Long-Term Care Job Benefits

Working as a long-term care (LTC) nurse can be incredibly rewarding. Let’s take a closer look at why LTC careers could be right for you.

Benefits of Working in Long-Term Care Jobs

Long-term care nurses stay in the specialty for its many benefits, such as:

Independence: Working in long-term care requires a certain degree of autonomy not found in other specialties. Since physicians or other team members aren’t necessarily around all the time, nurses must be willing and able to think on their feet to solve problems and keep patients safe.

Job security: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, all members of the baby boomer generation (people born between 1946 and 1964) will be age 65 or older. Boomers are the second largest segment of the country’s population, following Millennials. Many of these people will need professional nursing help as they age.

Location: Unlike jobs in major medical centers, jobs in LTC can be found in rural, suburban, and city environments. As a long-term care nurse, you’ll probably be able to pick where you’d like to work. This can be very beneficial to your own quality of life.

Relationships: LTC jobs offer nurses the opportunity to have meaningful and close relationships with their patients since they care for them over an extended period of time. You’ll really get to know your patients and their family members, sometimes over the course of months or years.

Slower-paced work: Unlike acute care, which can be fast paced and unpredictable, long-term care jobs usually don’t see medical emergencies. Of course, emergencies may happen in post-acute care settings, but this specialty is generally less stressful compared to other nursing specialties.

One additional bonus is the depth of knowledge that can come from working with an older population. Nurses in long-term care careers have the opportunity to learn about their patients’ rich life history and honor a generation that is often overlooked in American society. In turn, that brings a feeling of love, respect, and purpose that many residents of nursing homes or assisted living facilities may lack. It can be incredibly rewarding to give back in this way.