Challenging Residents

So I am an experienced Licensed Nursing Home Administrator who wanted to go the Nursing route. I got my BSN and my first job is a Sub Acute Unit in a Skilled Nursing facility. Hooray!

Now I can smooze with the best of them but I find some residents really challenging. Some residents want to be waited on, hand and foot even though they can "do for them self". My nursing beliefs are if you can do it you should so you do not loose mobility and or mental functioning. It is not because I want to be lazy I just want the best for my residents. In fact I think it takes longer to have the resident do for themself than just do it for them.

If a resident asks me to push them down the hall and I know they are able to ambulate with their feet and hands I tell them they need to push themself I explain the benefits of doing it themselves.

I do not answer resident phones in their room, this includes cell phones. This has always been a policy of mine.

I experienced a resident on the phone talking and I had a wound dressing to change. I told the resident I would be back soon. I came back 10 mins later, the resident was still on the cell phone. I came back 20 mins later...still on cell. I came back approx 2 hours later to change the dressing. The resident was angry they had to wait. I informed the resident that I have other responsibilities and I did come back 3 times and those times "you raised your hand to me letting me know you were not ready". The resident stated " You should know when I will be ready". I told the resident I came back several times to assist them and I am not a mind reader. We came up with a period of time that would fit their schedule for me to perform dressing changes. (I just think it is a control issue with some residents). This seems to work but the resident is now decreasing their need requests with me and waits until the next shift to get what they want.

What if any "boundaries" do geriatric sub acute nurses have or am I just being too mean? I hope not.


Thanks for any input you all have.
Neats