As a Licensed Practical Nurse, you play a unique and demanding role in healthcare. LPNs are frontline workers who deliver hands-on care to patients in every healthcare setting. From long-term care and skilled nursing facilities to hospitals, clinics, doctors’ offices, rehab centers, and home health, LPNs are an integral part of care.
The physical and emotional demands of the job can, and often do, take a toll. You must deal with time pressure, possess the ability to react calmly in crises, and deal with a heavy patient load. Because of the demands of the job, many LPNs succumb to frustration and, eventually, burnout. But when you work in a supportive work environment, you can blossom in your career instead of moving in a different direction.
No matter if you’re a seasoned nurse who craves a change or a recent LPN graduate just beginning your career, knowing what you should look for in a supportive work environment can make a world of difference. Here, we offer what to look for in a supportive work environment and how to distinguish between a workplace that helps you grow in your career and one that may cause you to stagnate and burn out.
Are Patient Ratios Manageable and Is The Workload Demand Realistic?
The foundation of a supportive work environment is a fair and manageable patient load and realistic expectations regarding your workload. The number of patients you are expected to care for during your shift must be fair to you and your LPN coworkers. One of the primary causes of nurse burnout? Overwhelming patient loads.
When an LPN is expected to handle more patients than is safely acceptable, the overwhelm can have devastating consequences, such as medication errors and failing to provide care in a reasonable amount of time. When you’re evaluating a healthcare organization as a potential employer, you need to ask directly about patient loads. What are the numbers for each shift? Are those loads consistent? And what happens when the facility is short-staffed?
A supportive workplace for LPNs will have policies in place that firmly prevent patient overload and short-staffing. They may contract for per diem nurses or work with an agency like BOS Medical Staffing to prevent gaps in their LPN staff. Since job postings and hiring managers want to paint a very enticing picture, you may want to ask current employees directly about the workload and staffing shortages. These people are actually in the trenches every day and will give you the real story.
Can You Expect Strong Support from Leadership, RNs, and Doctors?
In the state of Georgia and most others, LPNs work under the supervision and direction of RNs, physicians, and other healthcare professionals. A supportive work environment means the entire care team works together, collaborating in a partnership instead of a hierarchy. For LPNs to feel valued and seen, a basis for job satisfaction, strong support from leadership, RNs, and physicians is essential.
LPNs looking for a supportive work environment should inquire about the accessibility of charge nurses and RNs are available and accessible to LPNs to offer guidance during critical moments. Dismissive leadership and RNs and physicians who are difficult to reach effectively abandon their LPNs. This creates a very unsafe environment for patients and LPNs alike.
Watch for cues during your interview and observe how administrators and leadership talk about their nursing staff. Do they see them as an integral member of the care team, or merely filling in nursing staff gaps? Strong leadership shows support, respect, and guidance. They understand the day-to-day work nurses put in and advocate for their nursing staff. Supportive leadership, RNs, and doctors make sure LPNs have everything they need to do the job well, including their time.
Do They Offer Opportunities for Further Education and Promote Career Growth?
Healthcare is always on the move forward. Every day, there are advancements being made in how patient care is carried out. A supportive workplace ensures its LPNs and all of their care staff have opportunities to learn. They may offer tuition reimbursement for LPN-to-RN bridge programs, training on technology, certification programs, and continuing education programs for license renewal.
Additionally, supportive employers offer and encourage mentorship programs that pair experienced nurses with newly hired LPNs. They make sure the path to specialized roles such as wound care and IV therapies is clear should an LPN wish to pursue these specialties. A supportive workplace that encourages growth sees you as a long-term employee worthy of their investment.
Do They Support Fair Compensation and Comprehensive Benefits?
Obviously, what they pay isn’t the main driver when it comes to finding a supportive workplace, but it is hugely important. You probably have an idea of what you can expect to make as an LPN, but factor in your experience and your specializations, and your wages should increase accordingly. A supportive healthcare organization will demonstrate that they value what you bring to their patient care environment.
Beyond your salary, you need to weigh the benefits. Do they offer paid sick leave that doesn’t penalize you for staying home because you or your child are sick? Do they embrace flexible scheduling, go beyond the minimum for family leave, or offer opportunities for work-stress-related counseling? If the healthcare organization nickel-and-dimes benefits or pay, they demonstrate a lack of care and respect for their nursing staff.
Do They Demonstrate A Culture of Safety?
Workplace safety is non-negotiable for LPNs. Does your potential employer maintain adequate staffing to ensure safe patient lifting and transfers? Are there protocols in place for handling combative patients and crises? Do they have the recommended protective equipment, and enough of it? Be sure to ask your interviewer about injury rates, safety training, and protocols regarding infection control.
Your psychological safety is equally as important. You need to be able to report mistakes, errors, and near-misses without worrying about retribution. A healthcare organization that worries less about punishing individuals and, instead, addresses missteps as an issue within the system, values and supports staff. Just as you will be asked how you would handle hypothetical situations as a nurse, ask the interviewer how the organization or facility responds to complaints or incidents. This will reveal a lot about how the employer regards their nursing staff.
Is the Workplace Culture Collaborative and Respectful? What is The Team Dynamic?
A supportive work environment is demonstrated through the day-to-day experience. To that end the people you work with are the ones who shape the culture, and your personal experience. A supportive culture fosters communication, respect, and teamwork. Open communication among RNs, LPNs, and CNAs is essential to supporting patient care. A culture of hierarchy undermines the collaborative environment and can lead to the kind of gossiping and bullying that creates a toxic, and thus, unsupportive, workplace. No matter how great the pay and benefits are, this type of workplace culture isn’t sustainable for LPNs long term.
Look for a healthy workplace culture, one where coworkers, regardless of status, actually enjoy working together. Inquire about turnover rates and how management handles interpersonal conflicts. If possible, shadow a shift or speak with a current employee to get the kind of insight you can’t obtain in an interview.
Is Scheduling Reasonable?
Reasonable scheduling isn’t possible when the facility is chronically understaffed. Chronic understaffing typically means mandatory overtime and last-minute schedule changes. This is a direct route to burnout, so pay attention to their scheduling practices.
A supportive work environment respects their employees’ work-life balance. Advance notice of schedules (especially if they are several weeks out), limits on overtime, and reasonably accommodating personal needs are examples of a supportive workplace with reasonable scheduling.
An employer who embraces flexibility will utilize self-scheduling and shift-swapping platforms, as well as offering per diem opportunities and part-time employment. Find out how much an employer values their staff’s work-life balance by asking the interviewer how often mandatory overtime occurs and how management resolves schedule conflicts. Use that information to make an informed decision.
Do You Have What You Need to Perform Your Job to The Fullest?
It may seem like a minor inconvenience to those on the outside but for nurses it’s a major factor in performing your job. Working without the necessary tools you need to perform your job is frustrating to you, as an LPN, and detrimental to the patients you care for. It’s also an example of an employer who isn’t very supportive.
Ask if the employer consistently maintains adequate supplies of items necessary for wound care and medications, as well as gloves and other PPE. Are wheelchairs and lifts maintained properly and in good working order? Don’t just take the interviewer’s answer; ask actual staff for their insight.
A healthcare organization that regularly runs short on supplies and equipment either has budget issues or poor management. Either way, it’s a poor example of a supportive workplace.
Do They Respect, Value, and Recognize Their LPNs?
Whether there is a recognized hierarchy or not, LPNs often feel as though they are somewhere in the middle of the nursing ladder. While you don’t have the autonomy and authority of an RN, you do carry a significant amount of clinical responsibility. When an employer includes the LPN in care-plan discussions and values your input, that’s a sign of a supportive workplace environment. If the workplace formally recognizes and shines a light on an LPN for a job well done, that’s a bonus.
One way to tell how much the LPN’s role is valued by a healthcare organization is found in the wording of the job posting. Does the language emphasize the essential nature of the LPN’s job? Is the role viewed as a member of the clinical care team, or support staff? Look for job descriptions that underscore the professional role of an LPN.
Is There Transparency in The Job Posting and Interview?
A supportive work environment practices transparency from the beginning. Clear communication regarding policies, procedures, organizational decisions, and staffing changes that impact nurses directly is essential to a supportive workplace culture. Access to HR, regular staff meetings, and anonymous feedback (through surveys, suggestion boxes, and the like), for example, demonstrate leadership’s willingness and desire to engage with frontline workers and act on their input.
When you research a potential employer, look for signs they have acted at some point on employee feedback. It may be obvious through scheduling policies, improved patient ratios, improved staffing, and updated technology. Healthcare organizations that encourage feedback and input from nursing staff and act on it are a sign of a supportive workplace.
A Supportive Work Environment Has Many Facets
Finding a supportive work environment as an LPN is about so much more than how much you can earn. If your employer lacks respect for your position, ignores your need for work-life balance, or maintains an unsafe environment, you are not valued or supported. Move on.
When you ask pointed and specific questions during your interview, talk to current nursing staff, observe how nurses are treated, and pay close attention to the details, you are better able to make an informed decision. If you’re an LPN looking for your first job or making a change, please contact BOS Medical Staffing. We have the opportunities you’ve been waiting for.
