Ct Senator Rob Kane assessing facilities

[philippians4:13]

If anyone has acess to the Voices News, which is the newspaper for Woodbury, Southbury,Middlebury,Oxford,Seymour,Bethlehem,Preston,Washington,Roxbury,Bridgewater,Monroe,Sandy Hook and Newtown Ct you will see on page 31 that Senator Rob Kane has gone to the Lutheran Home Convalescent home for a meeting with the leaders of elder care organizations which included the alzheimers association,The not for profit providers of aging and several other board members of the Lutheran home. Your letters to the senator make a difference. I started writing just before the election and he wasted no time checking out the concerns we as CNAs have about ratios in the facilities. I am curious to hear what he has to say about this. As soon as I hear from his legal aid I will post it. I am hopeful that he will take this concern to heart and make some changes. His office knows about this thread so if theirs anything you would like to post about the ratios for nursing homes please do so. The more insight he has to this problem the better. Let him know how the ratios affect you personally at work and the residents by either your own personal experiences or by what you have witnessed with other CNAs. This is not about ratting on anyone. Its about getting to the root of this problem and finding solutions to make patient care safer and more thorough as well as protecting yourselves from job burnout and injury, so please no names. Thanks Dee

[fuzzywuzzy, CNA]

Thank you for working towards better ratios, and letting us know about it here! I'm a CT resident, working in a LTC facility, and I have to say that I feel guilty every day about all the little things I don't have time for because I'm so rushed.

I'm always so busy toileting, doing HS care, mealtimes, and rounds. Those are the priorities. GOOD oral care, nail care, repositioning and other comfort measures, skin monitoring, encouraging fluids, and simply spending time with residents take a backseat. We have to give showers in a hurry because we never have shower aides. Who wants to be thrown in the shower, quickly covered in soap and rinsed off immediately, and then dried at light speed?

One thing that really bothers me is not having the time to walk people frequently. We constantly have to tell people on alarms to sit down. Such a minimal level of exercise is SO, SO bad for their health! If they don't use it, they lose it. Then the decreased ability leads to even less exercise... the bowels slow down, the skin integrity is compromised, muscle and bone mass are lost, behaviors are increased, the cardiovascular and immune systems suffer, the resident is less able to perform ADLs, etc. But when you have 6 people ringing to go to the bathroom at the same time at any given moment and only 2 other CNAs, you have to tell the resident who keeps standing up to please sit down.

[philippians4:13]

Thanks for taking the time to write. We have a voice whereas these residents do not. Thank you for speaking up. Dee