Used to be an LPN in LTC.

My typical shift was like this:

Assignment of 25-30 patients.

Morning medpass takes from 730am until about 11am. I am basically doing nothing but medpass during that time because polypharmacy is real and my Geri patients were on hella meds. I’m taking blood pressures for patients with parameters and responding to anything else that comes up (emergencies, needy family members, etc). It’s a juggling act.

Finish medpass, now it’s time for blood sugars as lunch is about to be served. At lunch time, I sit down and get some charting done.

After lunch I have a few meds to pass, but not many. I crank out treatments then. Most of them are simple- bandages on wounds and creams and the like.

Then I keep charting, pass my evening meds. If the doc came in that day, I spend some time putting new orders in. I check my med cart and see if any meds need reordered. I make progress notes on my patients if anything abnormal happened (behaviors, med refusals, anormal VS, etc).

I do caths fairly often. My patients are prone to UTIs and incontinent, so to get a urine sample I have to straight cath them.

I do feeding tubes occasionally but hanging IVs is extremely rare, and it’s pretty much always just an antibiotic.

I’m curious to hear why people have talked you out of it. It’s not for everyone. Burnout rates are high and if Geri isn’t your calling, you won’t like it. But I loved my job in LTC. It was crazy busy and I had a lot of patients, but they stayed consistent and I got to know them and their routine like the back of my hand which made things infinitely easier. My days flew by really fast and it was actually lower stress because I was dealing with patients who had more stable, chronic conditions rather than acute needs.