Families who just don't get it!!

[downsouthlaff, LPN]

We all know these families of the residents! They raise seen kinda of Cain because moms a little wet, or Daddy wasn't put to bed exact at 2 o clock pm, or I want mom checked every 3 minutes cause shes a fall risk! And the next you know there in the administrators office and your suspended. I think alot of families just don't realize what we as CNAs and Nurses are up agaist on a day to day bases in LTC. To them it looks easy because we're sitting at our little station chatting and laughing and works not getting done! But they don't realize how hard it is as a 2 CNAs per 40 residents and 1 Nurse per 40 Residents how much we are responsible for and the backbreaking work that we must do! Or when we are fighting with a combative resident trying to put them in bed and we are in a room with a closed door, meanwhile Ms Jones's daughter is on the call light down the hall cursing out the Nurses and getting all fired up threatening jobs and threatening law suits there's no workers on the hall this and that! They fail to realize that this is a state funded nursing home. A very flawed system. Not one on one. And it makes me mad that every other commercial on TV is about lawyersgetting these families fired up about how nursing homes have very lazy staff that neglect t residents and this and that! But I will say this the best family member who are so patient and so appreciative have been Nurses and Nurses Aides. Some of these families are absolutely unbearable, but you have to be careful if you have an administration that doesn't support you, these families can cost you your job In a second over the most ridiculous things!

[downsouthlaff, LPN]

And they don't realize that in Addition to providing backbreaking care to 40 plus residents, we also have to complete ADL flow charts on 40 plus people, I&O forms on 40 plus people, Equipment forms, snack pass forms, meal charts, ice pass forms, 24 hour Nurse Aide notes due to nurse by X o clock, not to mention 24 full vitals, and make rounds every 2 hours all in an 8 hour shift!!

[jkm07]

1 CNA for 20 residents?! Yikes! But I hear you! Do you have any plans to look for another job?

[downsouthlaff, LPN]

JKM 07 actually no because this is the best facility I've worked at! My first job expected one CNA per 36 residents!!

[fuzzywuzzy, CNA]

Oh yeah, I have no patience for those people. I HATE it when they put the light on and then stand out in the hallway! Even if they DO realize how busy you are, they don't care and get frustrated anyway because they want you to provide special treatment for their loved one. Some of the aides will do it at the expense of others-- I won't. I'm not trying to say that it's wrong of them to do that (because why get into a power struggle with someone?), but that's not my personality-- I just can't do it if it's not fair.

And yeah, those lawyer commercials are so annoying. "Is your loved one in a nursing home experiencing any of the following?: weight loss, bed sores, contractures, decline in abilities, falls? If so that means they've been abused/neglected and you should sue!" Sometimes those things mean neglect, but a lot of times the facility has done everything they can and these things happen anyway because *gasp* the people are old! No one would fall if we tied them all to their chairs like the olden days, but is that preferable? No. Sometimes weight loss just happens even though the facility has tried different diet changes, supplements, meds, swallow evaluations, etc. You can't force someone to eat.

[Pearlite]

Wow those ratios are crazy!! In my nursing home it's three assistants and one nurse for 12 residents! Very unusual but it's an upmarket private facility. I don't know how you can be expected to provide a high standard of care when you're responsible for 20 residents. I can understand the family's point of view. It's not their problem that your workload is ridiculous but they really should be complaining to management because those ratios don't even sound safe imho. What if you have a cardiac arrest? Or a fire?!?!?

[i_love_patient_care]

We had a difficult family member at one of the nursing homes I used to work at. She would raise hell if we didn't do every little thing she wanted done for her mother. I can understand most of it, but some of it was just downright inappropriate. Eventually she complained so many times, the executive director of the home decided to have a conversation about finding her mother a new place to live. She changed her tune :) That home was one of the best I worked at, with the best care.

[mskrisCNA2bRN]

I had a resident who coded one day when another resident's mom decided that her mother needed her meds right then and there even though she knew another resident was coding. She even threatened to go into the room of the resident who was coding so that she could get the key for the med cart from another nurse just so her mom could have her meds for heartburn. I'm totally convinced that she was insane

[mskrisCNA2bRN]

I ment another resident's daughter

[mstearns09]

It didn't happen to me hut I guess we had a family member who was so demanding that she barged in on some aides cleaning up another resident and demanded they stop what they were doing and take care of her husband.

[downsouthlaff, LPN]

We had a resident steal the nurses charts and call the doctors and demand the residents Coumadin be lowered true story!! If these people do not work, and they want to be with the resident 24/7 and make all decisions they need to take them home! If there gonna change them and feed them and dictate there medications and rotate "Shifts" with other family members so someone is there all night! And they can't do this at home why?