New CNA just left my 1st LTC

[Fractal1986]

Sooo, what can I say? at least Im learning, right?

I jumped into to this a bit late in life. I'm 31, spent 10 years in flatbed/heavy haul truck driving.

I recently finished the cna program at the local tech school here, took 7 months, yes 7 months.

Before that I was doing home care as a pca and then left for a job at a rural hospital. Not long after I was certified I found a new job much closer to home at a rehab/nursing home.

5 minutes from home was better than an hour or so I thought. Now, the hospital gig was ok aside from the badgering and harassment I received, place was still a joke.

Anytime I worked I was the only cna that would get paged while the rest hid somewhere or sat in the break room.

The charge nurse was a nosey militant *****, excuse my french. All this had been addressed with the DON, but nothing ever got done. Before I left 8 others jumped ship too. So, we fast forward to today, I have been at this LTC for 5 weeks, I'm 1 guy, not even 6 months as full on cna, I get a hall to myself every shift.

That is 26-30 residents for 12 hours. I was able to make time to chart last weekend for the 1st time. I kept hearing that some other person had 1 or 2 rooms on my hall as well, but I never saw that other cna, meanwhile the other 2 halls on east wing have 4-5 girls each hangin around.

Beds are supposed to be made by 10:30 but I never get any linen until after lunch. I walked in this morning and searched high and low before I decided to leave and found not 1 wash cloth and not 1 towel in the laundry room, on a cart, in central storage, in the linen closet, nowhere. It's like that everyday.

Some days I can't get started cleaning anyone until 3pm. I worked 7-7. If that wasn't bad enough, they have roaches, it's disgusting in general etc. My other issue was, I did more walking and searching for supplies than I did providing any real care. They ration diapers and if you leave a bottle of soap or perri spray on your cart someone will take it and lock it back up. So, if I don't have the supplies I need the second I walk in the door and for a large chunk of the day and you want to come to me about a write up over beds not being made? You can crawl out of my ass. It has been confirmed by several nurses that it is always like that.

So the activity lady or rather cna with a weird title comes up to me...

"Richard, beds have to be made before 10:30"

"That may be so, but I don't have any sheets or pillow cases or anything"

"Well nobody else here seems to have a problem here with the beds but you"

"That's because I don't make my beds with filthy sheets"

That is an actual conversation that was had on my 2nd weekend there even when she KNEW we didn't have any supplies and each weekend since I've had more in my ear about write ups and documentation following me to the board of nursing. 1 person that was hired on with us has been a cna for 17 years and told me that they need people to throw under the bus so corporate can stay afloat.

I finally decided after my walk around this morning that they are not going to allow me to truly help anyone so I told the supervisor, the one that hired me that I just wasn't diggin this and she asked me why. I told her "you know why, I wouldn't bring my dog here"

So I have questions.

As a male cna is it typical to be the only one paged?

was I given that many residents because I'm a guy or because everyone else is hip and dips out?

Was I being too skiddish or naive or paranoid in thinking my rinky dink little certificate could be in jeopardy?

I just have a real problem with getting paid to watch people be miserable while the rest of these ***** play on facebook.

I called a local home health company and explained my current situation and the guy I spoke with chuckled and said nobody he's ever met stayed at that particular place more than a month.

So, was I in the wrong? does anyone have any similar experiences?

[Wiggly Litchi]

Female CNA here; my first facility after I moved to TN was like that.

I lasted 3 months with little-to-no supplies; bought my own gloves and hid them in my locker, filling my pockets with more as I needed them.

Being left with 30 patients because my hall-mate would disappear for upwards of 3hrs at a time, and would often go home right after the shift started.

Constantly being paged or told to help out a resident that wasn't on my roster because their CNA was nowhere to be found.

Passing out (and picking up) all hall trays, because again, the other CNAs had disappeared; not to mention having to do this asap before wandering CNAs could help themselves to the food on the trays.

No linens, and the laundry staff keeping the laundry room locked while they listened to music and pretended not to hear you knocking. (They hated it when I found keys... lol)

CNAs leaving their residents soiled because according to them, they changed them 30mins ago, so they don't have to do it for another 90 mins (whaaaaaat).

Rough handling of residents by CNAs.

I lasted 3 months there before I handed in my notice :/, it just wasn't worth the stress.