ProNurse

Without meaning to upset you, personally, in any way, your workmates sound like a right sorry bunch, making very sweeping (and offensive) statements regarding nurses who work in nursing homes.  There are good and bad nurses across the board, always has been that way, and will remain so. 

Sometimes nursing home employment is just more convenient for a nurse who happens to live some distance away from a large hospital, particularly if he/she has family commitments.  Doesn't mean that they are not a good nurse.

I suppose because the majority of nursing homes cater for the elderly, this is seen by some nurses as very unsexy, compared to, say, a high-paced environment like an ITU or A&E.  This is very sad. 

Nursing is a very stressful job, and nursing homes vary.  Perhaps you should give this new job a try, maybe for six months or a year and see how you feel then.

each to their own,for more hands on and time with patients i think nursing homes are great,i agree too stressful in nhs and not everyone thinks nursing is less valid if your not doing venepunctures blah de blah allday.it takes all sorts and if thats your bag then power to you but i dont feel the need to have an ever expanding skill set when what im good at is caring and theres ample opportunity for that in a nursing home,ideally a well run one.if its right for you then never mind what other people think.pros and cons in both environments

i disagree with last comment,although in a nursing home the ratio might be less,other than personnal hygiene and continence issues theres not many other demands in a nursing home.i always have lots of time in a home to sit with residents,in hospitals ive never had the time to really sit and talk to a patient to many other competing demands.

 I am a newly qualified staff nurse (from January this year) and started in a nursing home in Edinburgh last week. I was surprised at how stressful I found it. I was given barely any support and was expected to just get on with drug rounds entirely by myself from day one. In this nursing home there is one staff nurse and 5 carers on at any one time to look after 30 residents who have varying degrees of dementia, most with moderate to severe dementia. I found it very frustrating that there wasn't enough staff, any means of preceptorship, awful paperwork- such as care plans and general documentation, if you could even find it- it was hellish trying to find a lot of policies and documentation! And in particular I was frustrated by the general lack of supplies. I needed to change leg dressings on a resident who was 100 years old and had NOTHING that was adequate to absorb the fluid coming out of her odeomatus legs. I had to use wipes wrapped in bandages from a first aid kit. This woman deserved more. I couldn't give it to her and it made me feel ashamed. A resident's drugs ran out and because it was on Friday, the nurse who I was meant to be shadowing (who did no work at al, in fact she forgot to order pharmacy that day!) told me that he wouldn't get them until Monday at the earliest because of ordering. He was upset at this and rightly so. 

I know all nursing homes are not the same, but this has been my experience. Luckily I was just hired on their bank and I have been offered a job in the NHS, in what I know to be a very busy ward. However, it feels like anything will be better than this care home. I feel like a failure for doing so, in many ways, but I am not planning on going back. I will work on the NHS bank as a band 2 until I begin my new job in neurology. 

My advice is that if you are planning on working in a care home, ask lots of questions at the interview and take into account things like th epresence of medical staff on your ward and the lack of them in the nursing home. The GPs come around once a week on a Monday. Personally I felt very unsupported without them there and without other staff nurses. 

you would be mad to leave NHS at the moment. Its so hard to even get a job with NHS in the current climate, most vacancies advertised to external candidates are for 6month contracts etc, if you are in, stay in that would be my advice!

Anonymous says ...

I have been qualified as an adult nurse for 2years now, and while I love the people I work with I can't stand the stress of the job any longer.  I have been offered a job in a nursing home with a good reputation but have been told by various workmates that it would be a huge mistake to go down the nursing home route. Reasons being, I would lose my skills, its for crap nurses, and basically dead end work for below par nurses etc.  Surely this can't be right,  despite the many 'standards' being introduced in the NHS basic care is lacking, surely homes are more closely monitored and less stressful?  Are nurses really judged so harshly for turning their backs on the NHS?

 

Don't worry so much on what your peers are saying.  As long as you are happy at what you are doing and is more convenient in what you get, that's enough for change.  As for losing skills, you can always do training on your free time and better yet, develop more skills with regards to your new work.  Good luck!

 

 

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