Ugh, I'm glad I don't have to work with our NM on a daily basis - I only work weekends so I deal mostly with nursing supervisors who for the most part are understanding, helpful, nice, patient, etc.
We had a CNA meeting this week. Basically, the meeting was worthless as most of it was common sense: too many personal calls, cell phones in pockets being answered in pt rooms, speaking too loudly, etc. I'm not one to sit idly by though.
This one really frosts my crack - she said that weekend aides weren't passing out washcloths before breakfast. Now, if I have time I will do it. It gives me a chance to get them up in a chair, change their linens, introduce myself, etc. But on weekends since we are not considered a shift (per managers words) we work with a skeleton crew. For 28 patients, we had 2 aides and 4 nurses. You do the math. When I explained this to the manager she was aghast. As if I had slaughtered my first born child. I told her that I typically have 10-14 pts plus float to ICU to help with their baths and there just isn't time in those 90 minutes before breakfast to get washcloths.
During the week they have no more than 5 pt's, aides and nurses. When hell freezes over and a weekday aide comes in on the weekend they vow never to return. They find the conditions horrific (which they are) but even when it was slow and we had 7 pt's a piece on weekends they still complained that was too many. I told her also that weekend option staff is the only staff on the weekends. NO one from the weekdays are staffed on weekends. Ok, maybe 3 times a year.
We went around and around. She just didn't get it that answering call lights, chasing after jumpers, answering phones (secretary doesn't come in until 0715, my shift begins at 0630), doing weights, accuchecks, and charting those were more important IMO.
She said washcloths were extremely important. So are daily weights, chasing jumpers, answering phones and call lights, etc.
I even had the weekend nursing supervisor who understands the aides plight tell me one day as I'm sweating bullets, heart racing, face beet red that per the NM who had called that I need to make sure that all pt rooms are stocked, clean, and pt's have had their baths. DUH! I do my absolute best to get everyone bathed, shaved, shampooed, ambulated, etc that I can in 12 hours. I love the nursing supervisor for the weekends - she will help me pass meal trays, turn pt's, etc while the nurses sit and read the paper and go smoke. It's just never good enough. Patients love me and tell me so, nurses compliment me on my work ethic but yet that yearly evaluation always ends up with "needs to work more on the little things like handing out washcloths". Sheesh, that's all that's on their minds!
And yeah, I'm still looking for a new job. Sheesh, to be yelled at in a room full of my peers for not passing washcloths when I don't even have time to breathe. Of course, this is the same one that famously told me "I don't know how to do pt care".
And I'm so sick of the charge nurse treating me like a lazy bum because I go to the bathroom often - hey, I have crohn's. When I gotta go, I gotta go. If she sees me coming out of the bathroom after spending 5 mins in there she gets a snotty attitude.
