[LilLexieLu]

The facility I was at is well maintained. It's very clean and we always score very highly on resident/family satisfaction surveys. Unfortunately, the owners (privately owned) cater more to the administrative employees who sit in offices all day. I always felt like a 2nd class citizen as a nurse. The nursing staff (LPNs and CNAs) are basically ignored and treated as if we aren't intelligent enough to formulate an opinion about patient care. Duh, we ARE the ones providing patient care. We are the ones who are WITH the patient 8 + hrs a day. Meanwhile, the people whose opinions are taken into consideration probably don't even know a patient by name/face. Sad. Around my area that's pretty typical. And as someone else said, there isn't time to nurse a patient anymore. I always felt like I was throwing pills at them and hurrying to the next room. I had 27 patients and 2 CNAs to supervise daily. On top of that I sat on the QA committee and was a "neighborhood representative" which basically meant I was the head nurse on my shift for 2 halls. I had very little time to sit and chat with a resident and get that rewarding smile/hug/laugh/thank you or the oh so coveted "I LOVE YOU!!" I miss my residents but not the politics and frustration. I've often thought I should be an activities director or an Ombudsman so I would be rewarded for seeing the resident as a person, not a chart. I learned in school that my first job was to be a patient advocate. Too bad that seems to be so frowned upon these days. My boyfriend is the maintenance supervisor, among other things, at this facility. He's been there for about 20 years (he's 15 years older than I am). He said it's gone downhill so badly. He has visited many other facilities in our region of GA and he said it's pretty much the same. I loved the nursing home, just not the B.S. that goes with it. Unfortunately, it was the only aspect of nursing I was interested in. I should stop rambling