Wow! What a difference!

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Specializes in psych and geriatric.

I have just finished my second of 5 days of orienting on the shift that I will be working in a new facility. The first day I was surprised (in a good way) to find that one of my coworkers was one of my classmates in nursing school! My previous facility was problematic--I won't rehash all the problems here, but will say that after 2 days, I'm very impressed! The residents are far more relaxed here--their rooms are clean (and so much bigger!!), even the bathrooms are neat and tidy. The meals I can't evaluate yet--they had a classically trained chef preparing the meals (with his staff), but he retired the day after I started so a new company has taken over that department. The food was good today, but different enough for the residents to comment on.

The CNA staffing is better too--I worked with some excellent CNAs at the previous place but they were unhappy, over-worked and stressed out and it showed. Here, I can see evidence of the nation-wide staffing shortage as I am working a couple of pool aides each shift. Apparently, this company immediately accesses agency/pool CNAs if they can't fill it in house, so the CNAs are typically not terribly short, and are accustomed to working together.

There is a pharmacy in house, so that helps keep the meds coming routinely, and there are several PAs and NPs that have offices in the building--they round almost daily! There's even a gerontologist working at the facility! No more "benign neglect" from the doctors I work with--I can actually respect their decisions!

I could continue for awhile, but I'll keep it brief (kinda). I know that as I work here longer, I will find things that I don't like, that could use improvement, but in general, it is simply a good quality place with a high quality of care and the expectation that staff provide good care to the residents. There is a lot more support available to the staff too, so if I end up having a really bad day and don't feel like I can manage alone, I do have resources available--and that is amazing!

At the end of my second day, I am looking forward to going back, to establishing my routine, building long-lasting relationships with staff and residents, and am so relieved that I made this change. It's worth it to enjoy being a nurse again! (lots of exclamation points in this post-yay!)

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Specializes in Telemetry.

May you continue to enjoy your job, and may your new supervisor never appear at your door (unless, ya know, you invited her) :p

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Specializes in psych and geriatric.

LOL nurse Leigh. Apparently, she has shown up at people's doors before. If you are a no-call, no-show, not-answering-your-phone, you may end up with this DON politely knocking on your door to see if you are ok. I find that I am ok with that type of house-call. :)

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Specializes in Telemetry.
LOL nurse Leigh. Apparently, she has shown up at people's doors before. If you are a no-call, no-show, not-answering-your-phone, you may end up with this DON politely knocking on your door to see if you are ok. I find that I am ok with that type of house-call. :)

Ok well, concern for your welfare sounds nice and caring - much better than the previous issue you had. ;)

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