CNA job to demanding?

[cassieann20]

First off becoming a CNA I knew it was going to be lots of hard work! I know its no walk in the park. I have been working at my assisted living for about 9 months. Don't get me wrong I love my residents I love doing resident care. They put a smile on my face every morning even when I feel burnt out from working and going to school full time. This is not the main problem. Also keep in mind the "assisted living" is more like nursing home care level and there is 3 cnas for 55 residents. As a CNA I run the dinning room, this consist of doing ALL the dishes, serving residents, taking orders, and resetting the dinning room for lunch. This is no easy task well we are also expected to do all the laundry, fold and return it. Also we run some of the activities exspecially on weekends. All the cnas feel like we can not give the best care due to the several other tasks that are put upon us. I can not tell you how many times I here "can you just slow down" and I want to tell the residents no I can not or things will not get done! Another problem is we get done with lunch around 1 then I need to take all my residents to the med room, toilet them, return laundry, collect ALL the garbage, and write down the location of all the residents within an hour. Also upper management tends to favor the second shift so we are expected to clear all the dishes and clean the tables. All this by 2 oclock before its time to clock out. It is no easy task and I have to make my residents wait because if I do not my director will come yell at me. For example today I got told I cant sit down ( it was 1:55) I forgot a few dishes at the table. I just feel like this is not fair to cnas and definitely not to the residents who pay upwards to 10,000$ a month. Since the mangments within my location will not do anything im not sure what would be the right thing to do to correct the problem? Corporate perhaps.

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

It sounds like this facility has serious staffing issues, especially if the residents really are at a skilled nursing level. 3:55 CNA ratio is bad, 1:55 is horrible. Call outs are no excuse either, your facility has an obligation to have a back up plan.

Assisted Living Facilities accepting skilled residents just to keep census up is a major problem in that field. IMHO, if an ALF accepts skilled residents, then they should staff to skilled nursing standards. This means a licensed nurse on duty 24/7 and more appropriate CNA:resident ratios.