Team Work??

[GAstudent]

I was wondering if your work preaches team work? Well where I work they do and then when you do it they get mad. I work in LTC and I am a CNA well on the weekends I work third shift and we have four halls with 40-50plus pts per hall. Well at night we only have four CNA's (one per hall), four LPN's and one RN. Well we have to do three dry rounds on third. The first dry round should start at 11( shift change and if the last shift did their round then they should be dry). Anyway if I change and check my hall my myself it takes from 2 hours to 3 hours. So that is like start at 11 finish at 2, Start at 3 finish at 6 well then you have to go and check everyone again because the ones you started at 3 are bound to be wet and you can't get in three rounds alone. Well by 4am my back is killing me and so is the others nurses because of lifting everyone on our own. Well at night we also have to stock all rooms with gloves, stock carts, stock storage room, clean hall, do books, make sure books are up to date on your hall, pass out ensure and do blood sugars. and check the bath rooms (if it is shower day) and stock the shower room for first shift because they can't do it when they have four people (keep in mind that i also work first during the week, so I know that it is not that bad that I couldn't stock it when I got in. Well I never seem to have enough time to finish everything. So the past few weeks me and two other CNA's on two other halls have been sharing halls. We finish three halls in one hour! Because we start at the end of the hall and check the pts and if they are wet we change them while the other two go on and do the next. If we come to a heavy pt then we help out. When we finish then we pass out our ice and do our hall stuff and do the next round and go to lunch and then come back and do out last round and it makes it so much easier. Well here comes the problem if a pt is not wet at 11 and we finish at 12 then we do our next round at 2 finish at 3 and do the last one at 5:30 and finish at 6:30, Well when the LPN's go to give meds they start saying that Ms. Brown is wet and that she has not been changed all night and that we are not changing everyone etc. Well we started writing on the back of the breifs and putting what time it was and when the LPN's would say that they was not changed then we would show them that they was. Well then they say that they don't like us having more free time at night and working together because then the pts are not getting as much attention as they usually do. What is the deal with this. It makes me so mad because we have such an easier time and this helps out our backs etc. What is their deal? What about where you work? They are always saying when you can't change someone by yourself then you need to get help and we decide to and they don't want us to.

[sjoe]

Welcome to the world of nursing.

"Well then they say that they don't like us having more free time at night "

Whatever you do is NEVER right or NEVER enough. Who ever this "they" is, learn to work around, or ignore, them.

[nialloh, RN]

What they really don't like is that they can't speed up their own job and have more free time. If they can't, then it must be bad.

As for the pt's getting poorer care, as a team, you are manhandeling them less and caring for them faster so they can get back to sleep.

Having extra time for yourself is not a bad thing. It helps to keep you sane, and you have extra time and energy for the unforseen.

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

How much attention does the average person want at night???

I don't know about you, but I bet the patients would like more sleep and only the "essential" attention from 11-7.

My favorite night shift issue is requiring a certain amount of baths to be done on nights. Whether the patient is or is not with dementia.

Why can't people let the patients sleep, if stable? And we wonder why the patient is confused and getting day mixed with night after a bit.

[Disablednurse]

Where I live it is a dignity issue to do a bath before 6 am. Team work is better and less costly to the company as it prevents back problems to the staff and fewer skin tears to the resident because of pulling and tugging.

[mattsmom81]

As long as the patients aren't having to wait to get changed and they are being well cared for, and your work is being done, the nurses should not take issue with this. I've always liked working as a team myself..having a lifting buddy is a good thing. :)

[CATHYW]

It sounds to me as though you all are a smart, diligent team of CNAs! If you need/want jobs in N GA, PM me-I might be able to help!

[GAstudent]

I agree. I think that we should do baths at night. I think that it would help out first shift a lot. On first shift we are usually giving baths until 3pm (shift change). I think that it would be nice if we/they could start giving baths and help out each section on first shift. I also agree that I don't want to be woke up that much at night.