Another Day Another Cut

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

I'm working as a 'consultant' at a medium sized SNF. Three distinct units...dementia unit with 40 residents, long term unit with 38 residents and a short term floor with 30 residents.

New PPDs came out which gives us two (2) CNAs for the long term and short term floor and 3, maybe, for the dementia unit. We are all stressed and stretched to the breaking point. The social worker has been giving bed baths (not legal in this state) and the activities people who have no additional training have been feeding people.

We are all afraid there is going to be a very bad outcome. I've told most of the alert residents on my floor to go to the resident council meeting and complain loudly. I am at the point where I might call the DPH myself if I thought it would do any good.

I'm lucky...I'm hired help and can leave at any time and go on to the next gig. But the staff there is stuck and none of us know what to do to make it better. I have been very honest with the residents...no, Mabel, you can't have 2 showers a week because I have 2 aids on 7-3 and 3-11 and they barely have enough time to the basic care.

I am constantly getting spoken to because the assessments aren't done in a timely manner. Hmmm...should I sit at the desk doing paper work or be out on the unit helping with the 9 hoyer lift patients who need to get out of bed?

I am about done. I fear for the elderly in our care. Politicians don't seem to give a rat's behind and are pandering to the stupid college students who have a degree in women's studies and can't find a job and want the government to pay their student loans....

[amoLucia]

Any possibility of mustering help through family members?

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

I’m telling the residents to attend the resident council meeting to voice their concerns. We don’t have a family council but there is a family meeting scheduled.

[amoLucia]

I worked a facility that had a designated dementia-type unit. The families became all very close over time. Whenever they felt something was amiss (not only for their own family, but other pts on the unit) the word would go out and they went to Administration paired up or in group.

They were freq able to effect change. And they were quite quick to notify DOH also.

They were small but they were mighty.

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

There was enough of a backlash and apparently enough emails sent to corporate that they upped the staffing to 3 CNAs. My census is 30..so each CNA has 10. On the dementia unit, the census is 40...do the math. Still not enough but better than last week.

[bryanleo9]

The constant understaffing and cutting corners continues to put our elderly at risk. These atrocities should be on the news. The public doesn't see the inside story that we live /lived.

[bryanleo9]

Inmates filed lawsuits to get changes to their medical system. I have worked both and the elderly are treated far worse than criminals in this country. That needs to change.

[mander]

Yikes, we have at least 4 CNAs on days for 40ish residents, 3 on evenings, and 1 on nights. That's minimum before the DON and I are called in...

[litbitblack, ASN, RN]

isnt there minimum staffing requirement for the dementia unit if its certified dementia care?

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

It’s not a certified unit.