Help... falsely accused of negligent abuse

[tcarb014, LPN]

Hi all! I need some advice. Bear with me because this is kind of a long story. I've been a cna at a long term care/rehab facility for a year now. Until now, never had a single complaint against me and am generally liked by residents and staff. I came in for my shift on Friday night 6pm to 6am. I had been set up to train a brand new aide. During report, the day aide informed me that a notoriously difficult resident had request care about 20 minutes ago and she had passed it on to the 2 to 10pm aide, who said resident personally requested. That aide had told the day aide she was busy as a way to avoid having to deal with it. I went to resident's room to see if it was something easy I could do quickly. She was already upset when I went in their and gave me a long speech about how she is as important as any other residents and we need to prioritize her care.She acknowledged that I had just come on shift and she wanted the 2 to 10 to come do it. I went to find the 2 to 10 and reminded her that resident wanted care. She basically rolled her eyes at me and walked away. I returned to resident's room and let her know the 2 to 10 was in the middle of something, but would be there asap. She became angry and demanded I drop everything and do her cares right now (which would take about 45 minutes.) I replied that I had a trainee today and asked if I could at least teach her how to get vitals so she could start them. After showing two sets of vitals, the orient responded that she was still not comfortable enough to do vitals, which I totally understand and respect. At this point I went to the charge nurse and asked what I should do. She told me to continue working with the orient on vitals and she would make sure the 2 to 10 aide went to help the resident. About ten minutes later, the nurse came back to me saying she looked in every room and could not find the 2 to 10 anywhere. I immediately went to the resident's room and found the aide in there already. At this point, the resident yelled at me and accused me of neglecting her. I went to the nurse and she called the director of nursing and immediately informed her of the situation. The resident told the nurse she didn't want me caring for her the rest of the night, and requested my coworker instead. If this wasn't bad enough, later that night around midnight 3 call lights went off at once. The nurse, myself and the orient, and the other aide all went to answer them. When I finished answer my call light about 15 minutes later, I came out to find that the accusing resident's call light had been on for 6 minutes. I immediately found the other aide and took over care of the patient she was with so she could answer the call light. By the time she got to the room, the light had been on for 7 minutes. The resident then accused me of purposefully ignoring her call light. She reported me for abuse and I was suspended for 3 days pending an investigation. The police department was called and everything. I was found not guilty of intentional neglect but reprimanded for having "poor judgement" and not putting patient care before other tasks. In retrospect, I see where I could have handled the situation better, but I really did the best I could in the situation while it was happening. I was polite to the resident, I apologized for the miscommunication and inconvenience. I have never ever had a problem with this resident before and am extremely upset and angry that they would accuse me of abusing them over an incident that was out of my control and began before I even got to work. Even though their attempt to make me cost me my job and livelihood failed, I'm still incredibly angry and upset over this whole situation. I could not sleep, had no appetite, and had to miss 2 shifts so a couple hundred dollars because the resident was angry with the facility and took it out on me. How do I cope with this? I know I will not be put on the same hall as the resident when I come back to work, but I am struggling with feelings of bitterness and resentment. How do I deal with this resident when I run into them at work? Help

Tl:dr An angry resident decided to throw a fit and I happened to be the closest and easiest target, was falsely accused of abuse and suspended, DON and administrator investigated and cleared me but I was forced to missed 2 shifts and my reputation was put into question. Trying to figure out how to deal with my feelings of anger and upset when I go back to work in a few days.