Difficult resident and charged nurse

[mineSgold]

Hello my Fellow CNA, how do you deal with difficult resident and difficult nurse? I have this resident suppose to take shower before 9 pm but keep refusing no matter how I try to convinced her. I report it to the nurse and they help me but even them have a hard time of convincing her; but finally the resident agree to take shower at 10 pm which is too late because she supposed to be in bed at that time but I shower her anyway.

The other issue nurse accused me that I did not remove my gloves after done taking care of the resident and use the same dirty gloves to other residents in other room. I always remove my gloves and use a new clean gloves to every resident. while I was walking in the hallway coming towards to other room I wear new clean gloves in advanced; maybe when she saw me she thinks I use the same dirty gloves to other resident;The nurse report me to the supervisor.

I am angry at the nurse I just think I don't deserved any of this thing; the nurse is being unreasonable. Well, I just pray her to the Lord.

By the way I work in agency; perhaps they don't like working with people from agency? I don't understand why.

[OhioTry]

Yes, the nurase probably thought you were wearing dirty gloves because you had them on in the hallway. I wastaught to always glove and de-glove in the resident's room, so you don't carry germs in from the hall.

[mineSgold]

Well,,, if the clean new gloves I wear in the hallway is considered dirty already; I supposed we CNA are also dirty ourselves since we came from dirty resident room even though we took gloves off in the resident room. this is the same logic. Doesn't make sense to me

.

[SerenityKris]

In my nursing school we were taught never to wear gloves in the hall, period. You put them on in the patient's room and you take them off before you leave. The state auditors will penalize you for anyone wearing gloves in the hall. They assume they are dirty gloves.

[msygrnbw]

Honestly, I think you're just being a bit touchy. In our hospital there is a rule not to wear gloves in the hall. She probably just mistook your new gloves for old ones since you were out in the hall. Your logic about being dirty doesn't make sense - the idea is you go in a room, wash/clean your hands, pull on gloves, and move from there. And YES - as a CNA/NURSE/WHATEVER you are kinda dirty going room to room, but making sure to use new gloves, washing, etc helps decrease germs as we can. I think you're being silly being angry - the nurse was trying to protect the patient, so just explain yourself as you did here to your supervisor and it should be a non-issue. In the future, bring gloves ink, wash your hands, put them on, then help whatever resident's room you are in, deglove, wash, repeat!

[mineSgold]

I always wash my hands before and after and wear clean new gloves to every resident. some of you did not understand my point.

[hp79]

I always wash my hands before and after and wear clean new gloves to every resident. some of you did not understand my point.

So, again... Explain to your supervisor.

[mineSgold]

In my nursing school we were taught never to wear gloves in the hall, period. You put them on in the patient's room and you take them off before you leave. The state auditors will penalize you for anyone wearing gloves in the hall. They assume they are dirty gloves.

The trash can for dirty linen and dirty pads is in the hallway, how can you take off the dirty gloves when leaving the resident room. In this facility you cant leave or put the dirty pads in the trash can resident room.

[Missingyou, CNA]

In every facility where I've worked, we were not allowed to wear gloves (clean or dirty) in the hallway.

As far as dirty linen cans being out in the hallway, we were required to put the dirty items into a plastic bag, deglove, wash hands, then take bag with dirty linens/briefs out of the room to whereever they were disposed of. If the linen/briefs were very dirty, we double bagged them. Washed hands again before caring for the next resident.

If we ever wore gloves in the hallway, we would be immediately written up.

At any rate, as far as how to deal with a difficult nurse. Dont wear gloves in the hallway. If you still don't understand why it doesn't make sense, maybe talking with your D.O.N or a supervisor to clear this up for you would help.

With a difficult resident. I remind myself that they are ill...they are in a nursing home. Sometimes it's the illness that causes them to be "difficult". Don't take it personally. Remember, they can't help it. If you feel they CAN help it, keep in mind that they live in a place where there is little to no control over their life. Again, don't take it personally. Let them have what little control they can. When my resident yells at me for taking too long to get him his snack, I calmly say I'm sorry, and I leave it at that. It doesn't make sense to me or to him to go on and on about how I have 11 others to care for...etc....Simply saying I'm sorry and walking away ends the power struggle that doesn't need to happen.

[msygrnbw]

So, again... Explain to your supervisor.

No one said you didn't use clean gloves. We said wearing gloves in the hall creates the appearance that you may not have. If that's the case, just explain it and it won't be a big deal anymore.

[mineSgold]

I wasn't able to explain well to my supervisor I was very tired that night, I know this shouldn't be a reason. I just know the following morning that I can't return for work there. I guess this served me a lesson. Thank you everyone for the input.

[funtimes]

If you automatically know this resident isn't going to shower until late at night, then try to set up your night around this and prepare for it. As long as they are consistent it shouldn't be a huge problem. A problem is when they suddenly out of the blue have to take their shower NOW, and there's no telling when that time will be.

As for difficult residents, welcome to LTC. You are always going to have them, its pretty much universal in every LTC facility. Stubborn people with dementia, compounded by what may have already been an abrasive or domineering personality even before dementia set in, will eat up a lot of time and cause you a lot of stress. Difficult family are even more of a pain, but its just part of the job, you learn to deal with it.