CNA's doing laundry on the night shift

[BackfromRetirement]

I work in a LTC/Rehab facility undergoing budget cuts. They cut back the hours of the laundry personnel, the kitchen personnel, and are now requiring that the CNA's on night shift do laundry as well as take a patient load assignment.

This morning the dayshift CNA's were told that they would be doing hours in the activities department as well as their assigned patient loads.

Is this a local, regional, or nation-wide trend? Your thoughts/experiences?

[BackfromRetirement]

Kitchen is closed at night.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Kitchen is closed at night.

Is the laundry room closed during the day?

Seriously- you could get someone to do laundry for minimum wage, or not much more. I imagine CNA's are more expensive, they certainly have more skills, and are needed on the units. If you are adding a couple hours of laundry to their to-do list every night are you saying that for the last few years you have staffed so well that they had 2 hours of down time, and you were just paying them for that time out of generosity? If not, are you adding to your CNA staff?

[Jess84]

Okay, I was googling and I found this post. I am an LPN and even I have to do laundry on nightshift. I too think this is absurd (I don't even like doing my own laundry) and this is one of the reasons I am looking for a new job. My ALF is always looking for ways to cut $ at our expense.