Letter To A Resident

[nur20]

I TAKE NO CREDIT FOR THIS WRITING. IT WAS WRITTEN BY A CNA. Dear

Resident,

Good morning! It's 6:00 am. I'm going to get you out of bed now. I know you're tired and would like to sleep a little more, but once you're in your wheelchair, you can slump over and catch a few more winks. Just lay your head against the wall like you did yesterday. I would like to give you a good bed bath, but I'm only going to wipe over your face, hands, and butt since I've got twelve more people to get to in the next hour. I'll help you roll over in bed a couple of times and I'll have your diaper on you. Use is wisely! It probably won't get changed until you lay down after lunch. Then I'll get you dressed. This is a nice outfit. It's too bad it will be caked with food and stained with urine and feces by the end of the day. Next I am going to help you up. I know I should have help, but I'm the only one here so far. Sorry if I am rough lifting you. I'll put you in your good-old, trusty wheelchair. Your arm rest still isn't fixed? No problem, I'll just tape your towel I didn't use to it. Your hair won't seem to cooperate today, so we'll just leave it. Where are your shoes? Oh well, you can't walk anyway. Soon it's out to the hallway with you. I'll come and get you when its time for breakfast. I'd love to sit and chat, but I have so many more just like you to help. We have plenty of people who work here, but they can't schedule too many for one shift. Don't you realize it's all about money. You don't matter as an individual. You just help pay the bills around here. It's my job to keep you looking mostly human so others will come to live here. This is what your life has amounted to. I hope it's what you expected. I've got to go now. Have a nice day. Sincerely. PLEASE VISIT MY WEBSITE

[hoolahan, ASN, RN]

I wish I could find something not true in this letter, but it is an honest description of what I have seen. How sad for our elderly. And how sad for the CNA's who wish they could do more.

It is sad, but I heard somewhere that LTC facilities are staffed to allow a little more than one total hour of care in a 24 hour period per resident. Who decides this stuff? They should be the resident in this letter!

[aimeee, BSN, RN]

I would hope it isn't THAT low but here's what I know. I used to work on a ward with an average census of 48 patients. If we had 6 CENAs for pm shift we were fortunate, 5 was more typical, and frequently they had to work short with only 4. It never happened on my shift, but there were times when they had only 3. Now do the math, on a good day 6 x 8 is 48 hours of patient care for 48 patients. So, every two hours they each get 15 minutes of care. Its a sad reality.

[prn nurse]

I read an article that said the average nurse spends less than 45 minutes with each patient per 12 hour shift.....the study included med-surg, telemetry, and ICU units...The average was listed as 32 minutes total time...that included assessments, time spent giving meds, hanging ivpb's, all patient care. It said the majority of time a nurse spends on her job is in documentation...and then , checking charts & meds & orders, conferences with doctors & other auxillary personnel, telephoning labs & pharmacy....etc. I thought that was amazing, but after observing for a long while, I have seen it...nurses who did not spend more than 30 minutes in the patients' room in 12 hours.

[CEN35]

all too true............

all to sad.......

hope i die........before i hit that stage of my life........