What is a Long Term Care Nurse?

A long term care nurse, also known as a geriatric nurse or elder care nurse, specializes in providing comprehensive healthcare services to individuals with chronic illnesses or disabilities, particularly the elderly. These nurses are skilled in managing the unique healthcare needs of aging populations, offering support in various settings such as nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and patients’ homes. Long term care nurses focus on promoting quality of life, maintaining functional independence, and providing compassionate end-of-life care.

Long Term Care Nurse Job Description

We are currently seeking highly skilled and compassionate long term care nurses to join our dedicated healthcare team. As integral members of our clinical staff, successful candidates will play a pivotal role in delivering specialized healthcare services to patients in long term care settings.

As a long term care nurse, you will have the opportunity to practice autonomously and collaboratively with interdisciplinary healthcare teams to deliver evidence-based, patient-centered care. Your expertise and leadership will be instrumental in improving patient outcomes, promoting health and well-being, and enhancing the quality of life for individuals under your care.

The ideal candidates will possess strong clinical competencies, excellent communication skills, and a commitment to lifelong learning and professional development.

What Does a Long Term Care Nurse Do?

• Assess and Monitor Patients: Conduct comprehensive assessments of patients’ health status, monitor vital signs, and identify changes in condition to manage chronic illnesses and maintain optimal health.
• Administer Treatments: Provide specialized care, including medication administration, wound care, pain management, and rehabilitation therapies to support patients’ daily living and well-being.
• Develop Care Plans: Formulate individualized care plans based on patient assessments, collaborate with physicians and other healthcare professionals to optimize treatment strategies, and adjust care plans as necessary.
• Educate Patients and Families: Educate patients and their families on chronic disease management, medication adherence, self-care strategies, and healthy lifestyle choices to promote independence and improve overall health outcomes.
• Support Daily Activities: Assist patients with activities of daily living (ADLs), such as bathing, dressing, eating, and mobility, ensuring their comfort and dignity.
• End-of-Life Care: Provide compassionate palliative and end-of-life care, supporting patients and their families through advanced illness and the dying process, ensuring comfort and dignity.
• Quality Improvement: Participate in quality improvement initiatives, research projects, and professional committees to enhance clinical practice, advance nursing knowledge, and contribute to evidence-based practice guidelines and standards of care.
• Documentation: Document patient assessments, care interventions, and outcomes accurately and comprehensively in electronic health records (EHRs), ensuring documentation compliance, confidentiality, and data integrity.

How Much Do Long Term Care Nurses Make?

The median annual salary for long term care nurses in the United States is $81,580.

Skill Requirements

• Clinical Expertise: Long term care nurses must possess advanced clinical knowledge, skills, and competencies in geriatric care to provide safe, effective, and high-quality patient care.
• Communication Skills: Effective communication skills are essential for long term care nurses to interact with patients, families, caregivers, and interdisciplinary healthcare teams, fostering therapeutic relationships, facilitating shared decision-making, and promoting patient engagement and empowerment.
• Critical Thinking and Clinical Reasoning: Long term care nurses must demonstrate strong critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and problem-solving abilities to assess complex patient situations, synthesize and analyze data, and develop evidence-based care plans and interventions that optimize patient outcomes and promote health and well-being.
• Leadership and Collaboration: Long term care nurses should exhibit leadership qualities, such as initiative, accountability, and integrity, and collaborate effectively with interdisciplinary healthcare teams to promote a culture of safety, excellence, and continuous quality improvement in healthcare delivery.
• Ethical Practice: Long term care nurses must adhere to ethical principles and standards of practice in nursing, including accountability, advocacy, autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, confidentiality, and justice, to ensure patient-centered, compassionate, and ethical care.
• Professional Development: Long term care nurses are encouraged to engage in lifelong learning, continuing education, and professional development activities to maintain competence, enhance clinical practice, and stay abreast of advances in geriatric care, healthcare technology, and evidence-based practice.

Example KPIs for a Long Term Care Nurse

• Patient Outcomes and Satisfaction: This KPI measures long term care nurses’ effectiveness in achieving positive patient outcomes, improving patient satisfaction, and enhancing patient experiences through evidence-based, patient-centered care.
• Clinical Practice Excellence: This KPI evaluates long term care nurses’ clinical competence, adherence to evidence-based practice guidelines, and delivery of safe, effective, and high-quality patient care across diverse healthcare settings and patient populations.
• Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Teamwork: This KPI assesses long term care nurses’ collaboration, communication, and teamwork with interdisciplinary healthcare teams to promote care coordination, care continuity, and interdisciplinary communication and collaboration in healthcare delivery.
• Professional Growth and Development: This KPI measures long term care nurses’ engagement in ongoing professional development, continuing education, certification maintenance, and leadership opportunities to enhance clinical competence, expand scope of practice, and advance nursing knowledge and practice standards.
• Quality Improvement and Innovation: This KPI evaluates long term care nurses’ participation in quality improvement initiatives, research projects, evidence-based practice projects, and innovation initiatives to improve patient care outcomes, advance nursing science, and promote healthcare delivery innovations.

How Can Glider AI Help You with Hiring a Long Term Care Nurse?

Glider’s recruitment platform is designed to prioritize competency over credentials, enabling organizations to assess candidates’ skills objectively and efficiently. Utilize Glider AI Skill Intelligence™ to streamline the hiring process, identify top-quality Long Term Care Nurse candidates, and ensure a mobile-first, candidate-friendly experience.

GGlider AI’s Unique Features

• Verify Medical Licenses
• Validate Hundreds of Medical, Clinical, and Technical Skills
• Ensure Hiring Compliance
• Conversational Chatbot for Talent Screening
• Powerful candidate analytics
• Streamline Healthcare Hiring with AI and Automation

Go ahead and spotlight your Long Term Care Nurse with Glider AI today!

Schedule a Demo or contact us at info@glider.ai