CNAS, what's it like at your nursing home/long term care facility?

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I'm getting really burned out with a lot of things going on in the facility I work in. Way too many things to name. What's it like where you work in terms of call-ins, scheduling, lazy cnas, mean residents, cold DONs, favoritism, work load, etc. ?

"Shiny halo'd" hospital worker here! I was definitely disillusioned with my title when I realized that PCT only meant more work in addition to patient care. However, I don't dislike my job. I suffer from the same complaints as all of you and working in a hospital seems to exasperate the problems. So many different agendas!

Mmhmm, that's what I was getting at! :) Probably half of the people who post here seem to think that all their work related problems would be solved if they could just get out of their LTC and into a hospital, and all of the new potential aides "want to work at a hospital, not an LTC!!!!!". I worked at a hospital, too, and many of the problems are the same, or are different but equally as tiresome. Glad I'm not the only one who felt like that.

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Some correct me if I'm wrong.....but part of the headache for a CNA working in a hospital is the paperwork that is required in addition to patient care. I guess it's a throwback to the time when that's all I did, because I don't mind paperwork and documentation even if it's tedious. I am searching for hospital jobs in this area, not because I don't like LTC facilities, but because I'd like to try that kind of work for a while and the starting pay working in a hospital will certainly be more than what I'm making. I also enjoy the atmosphere of hospitals as well.

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I can't speak for everyone, but I had about equal amounts of charting to do at the hospital as I do in LTC. In fact, I had a lot more paperwork to do at one LTC than I ever did at the hospital.

The headaches for me at the hospital were: understaffing, egotistical/rude doctors who treated me like a lump of crap on the floor, overworked hateful nurses treating me like a lump of crap left on the floor, combative patients coming out of anesthesia, entitled patients who aren't used to being in the hospital and view you as their servants, lazy coworkers who hide from the copious call lights, getting floated to floors I was not familiar with because everyone else would throw a fit if they had to go, drug seeking patients, confused patients who needed 1 on 1 care but weren't getting it, patients who felt that their small wound was more crucial than the patient who was coding down the hall, etc. etc. etc.

I also made $2 less at the hospital than I did in the LTC I worked at before it. It just wasn't for me.

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Specializes in Float.
Some correct me if I'm wrong.....but part of the headache for a CNA working in a hospital is the paperwork that is required in addition to patient care. I guess it's a throwback to the time when that's all I did, because I don't mind paperwork and documentation even if it's tedious. I am searching for hospital jobs in this area, not because I don't like LTC facilities, but because I'd like to try that kind of work for a while and the starting pay working in a hospital will certainly be more than what I'm making. I also enjoy the atmosphere of hospitals as well.

I don't do paperwork besides writing vitals', accuchecks' and 1:1 observation sheets. They have unit clerks for paperwork. When I mentioned 'in addition to' patient care, I was talking about the EKG's, phlebotomy, blood sugars and all day running that makes up the title of a Patient Care Technician. Technician is the operative word. We are trained to do all the technical skills that doesn't require a license. Like applying intermittent pneumatic compression boots, changing suction canisters, spirometry therapy, limited dressing changes, enemas, attaching and setting up tele-moniters, etc. Yes, the pay is higher and if you sign on with a union, that's even better.

You will also find the same small minded crap occurring in hospitals that occurs in LTC. I see it every day. Yes sir, from housekeeping, through nursing to the Dr's. This past week I worked a floor where there was a direct admit pt. from a nursing home. The pt. came in to have a procedure however, the procedure was postponed due to the pt. having a fever. The NP working on the case raised hell about it for the rest of the day. After the NP spoke to the pt's nurse at the facility, the NP went on to tell anyone who would listen that if the pt had had their temp taken that morning, they would not have transferred the pt to our hospital at all. Now the pt was unable to be transferred until stabilized.

The NP then went about reporting this pt's nurse to everyone, from management to Dr's. advocating for someone to call the nursing home and report the nurse to their manager. I mean, every time I walked past the nursing station the NP was going on and on and on and on. It reminded me of a first grade class where the teacher's pet is pointing the finger and screaming, ooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!:uhoh3:

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Specializes in Psychiatry, corrections, long-term care..
After the NP spoke to the pt's nurse at the facility, the NP went on to tell anyone who would listen that if the pt had had their temp taken that morning, they would not have transferred the pt to our hospital at all. Now the pt was unable to be transferred until stabilized.

Unprofessional...? Geez.

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Specializes in Geriatrics/Rehabilitation.

I love my job as a CNA. People are really lazy and I dont like that but I see it as, I will be on top one day and they will be the ones cleaning poo out of the shower... I think if you all are having this much problems with your facility, maybe it is time to trade jobs, or at least facilities. It is a hard work load but if you look at it as if it were your parents its not too bad. Just my opinion.

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Specializes in LTC.

I just started my job, and already been there for a week. I work twelves on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Let's see.... on the weekends I'am completely ignored by all of my coworkers while they speak their language among themselves. I get attitude when I ask questions from another CNA. She has major attitude in the mornings which I tend to ignore, and has even snapped at me in a residents room.:rolleyes: On Monday's, the other group of CNA's are more helpful. I feel like I can ask them anything. But again I'm the new girl, and everyone knows it. So they left me out on the floor, and all of them took their lunch break.

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I love my job as a CNA. People are really lazy and I dont like that but I see it as, I will be on top one day and they will be the ones cleaning poo out of the shower... I think if you all are having this much problems with your facility, maybe it is time to trade jobs, or at least facilities. It is a hard work load but if you look at it as if it were your parents its not too bad. Just my opinion.

If everyone traded jobs or facilities when things were bad, who would be left to do the work? And how would anything ever improve?

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Specializes in CNA/ ALF & Hospital.
I'm getting really burned out with a lot of things going on in the facility I work in. Way too many things to name. What's it like where you work in terms of call-ins, scheduling, lazy cnas, mean residents, cold DONs, favoritism, work load, etc. ?

I have done my share of Assisted Living for about at least 6 yr. but I miss and wanna go back to working on a med/surg floor in a hospital, I feel I get more of a challenge and I love to challenge myself so that I can learn and do more. I learn better by doing and not reading on how to do it.

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I see a lot of CNAs on here going on about how lazy or incompetent other CNAs are. I think this finger pointing and backstabbing is part of the reason being a CNA in a LTC is such a horrible job. Where I work we are seriously overworked and understaffed, but rather than acknowledge this, the CNAs just point fingers at each other and say its all THEIR fault. In the end the residents end up suffering, because systemic and management problems go unaddressed because everything is blamed on the CNAs themselves.

This is not to say that there arent lazy or incompetent CNAs, but where I work anyway even the laziest CNAs work a lot harder than people at most jobs do, I know, Ive done a lot of other jobs in my life. Part of the reason working conditions for CNAs are so horrible is the finger pointing and the attitude that any time a patient falls or something bad happens its the CNAs fault, rather than the circumstances they are working in. We have had bad things happen to residents such as falls, and a CNA is blamed and fired, only to have the same thing happen again with another CNA, who is then fired, and then another CNA. At what point do people wake up and say gee, maybe the REASON these things happen is because you are forcing people to do too much work and not giving them the time to do things properly? I completely blame the CNAs who have worked there a long time for the situation getting as bad as it is, as they the ones that never speak up to management unless its to blame another CNA.

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When the aides I work with have time to take four or five breaks and spend the last hour of their shift sitting in rooms and talking, while their residents are soaking wet and have not been repositioned in hours, the problem is not the system. It simply is laziness.

When an aide changes a wet brief and doesn't wipe the resident, despite the fact that there is a pack of wipes sitting a foot away, that is laziness. And when that resident gets skin breakdown from having urine on their skin all day every day, that is the fault of the CNA.

Don't get me wrong, we DO have heavy resident loads at my facility. We have 12-15 each, and they are 100 percent total care. But, if some of my fellow aides have hours of free time to sit and chat and text, that has little to do with the staffing. On the rare days when we have extra staff and only 8 or so residents apiece, you can still go into some of these aides' rooms and see that their residents haven't been washed, had their teeth brushed, or changed.

And, these are the aides I complain about on here. And I will continue to complain about them, because there is no excuse for it.

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Specializes in LTC.

I agree that the laziest CNAs still work hard. But can you fault a CNA for pointing fingers when the fit hits the shan? One of the first things you learn is to CYA. And going to management under more favorable circumstances saying, "Gee, it would be great if we had better staffing; it might even cut down on falls" is like putting a target on your back.

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