A message to a Adevntist Health System Hospital who doesn't care about staffing

[NTechTruth]

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) :)

[OCNRN63, RN]

Don't you think we do that? Almost every time I'm at work, people complain and no one listens. I even had a two hour meeting not to long ago and the same issues were being discussed, and no one is listening. Look I don't plan on being in nursing for long and when I leave, good riddance to them. I was only venting and that's good enough for me. That's all I'm gonna say.

Well, since you're not invested in nursing, and being a CNA is nothing but a pit stop for you, I doubt you're going to be taken seriously not just here, but by your managers as well.

[NTechTruth]

Well, since you're not invested in nursing, and being a CNA is nothing but a pit stop for you, I doubt you're going to be taken seriously not just here, but by your managers as well.

Thanks for your kind words :)

[iheartsephora1]

I see how you could feel the way you do, OP. I had a prior career in IT before I decided I wanted to go into Nursing. It has been worse than a slap in the face. I've been a CNA since last July, so less than a year, and it has already burned me out. I just recently decided to return to my old job that pays more than a living wage and where I was treated like a human being. Grass isn't always greener on the other side. I do appreciate these horrible experiences I've had, though. They have made me realize how very much I love IT, and how that's where I need to stay. I'm sorry you're having a hard time. Maybe Nursing isn't for you, it just doesn't work for everyone. No harm in saying you tried. I hope things get better for you. Good luck.

[NTechTruth]

Thanks for all the kind words people :)

[canigraduate]

I'm usually the one calling out the OP, but this time you get my sympathy.

The way you're going about it is all wrong, but you definitely have the right to complain.

I was working a geriatric med surg floor with 32 beds. There were two CNAs to start with, me and another girl, but it went down to just me when we had a suicide patient admitted with no sitter.

It was a day from hell. We had a patient fall, too. And with the geriatric population, you get a lot of total cares. We were also short nurses that day, so I didn't get much help. I didn't answer any call lights, I just ran in and out of rooms, checking briefs and making sure the feeders got at least a couple of bites. I had to do the total cares on my own. I was lucky I didn't hurt my back.

And no one was allowed to get up to the bathroom that day. It was bedpans and briefs only, 'cause I couldn't stay with one person for 10-15 minutes. There were too many bed alarms.

I felt so bad about throwing people back in the bed, but there was no other way to keep everyone as safe as possible. I'd throw one patient back in bed, run back to the patient on the bedpan, run to another bed alarm, run to the next brief change.

It sucked sideways. I pitched a fit to the manager and house supe, and luckily it never happened again.

Anyway, I feel your pain. But the drama needs to go.

Take your complaint up the ladder. Go through the correct channels. Do some research and bring evidence based articles to the table that show patient satisfaction and reimbursement go up when there are better staffing levels.

Just throwing your hands in the air and saying "no one listens, no one cares" doesn't do anything for you or the patients.

[NTechTruth]

First off, I'm sorry for that rough night. And thanks. I do appreciate the kind words.

The main reason why I wrote this post was to inform that this happens WAY too often. Where I work at, the situation is being overlooked. Too many times, a CNA is on a floor by themselves, and it's too much. A few times I understand. But happening frequently is another problem.

Trust me, I hear stories that people do complain, and nothing is being done. I even knew someone who wrote a note to the manager after she had to take care of a step down unit all by herself. Last I heard, she told me that the manager didn't do anything.

They don't do anything. And that's the problem. The more it happens, the worse it gets.

I wasn't being a "drama" queen lol. But this was personal, and it still is. Especially because I understood how people felt when they have a whole floor on their hands. It sucks. And what was worse was that no one cared enough to bring someone else in.

Not long ago, there was a meeting for two hours on the floor where I worked at, asking us how to make better changes. You see, our survey scores were bombed, which meant it was THAT bad. We discussed what the problems were, and what needed to be changed. You know what I did?

I laughed. Throughout the whole thing. The things they were talking about were the same things that needed to be fixed. And you know what? No one does anything about it..

I had a good co worker who was there for five years. When I started, he complained about some things including what I talked about,and didn't understand why they would continue to do it like this. So, he had a tech meeting. A TECH meeting. Where all the techs would go to the MANAGER to discuss the problems. I wasn't there, but I know that having a whole floor was a big issue when going to another floor. He tried some more, but no one cared. So, he left. What more could he do? He realized the same thing I am realizing right now.

Certain people don't care about what it means to be in healthcare anymore. It's all cooperate, and it's all about money.

So yeah, I don't take the complaints up higher. Wanna know why? Because the problem will never be solved. People will come up with excuses that I can't argue with. Plus, it's a waste of my time and breath.

Alias, I will still do my job, I will still give great care, and when that day comes, I will just say no. It has been a great experience, but there's worse things in life than loosing a job. I will find another one eventually, and I know it will be hard.

Believe me, I completely agree with you. But someone can only go so far. Soon, there's no point in fighting anymore. I just wanted to vent. At least that's something.

Take care. :)