working in LTC.