Nursing in a private Nursing Home

Carol2057

Hi ,

This could get moved, but I dont know where to write this post! I am a nurse and I am interested to know 3 things about working in a private nursing home.

• Are the shifts/ Rota like the ones worked in the Public Hospital/ Nursing home i.e 37.5 hour shifts, ?
• Is the pay as per the pay scale seen on the INO website?
• And is there always 2 Nurse at least on duty (even if its a small nursing home?)

I hope a Nurse who works in a private nursing home can answer these questions for me. I dont know anyone who works in a private nursing home. I am worried about what the staffing levels would be like. Can it happen that you would be the only nurse on duty sometimes?

Thanks

Ickle Magoo

The Ladies Lounge is a discussion forum.

This is the forum for posts relating to work and jobs. :cool:

crotalus667

Hi I work as a HCA in a private nursing home

Carol2057 wrote: »

Hi ,
[*]Are the shifts/ Rota like the ones worked in the Public Hospital/ Nursing home i.e 37.5 hour shifts, ?

No , it's the norm for 12 hour shifts

Carol2057 wrote: »

[*]Is the pay as per the pay scale seen on the INO website?

Not sure, from what i hear hospital workers get better pay

Carol2057 wrote: »

[*]And is there always 2 Nurse at least on duty (even if its a small nursing home?)

We always have at least one per unit (for the quiet night shift) during the dat there are more it depends on the amount of residents and the amount of care needed

Carol2057 wrote: »

Can it happen that you would be the only nurse on duty sometimes?

I doubt it because some one has to cover you while on your break iirc , you really need to discuess this with your employer at time of interview (or check with Hiqua)

Delancey

There is a wide divergence between theory and practice when it comes to private Nursing Homes , my information is that frequently there is only 1 nurse on duty for example.
Pay is often below the norm.

Small wonder that the industry is characterised by high staff turnover.

deedeedum

Hi,

Just had to reply..I'm a nurse and have worked briefly in a private nursing home.

It was not like working on a general ward at all!!..they do not pay INO rates and was expected to work 48-60 hours per week..was absolutely crazy. Also the role is very different - more managing the care of the residents than hands on nursing care, mammoth drug rounds and lots of paper work.

It was the lack of contact with the residents that really got to me in the end and had to leave.

However, this is just my experience and its only a description of one nursing home. Others may be different and i do have one friend who works in nursing home and loves it.

You should maybe just try it out and see how you like it.

If you looking for work there is lots of work with agencies at the moment.

Hope that helps a little

And to answer your question about working alone - on nights you were on your own with a couple HCAs and during the day there was meant to be 2 nurses but that didn't always happen

Carol2057

Thanks for your reply. I have worked in busy HSE Nursing homes which are short staffed as it is. I cant imagine working in Nursing home where id be the "one" in charge. The smaller nursing homes seem to just have one nurse at night. I dont know, i think that calls an awful lot of responsibility. No doc either. EEk!!

Wishbone Ash

Carol2057 wrote: »

I have worked in busy HSE Nursing homes which are short staffed as it is. I cant imagine working in Nursing home where id be the "one" in charge. The smaller nursing homes seem to just have one nurse at night. I dont know, i think that calls an awful lot of responsibility. No doc either. EEk!!

If you were the solitary nurse on duty you would have a greater number of HCAs and wouldn't be expected to do a lot of the ordinary work. In a HSE location where there may be more nursing staff there would usually be less HCAs and therefore the nursing staff would be expected to do much of the work done by HCAs elsewhere.

Amandamurphy

In reply to Carol2057 i strongly agree that there is an awful lot of responsibility for only one nurse to work at night. in my opinion i feel that there should be at least 3 nurses to help out and always be a doctor on call if needed in an emergency.

Alfasud

Nursing homes are in dire straights for staff. There is no pool of staff to work from. Nurses are expected to be on 24hour call 7 days a week. It's difficult to get sick because you are a nuisance and somebody who is already working long hours will get caught. You are expected to work both days and nights in the same week and really anything goes. The pay is improving because of the poor situation due to lack of staff but anybody already in situ at maybe 16E/hour never get a rise unless they threaten to leave. In some places there is no extra pay for weekends or nights.