Last night I had a "hall and a half' because we were one person under-staffed and no one else would come in. A resident fell and the family found her. I had been in the room 2-3 times and the resident would not be roused for dinner, so I ok'ed her to go to second seating. She seemed dry (her legs were contorted-closed if you know what I mean so appeared from the front to be dry. With 14 residents due at meds and first seating, I kept on movin-on as they say.
When asked when was the last time I was in her room, I guessed at within the hour. Tonight I am going to begin jotting down every 30 mins or so what rooms I have been in and a brief synopsis:
here's what I might write from 2pm to 4pm:
241- toileted 10 mins
232, 231, 222- toileted 45 mins (waiting for 2-assist transfers also)
222, 212, 214- sleeping
261- light plug 2 mins
212- full code brown 35 mins (bed chg)
With abbreviations this would not take any time at all.
anyway, you get the drift.
Has anyone done this before? What result have you had- what did you learn from the practice? If anything?
I figure in an 8 hour shift it might not take 5-7 minutes out of my whole shift to jot down the acitivities. I do not know if this is feasible but I am going to attempt it.
This same resident that fell later went into another room and scared that person who got out of bed and fell in the elevator all alone. I was in the bathroom with a res and had another res across the hall (not to be left alone on john) also on the toilet so could not leave the two alone to go to 1st floor. She is a wanderer and in her chair goes from room to room opening doors and going in. She really needs far more care and to be kept separate in my humble opinion.
It was a night that gave me my first doubts about my new career choice (have only recieved "one paycheck so far-new").
I am going back today and keep my chin up and keep going.