Working in a Nursing home

jb2u, ASN, RN · Mar 27, 2011

You can get insurance and tuition assistance, but the only "perk" I know of is getting to know all the residents. The elderly are a wealth of knowledge and experience. When I was in a nursing home, I enjoyed hearing the stories of their lives!! Very interesting!!!

ashleyisawesome, BSN, RN · Mar 28, 2011

it depends on what facility you work at. but more than likely you can get health insurance if you work full time, and some offer tuition reimbursement, but not all, and there may be a waiting list to get it.

thenameismac · Mar 30, 2011

Thanks for the replies! I really appreciate it.

KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN · Mar 31, 2011

thenameismac, you are in MD, correct( I think I recall seeing you post on the Maryland forum). Anyways, a lot of the nursing homes I have applied to or worked for do indeed offer insurance benefits & tuition assistance. In order to receive both you have to be a full-time employee. Being in nursing school full-time is a job in itself, so I have never worked full time @ a facility. There are a couple of facilities that I looked at that offered health insurance to part-time employees, but still, part time is about 24 hours a week at most facilities, which breaks down to 3 days/week.

thenameismac · Mar 31, 2011

thenameismac, you are in MD, correct( I think I recall seeing you post on the Maryland forum). Anyways, a lot of the nursing homes I have applied to or worked for do indeed offer insurance benefits & tuition assistance. In order to receive both you have to be a full-time employee. Being in nursing school full-time is a job in itself, so I have never worked full time @ a facility. There are a couple of facilities that I looked at that offered health insurance to part-time employees, but still, part time is about 24 hours a week at most facilities, which breaks down to 3 days/week.

Thank you for replying. I am from MD. As it's looking right now I don't have much choice but to work during nursing school. Hopefully I can get hours where I am least productive with school like in the evenings and nights. Also from what I gathered PCTs/GNAs don't get paid that much so I need something in order to pay for school. With rent and the basic bills I have now (free cable, cell, internet) I can barely pay for community college and don't qualify for financial aid. So I am looking forward to tuition assistance and scholarships and things like that. Thanks again.

b0rea1is · Apr 19, 2011

It totally depends which facility you work at. Nursing homes are known for being awful places to work. Try to avoid working at privately-owned nursing facilities.

thenameismac · Apr 21, 2011

It totally depends which facility you work at. Nursing homes are known for being awful places to work. Try to avoid working at privately-owned nursing facilities.

I am almost done clinicals for the semester and we've done them at the nursing home first then the hospital. The only thing I didn't like about the nursing home was that everything seemed so closed in on you and it seems like everyone is working on top of each other. Other than that, I loved it. The residents were great. And I didn't work too much with other GNAs because they had their own work. So it's perfect. Even the grumpy residents were cool. I don't care too much for the hospital setting. Everyone just wants to "go home", the patients and employees. It gets really annoying after a while. But I guess I won't really know what it's REALLY like until I get a job.