Hi! Today I'm going to praise my hospital for caring about us and expecting us to give great quality care with little of as staff as possible! In fact, I have a story to share. It was a great experience! Enjoy!
It was on a Sunday, and I came in early as usual. I find out that I'm going to another floor, which is typical, since I float a lot. I clock in, and go to the floor. When I arrive, to my surprise, I found out that I was the only CNA on the floor. To be honest, at first, I didn't think much of it, seeming that it was the weekend and it wouldn't be that bad. Plus, the nurses helped with the blood sugars and all I had to do was to take vitals. Simple, right?
32 patients seemed like a good challenge, since I never had that much before, right?
It was one of the worst experiences I ever had in my life. All day, running around, doing the best I could, but it wasn't enough. Even with the nurses who helped, it still wasn't enough. Here's all the bad things that went wrong that should never happen but it still does, due to supervisors not caring about safety and quality patient care.
1. I didn't have enough time to introduce myself to all the patients. I basically had to go in, say my name, take vitals, and leave. I felt bad, as some patients were cool, but I had to tell them that I had no time to talk because I was the only person on the floor.
2. Five plus more feeders. I didn't have time to feed everyone. How could I? And some of these patients required close supervision, but no. I couldn't do it. Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner, not to mention charting all the meals made it more rough.
3. Too many incontinent people. Yes. That what was what I basically doing most of the day. I didn't even give anyone a bath. I had to go those rooms to people who needed to be changed. Yeah, the nurses helped, but it wasn't enough. Oh, and I only did one bath because a nurse forced me to help her out. I didn't have time to give anyone a bath.
4. I had a FALL! It was a confused patient who I had to go check on frequently. He had a bed alarm, but still kept trying to get up. How great is that?
5. I didn't pass out waters. How could I? The secretary helped, but asked me "Is there a reason why you didn't pass any water?" Did I really have to ask? Did she not see what I had to do for 12 hours?
6. Another admission. With 32 patients, they decide to bring another one in! And guess what? I didn't bother taking vitals or introducing myself. How could I? I had no time.
7. And with all that time, no one bothered to bring in someone else to help. They just left me there to take care of 33 patients.
After that day, I just imagine what other cnas have to go through with a whole floor on their hands.....
Dear AVHS Hospital,
I really appreciate the fact that you just give us CNAs a whole floor in it's entirety, and not basically doing anything about it. I also appreciate the fact that you give us no appreciation, no recognition for working our tails off to give the best care we can possibly give, and you still expect us to do it with smiles on our faces. I also love the fact that we have managers and supervisors who know the situation all to well, and they don't address it to the higher ups. They just ignore it and tell us to deal with it. They don't care what we have to go through when it happens, especially with the increase on heavy patients recently. What if something happens? Remember, you got people, especially elders who are CNAs who can only do so much. They aren't strong. They can't do as much. Oh, here's my favorite part. There's nurses that refuse to help even if there is one CNA on the floor. They still expect us to do our jobs with no help, and I get that. They don't want to help because they feel they are too go and that they don't need to do anything. Plus, nine times out if ten, they use " I have a degree" card and it works. They get away with it so much! :) So here's the question, why should I give the same care to every single patient? We all know it's impossible, but you have managers and directors who doesn't care about us and expect us to do our jobs. We scream, we yell, we plead, we give our honest opinions, and you tell us not to be afraid to speak out minds, but when we do we get written up for it!
So, here's what i'm going to do. If that ever happens to me again, I will refuse. I will not put my license on the line for a whole floor, I will not over work myself for the same pay, and most importantly, I will not give bad care to people who don't deserve it. If you want to fire me, so be it. It's one more person who you will loose. Sure, you will hire more people, but soon they will realize the truth and bail out. Isn't that why there is so much short staffing? Isn't that why people call off so much?
Maybe a certain amount of people (Nursing managers, supervisors, higher ups of the hospital), need to take a good deep look inside, and see if they are really doing the right thing. If not, maybe you need to change not just for us, but for the sake of giving great quality care. But no, all you care about is money, and barking orders. All this is to you is another cna prick who doesn't have a degree and doesn't know any better. Fine. You are no better than people who walk out and quit. What more can I say, right? Besides, one day I'll find a better place that actually cares about everyone. Until now, I'm stuck with you guys until I refuse to work on a whole floor by myself.
God Bless! (kisses) :)
NTechTruth
57 Posts
We all do. We all took an oath to take care of people, no matter how educated or not we are.