Long-term care a rewarding career in ever-changing environment
‘Change equals opportunity’
Friday April 11, 2008 -- Deron Hamel
If you’re a person who loves new challenges and is passionate about helping others, long-term care can provide you with an excellent career. This is Linda Pierce’s message to nurses considering a career in long-term care.

“It’s an exciting opportunity everyday to be able to look at the many needs and to be able to put in plans to help another person get to where they need to go in order to have the best life,” says Pierce, the administrator at Village Green.

The hands-on approach and day-to-day connection that frontline staff has with residents provides nurses with many opportunities to apply their skills to help others, notes Pierce. Frontline staff, she adds, can see the difference they make in people’s lives everyday.

The fact that caregivers can see the positive impact they make in the lives of others each day is what separates nursing in long-term care from other disciplines, Pierce says.

Adding to this, long-term care is a busy, constantly changing environment which requires nurses to continuously use their existing skills while learning new ones along the way.

Because internal promotion is a cornerstone of OMNI’s hiring policy, it’s not unusual for frontline staff members to work their way into management positions and become administrators, directors of care or clinical care co-ordinators.

“Change equals opportunity,” says Pierce. “If you’re a young nurse out there looking for employment and you’re ambitious and you want a very rewarding career, you can move along the path in a very attractive way.”

And for anyone considering working in long-term care, OMNI is a great place to consider a career, she says. With its progressive approach to long-term care and dedicated, resident-focused staff, nurses entering the job market will find themselves in good company.

“I consider OMNI to be one of the top organizations in long-term care,” says Pierce. “We really have great opportunities for people looking for careers. There is a strong (emphasis) on education, there’s internal promotion, and it’s a very attractive place to have a career.”

Judy Huyck, a registered nurse at the Selby long-term care home, says she chose a career with OMNI because she enjoys working with the senior population and because unlike in an acute care setting, long-term caregivers get to know the people they help care for on a personal level.

Knowing residents on a personal level can also help with the caregiving process, because nurses come to understand residents’ likes, dislikes and have intimate knowledge of their medical needs, she adds.

Nursing in long-term care also requires caregivers to put their knowledge into practice on a constant basis.

“It allows you to use a lot of different areas of your nursing skills,” says Huyck.  

For more information on a nursing career with OMNI, please contact the home office at (705) 748-6631.

If you have feedback on this story, please call the newsroom at (800) 294-0051 or e-mail deron(at)axiomnews.ca.