Join Our Team
The Good Shepherd Community is a very rewarding place to work. We dedicate ourselves to caring for residents, tenants, and clients through the values of service, compassion, trust and respect.
Typical Day as a LPN
Licensed Practical Nurses are some of the most important people in senior communities as they work alongside CNAs in resident’s day-to-day care. While they leave most of the personal workload to CNAs, they’re able to take care of some daily needs and convey any problems and/or discomforts during treatment to their supervisory RNs. Because of this needed communication with the RN and the resident, LPNs are in direct contact with residents most of the time helping in a variety of different ways.
As a LPN, it’s up to you to provide routine care for any resident who’s sick or injured. You’ll work with the RN to stick to the care plan that’s in place for each resident. Here’s what a typical day may look like for a LPN in a setting such as ours.
Benefits
The Good Shepherd Community offers a very comprehensive package of benefits to our employees including:
- Competitive wages
- Medical/dental/vision
- Profit sharing 401k plan with match
- Flexible spending plan (cafeteria 125 plan)
- Paid personal leave
- Funeral leave
- Life insurance
- Employee assistance plan
- Employee wellness center
- Educational scholarships (upon availability)
- Corporate discounts
Here’s what a day for a LPN usually looks like.
At the start of your shift, you will meet briefly with the LPN who is just finishing up his or her shift. You will be taking over responsibility for their residents, so you need to know what the previous LPN has completed and what still needs to be done. You will learn things like the residents’ diagnoses, what medicines they are taking, what concerns you need to look for, what urgent needs the residents may have, and any other special instructions.
Next, before you start visiting residents in their rooms, you will read over the reports for your residents. There may be treatment reports, medication updates, or lab tests that may affect the care you are supposed to provide.
After orienting yourself to your resident’s needs, it’s time to start visiting your residents. As a practical nurse, you may do any of the following tasks during your shift:
- Checking vital signs and monitoring the health of your residents
- Taking specimens for lab testing
- Caring for residents with catheters
- Caring for wounds and changing wound dressings
- Listening to a resident’s concerns
- Updating residents’ electronic health records
- Pass medications
- Complete nursing treatments and procedures
- Take orders and communicate with doctors.
Doing active work and showing your dedication to your residents is something that can make this career very rewarding.
Throughout your shift, you’ll also have some administrative responsibilities. As you work, you will need to document everything you have done, and as you’re getting ready to go off shift, you will need to prepare reports to give to the next LPN. You’ll need to communicate clearly what happened during your shift and what still needs to be done. Clear communications are very important in this position.
As a licensed practical nurse, you’ll be helping people get better every single day. You’re there when people need you the most. Whether you are working with a resident who can no longer care for their self the way they used to, or someone who is learning how to walk again after a stroke or an accident, you know that you are making a positive impact on someone’s life. This may be the most rewarding benefit of all!