CNA's doing laundry on the night shift

Nurses General Nursing

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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?

Specializes in Med-Surg /Cardiac Step-Down/CICU/CTICU.

i think that it's totally absurd. i still work per diem as a supervisor from time to time in a facility where i worked as an aide. anyways...the night shift should collect the laundry...yes. but how can they adequately care for the residents and maintain safety of the unit when they are washing laundry. i'm guessing no union. i know that during the day where i work the aides do take turns rotating through the day room with recreation to help out for 30 min at a time but they don't just stay there. i find both of the situations to be a safety issue, and a issue with the level of care. if they are hired to provide direct care, then thats what they should be doing. laying in a wet diaper or having a patient sustain an injury b/c they were doing laundry or an activity is just setting themselves up for the dept of health to have a field day. well just hope it doesnt continue for much longer. hang in there !

When I was a CNA we did laundry on our own because the day and PM shifts never left us sufficient linen. That was the only way we had any linen, much less sufficient linen, to make it through the shift. Management told us to stop doing it when one of the driers malfunctioned and a fire started one night. Not long afterward, we were back to doing it again. I think that CNAs on dayshift have too much to do as it is without adding any further duties to their workload. Just more tasks to go undone and shift the blame for.

On night shift we have to take the giant laundry cart down to the basement and put the clothes in one bin and the linens in another. We don't wash linens though. There are washers and dryers on the units for patients to do their own laundry and sometimes we'll end up doing it for them if they are too hurt or confused.

I think it's ok for us to be involved with the laundry where I work since it's a psych hospital and we need to demonstrate/encourage it for some of the patients who aren't all that great with hygiene or chores. But I think it's ridiculous for CNAs to be doing laundry at a regular hospital with very physically ill people. That's just too much work!

When I worked at an m/r institution, we did laundry all night. We checked on our patients, turned, changed diapersn and went back to laundry. I am a nurse now and I always respect and help my cna's.

I would be banned from doing laundry once they see all their purty white sheets are a now a nice shade of red :smokin:

Specializes in LTC, Home Health, Hospice.

Added duties of Laundry....are they absurd? Regardless of the shift we work, I don't think that we should be doing laundry.

I choose to do laundry at my LTC/SNF, because there was never enough laundry for us in the NOC shift, but let me tell you, when your tired and the SD comes in and asks why your a pain in the butt, you tell them, then you get to speak to the Admin...changes happen. I did not sign up to do laundry on any shift,

If cuts need to be taken, then they need to cut from the Head down, rather from the down up...Why is it that Nursing is ALWAYS the first to get added responsibilities and cuts, while Admin get cushy cool offices?

sorry for the vent...

just my two cents worth!

We do ALL the laundry at our facility. Including linens and personals. Budget cuts :uhoh3:

annacnatorn.....If cuts need to be taken, then they need to cut from the Head down, rather from the down up...

This is something worth exploring.

By law you must have a licensed Administrator. By law you must have a DON. Each department must have a Head to balence the budget for each department. Nursing must have licensed and certified workers to sign legal documents. these are all required by Federal and State law. Please advise how cutting from the top could be done; thanks

Specializes in LTC, Home Health, Hospice.
annacnatorn.....If cuts need to be taken, then they need to cut from the Head down, rather from the down up...

This is something worth exploring.

By law you must have a licensed Administrator. By law you must have a DON. Each department must have a Head to balence the budget for each department. Nursing must have licensed and certified workers to sign legal documents. these are all required by Federal and State law. Please advise how cutting from the top could be done; thanks

I know that their are rules/regs. But you never ever hear of an ADON or DON or Admin, etc getting a cut in pay or hours... Instead they cut the little people, the ones who work the hardest. I firmly believe that if the "lower" can get a pay cut, so can the Higher end...we all have bills, families, lives. It should be spread around, evenly, not concentrated on the "lower end". If I get a 10% cut in hours/pay..so should the others...seem fair? I think so.:):redbeathe

Sounds like pure insanity to me...

Specializes in ER.

Wouldn't it be cheaper to hire a laundry person, and send her to help in the kitchen or on the floors between loads? Sheesh.

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