Getting over coworkers who don't care

KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN · Jun 22, 2010

If you get any tips, I'd like to know them too..I've been doing this for a year & it still makes me mad when I see crappy nurses,aides,etc..who treat the residents poorly. :(

Intern67 · Jun 22, 2010

I just need some tips on how to not lose my cool when I see this behavior.

Don't get mad. Get even.

The best way to get even is to do your job really well. They hate this more than anything.

While I was in LTC, I reported coworkers (often in writing) for:

- Eating resident food (in one case right off their plate while feeding a patient with dementia.)

- Disappearing off the floor for hours during the shift.

- Falsifying toileting/positioning reports. (Not just fudging, I mean never touching the pt during the shift)

- Hiding their name tags so visitors could not see the name of the person ignoring them.

- Walking *right past* and ignoring a family member who was pleading for her to change her daughter's soiled linens.

- Abusing residents - one lazy, good for nothing CNA would "Get revenge" on residents who needed to be turned by tossing them around. She was fired.

- Telling them right to their face, at the nurse's station, in front of RNs and supervisors to stop shirking their duties.

- I warned one or two that, "I'm not playing. Forget losing your job; I will put you in the newspaper and you will go to jail."

I gave them no mercy. They tried to harass and intimidate me, thinking I would snap or wilt like other new CNAs, but they had no shot. Of course many of them hated me for this, but others loved me.

Eventually, I got a job at a hospital and left. I still volunteer though and try to keep an eye on things. The sad part is that the responsibility for the bad situation lies with management. It would take some effort to get rid of problem employees, but they won't do it. (No, there is no union. They always vote it down. These rouge employees know they are running the place and don't want that to change.)

Anyway, my actions may seem extreme, but it really did make me feel better and I had many residents and staff thank me.

Good luck.

fuzzywuzzy, CNA · Jun 22, 2010

I don't know how to deal with it either. I just get anxious about it and I run around doing everything for everybody.

Sometimes you're short and you have to give shoddy care just so you can actually get to everybody. But at the end of a decent day I often see coworkers standing around talking for 15 minutes while I'm going room to room giving extra drinks, doing nail care or mouth care, etc. There is never "nothing" to do.

It also annoys me when people wash someone up really quickly and throw on anything that was in the front of the closet, along with a pair of sneakers, and they make the bed and leave. A lot of the women have nice clothes, shoes, jewelry, makeup and hair stuff. And many of the residents have their own blankets and stuffed animals to go on their beds. To me, I don't feel finished with a resident until they look pretty and their personal things like quilts are out to see. And for god's sake shave the men! And it bugs me when someone doesn't get toileted more than twice a day. You should be letting them sit on the toilet a few times but if you can't do that at least change them! People wait and wait until someone wets their pants instead of sitting them on a commode. And no one washes the urine off anybody's behinds after incontinence. Again these things aren't always possible to keep up with but at least try.

CrazierThanYou · Jun 26, 2010

I don't know how to deal with it either. I just get anxious about it and I run around doing everything for everybody.
Sometimes you're short and you have to give shoddy care just so you can actually get to everybody. But at the end of a decent day I often see coworkers standing around talking for 15 minutes while I'm going room to room giving extra drinks, doing nail care or mouth care, etc. There is never "nothing" to do.
It also annoys me when people wash someone up really quickly and throw on anything that was in the front of the closet, along with a pair of sneakers, and they make the bed and leave. A lot of the women have nice clothes, shoes, jewelry, makeup and hair stuff. And many of the residents have their own blankets and stuffed animals to go on their beds. To me, I don't feel finished with a resident until they look pretty and their personal things like quilts are out to see. And for god's sake shave the men! And it bugs me when someone doesn't get toileted more than twice a day. You should be letting them sit on the toilet a few times but if you can't do that at least change them! People wait and wait until someone wets their pants instead of sitting them on a commode. And no one washes the urine off anybody's behinds after incontinence. Again these things aren't always possible to keep up with but at least try.

Back when I was first a CNA just out of high school I worked at a local nursing home. Something that I noticed there was that all the residents' tops, shirts, and dresses had all been cut up the back. That way the aides could just put it on them like a hospital gown. It was crazy! Seems like the families would raise heck about that...

CrazierThanYou · Jun 26, 2010

I work with a really slack CNA. I usually come in after her and yesterday when I came in, a demented resident was walking around with diarrhea all down the back of her pants. The other CNA told me she'd been like that for 3 days because the resident refused to change. Funny, because she got changed right away for me.

Sometimes I'll come in and the men will be sitting in a diaper and a t-shirt like giant Baby Hueys. I mean, is it really that hard to put pants or shorts on someone???

fuzzywuzzy, CNA · Jun 26, 2010

Back when I was first a CNA just out of high school I worked at a local nursing home. Something that I noticed there was that all the residents' tops, shirts, and dresses had all been cut up the back. That way the aides could just put it on them like a hospital gown. It was crazy! Seems like the families would raise heck about that...

In my experience it's always the families that do that.

KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN · Jun 28, 2010

I work with a really slack CNA. I usually come in after her and yesterday when I came in, a demented resident was walking around with diarrhea all down the back of her pants. The other CNA told me she'd been like that for 3 days because the resident refused to change. Funny, because she got changed right away for me.
Sometimes I'll come in and the men will be sitting in a diaper and a t-shirt like giant Baby Hueys. I mean, is it really that hard to put pants or shorts on someone???

That's beyond disgusting..that borders on abuse. Does she realize how many microbes are in a gram of feces? And all that is eating away at that poor resident's skin. No wonder there's so many breakdowns & ulcers in nursing homes..because idiots like that are too lazy to change a resident. If they were refusing to be changed by her, why didn't she ask a fellow CNA for help? Maybe the resident would have responded to someone else.

OMG reading stuff like that really p*sses me off!! :devil: :devil: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Shirt · Jun 28, 2010

You can only control what you do.

morte, LPN, LVN · Jun 28, 2010

In my experience it's always the families that do that.

in fact, they can be bought that way.....for ease of care