Burnt out or fed up!

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Apr 2, 2003

((((Belinda))))

You can't change the system from the inside. I know; I tried for several years, and nearly wrecked my health working to improve conditions for my residents. Unfortunately, until the powers that be recognize the obligation of society to provide elderly people with the services they paid for all their lives, nursing homes will be understaffed and poorly managed because there isn't enough funding. The frail elderly aren't glamorous, nor do their concerns spur the kind of lively debates politicians love. It's going to take all of us who care about them to force Congress and the President to pay attention; in the meantime, please don't beat yourself up with guilt because the job is making you crazy. There are other ways to help without sacrificing your sanity!!

jude11142 · Apr 5, 2003

i can relate to the anger that you are feeling. i also work in a ltcf and unfortunately see the same as you. just yesterday, during my med pass, i walked into a residents room and it reeked. she smelled as if she hasn't been changed or washed in days. this one resident is unable to make her needs known and she is 100% dependent. again, i spoke to her cna and was told, "i just changed her"...i asked her to please go and check her....i got the rolled eyes and mumbling as she walked away. i then heard her saying to another coworker, "i'm not going back there until next rounds".......i wasn't sure on how to handle that statement. i know that you can't be taken advantage of unless you allow that to happen but many times i feel that i am i am learning to be more assertive and have some more work at being so end result? i went in the room, washed her and changed her. now, i have no problem at all doing that but i was upset that i asked her aide to check on her again and she didn't. plus, it took time out of my med pass. n i am sick of seeing residents who have food all over them, who smell, who have stool stuck on them like they haven't been changed or washed in days. shower days, i no longer fall for the story that ms so and so declined her shower. for awhile that is what i was being told, now i say, "let me go and ask them" and most of the time, the resident does want a shower. i did report therse actions(or lack of action) to my supervisor, though i wished afterwards that i handled it myself. administration though is trying, we recently got a new director who seems to be very good. there are more inservices than ever and more staff meetings amongst all staff. several staff members have been let go since she started. i just don't get how you can go to work and then not do your job. plus the fact that you are dealing with human beings. i am waiting for this other cna to get canned. she is verbally abusive to the residents, very demeaning. i hate when she is assigned on my unit. i have asked her to please refrain from yelling at the residents and she does for a while but then her mouth is back in action. i used to be a cna for many yrs before getting into nursing and i know that it's alot of hard work and many times it's a thankless job, but when i cared for a patient, i knew that i not only did a good job but that i made a difference in anothers life and that made me feel good. i took pride in that and i still do. now, i'm not saying that it's always the aides that do this because i also have worked with some nurses that were terrible. my thoughts are that if this is how you treat people then you shouldn't be in this field . oh, i suppose that we can go on and on so i better end this post now,lol......

tigger2sassy · Apr 5, 2003

belinda-- just remember that the grass is not greener somewhere else-- believe me, i am living proof of that-- as has been stated before-- if you don't take care of your patients who else will-- until nursing is able to stand united as one the only difference we can make in ltc is what we personally can give in the eight hour shifts that we work-- but remember one thing-- YOU made the difference for them during your shift-- thank you for caring tigger2sassy

nowplayingEDRN · Apr 6, 2003

Belinda,

I truely feel for you and understand where you are coming from. The trouble you are experiencing is not exclusive to LTC it happens where ever there are elderly patients that are dependant upon others to meet their basic daily needs and functions. I have discovered over the years, having spent time as a candy striper and a nursing assistant, that the trouble with attitude and lack of professional pride starts with missuse (sadly, I admit this) from the nurses and the administration, to lack of appropriate pay and poor staffing of the units. These things contribute to burn out, porr professional pride and just plain lack of caring and commitment. I like the story of the little boy with the starfish...it is a perfect analogy to fit the situation and yes, I think that a little vacation time will help refresh your mental health and general out look...keep a stiff upper lip and take care of you so that you do not progress from fed up to burned out. :rolleyes:

((((hugs))))

Christie

Bundles of Joy · Apr 6, 2003

It's hard to give a care in LTC facilities when the CNA's run the show, and all they give you is a hard time and a lot of attitude. It's very discouraging to deal with. I hear how you feel, I became burnt out 2 years ago, left the LTC field and never looked back.

Find happiness elsewhere. You're fighting a loosing battle.

PhePhe, RN · Apr 6, 2003

Recently I worked day shift and the next day days/evenings at a LTC facility acute unit for an agency. I will never do it again. The aides were so lazy I had to get on the intercom 3 times to call them to the unit as none of them were nowhere to be found on the unit. The 3rd time I paged the nursing supervisor came to the unit and then paged them herself. They all showed up and they were mad at me for disturbing their routine. They all tried to take their break at once. Their main concern was ordering out to eat on the evening shift. The unit was staffed by agency RNs and one regular LPN from the unit. I complained to the LPN who would not approach the aides to get them to work. I blame the the regular nurses for not delegating properly and holding them accountable. The lights were ringing, visitors were complaining that no one was available--The nurses were all busy giving out the zillion meds, dealing with crushing meds, finding individual bottles, peg tubes, and trachs, etc. Never again. You couldn't pay me enough to work in a LTC facility where the aides run the show and ignore the nurses!

nowplayingEDRN · Apr 6, 2003

I find it to be a vicious cycle....regular staff RNs and LPNs that do not delegate, refuse to help and abuse the help they get from the aides. I always found in a cute care you only got out of your aides what you put into them. Treat them with respect, delegate fairly and help out when needed and show a willingness to roll up your sleeves and work and they will bend over backwards to see that the patients you are assigned to get tops care. Unfortunately it is a problem that is also allowed to continue to evolve and therefore almost impossible to fix in a facility where it has been allowed to breakdown to the point where the nurses are so disrespected that the aides do what they please and when they please much to the suffering of those that depend on them.

PhePhe, RN · Apr 6, 2003

I don't know if you paid CNAs more money if they would do a better job. Maybe it would make them listen to the nurses--but many CNAs are protected by a union....Some of them don't deserve more money as they have no intention of taking good care of the patients! I was a CNA myself in the 70's and when the light rang we sprang from our seats or wherever we were to answer it. The nurses never had to answer the light. We did our rounds every 2 hours like clockwork too...it was expected.

starcandy · Apr 6, 2003

Like you Belinda, I am also fed up. I worked at a facility where a nurse was physically attacked by a CNA because she did not agree with her assignment. I was sick to my stomach when I heard other staff members high five this activity. I do not think violence will get you anywhere but fired. I think management dropped the ball in settling prior disputes with this employee. Things have got to get better in LTC. I have been hired at another

facility and am hesitant to take the job because I know that this problem is pervasive. It probably not as bad as the last job but I have received bad work attitudes at every LTC facility that I have worked.

Disablednurse · Apr 7, 2003

I know we all did not work at the same LTC facility, but all the posts sound like the one where I worked. I got so tired of trying to make the CNAs do their jobs. It is a lost cause. However, Jude, by letting the CNA yell at and treat the residents rudely, that makes you just as guilty. That was resident abuse. IF the state or attorney generals office investigated, you would be in trouble for allowing her to do this. Remember if you see this happening, write a description of what happened, do now leave our anything, make a copy for yourself and give the supervisor a copy and report this. That way if anything comes up about it, you will be covered. Remember CYA, always. Let the supervisors be responsible, let it be them that gets in trouble.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Apr 7, 2003

Sounds like a vacation is definately in order. Take care!

Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN · Apr 7, 2003

Things are so different now. CNAs are abusive to the pts and the nurses. Mgmt doen nothing and the residents suffer for it.

I left LTC, never to go back. Give LTC everything you've got and all you will end up with is a ruined back and a broken spirit.