I would just go absolutely crazy if I had to work in a nursing home type environment. My job has its drawbacks too, but at least I'm in kind of a high-end sort of area within the hospital, and that means my unit can staff and pay appropriately. And I'd say my working environment is pretty darn professional.

Long-term care is caught in a vicious cycle. As long as it's considered the bottom rung on the nursing ladder, people who have the experience and qualifications to be elsewhere are for sure going to be elsewhere. As long as the personnel are iffy, nobody can justify paying them more. With low pay on top of that kind of corrosive existence, it's certainly going to be difficult to attract and retain even (less qualified) health care workers.

There simply can't be any improvement in conditions on a large-scale basis unless there's some kind of infusion of ongoing capital into the system. That capital won't be coming from residents or families; they can't afford the system even as it is. So I give up on that. The problem is not going to be fixed as far as the USA is concerned.

I'm 54 at this point, still healthy and working. My parents (and my wife's parents) are all gone, so I'm the one next in line for long-term care. Not there for awhile yet, but I can see that horizon from here. I am simply not gonna do it. When I get old and sick, I better get sick enough, quick enough to just be dead. That's a much better alternative to draining all available bank accounts and those of my children in order to pay for my ongoing misery.