I haven't posted many times here, but always receive support & wise advice when I do..so here goes:
I work LTC on the Pacific Coast..and work @ a place where nurses aides are allowed to carry on conversations that are "un-lady-like" while providing care--as if their residents can't hear them...while feeding residents, and while providing all aspects of resident care. Some use "ghetto-talk" while providing care & all attempts to correct it fall on deaf ears--there is no pathway to accountability--and talk about passive-aggressive retaliation once a nurse attempts to reprimand? OMG is putting it MILDLY...to the point where one might fear walking to their car after dark.
Before everyone gets riled up, I've written these aides up, counseled verbally and escorted a few to the manager's office. Behaviors that are unacceptable (by my way of thinking) are overlooked @ this facility.
My only expectation is that the aides provide the care that they are trained and paid to do--and do their best to be a lady or gentleman while on duty. Is this unreasonable? Am I being unrealistic?
Today, after sharing this with the DNS, I was told that I "have a negative effect on the entire building"--I was told that aides "dread working with me" ....and she went on to say that "the 3 weeks I was on vacation were the calmest that the building has been" since I was hired.
------then she threw in ......." now, I don't want you to leave......."...............Hmm. Well, it's pretty clear that you just wish I wasn't HERE, that's crystal.
In the entire time I've been employed @ this facility, I've never once been written up... & never have had any type of evaluation or appraisal of performance.
I attempted to defend myself, inquiring as to whether the DNS saw the "dread" as proof that the aides assigned to my hall knew each day what the expectation would be & simply weren't up to providing quality care---(therefore, making my hall "miserable")----and perhaps the other halls subsequently became "affected" by their complaining about having to do their jobs, as opposed to taking smoke breaks 15 minutes after clocking in, being made to turn their residents, change their incontinent garments, and actually.....hmm...WORK for 8 hours, instead of goof off...or being asked to put a lid on their 'baby-mama-drama' for 8 hours, quit texting while feeding residents & quit talking about their most recent hangover.
I was also told that I was, what the DNS termed (gotta love this) 'a rough B-tch' on the floor. I was too busy trying to see through my tears to even attempt a rebuttal to that. I'm so soft-spoken & mild mannered I'm a cream-puff to many.
Totally don't understand WHERE that could've come from. My 19 year old & husband laughed their heads off at those words ever being tagged onto me.
Before you all start suggesting that I begin walking towards the door, BE ADVISED, I'm already doing it...quickly.
Have any of you ever experienced BS like this? And how in the WORLD did you survive it with your head held high until making a graceful exit?
Please don't respond if you're going to just attack. That mindset solves nothing & offers nothing constructive at all.
I'm so sorry to hear of a facility like that, because I thought the facility I work was the only one where there are no work ethics, no moral values and the department heads just don't give a crap. You feel like you are between a rock and a hard place. If you don't do anything about it, you get into trouble and if you do, there is retaliation. Even if you call the number printed on the employee handbook, the facility will be informed as to who called and the retaliation is even yet a lot worse. It is not worth getting set up and losing your license. It happens because I have seen it. Good luck to you!!
The only way things will change is if the people above the DON are aware. If it is corporate..they should have a compliance number. If you don't feel comfortable calling while you work there...call after you leave. Make notes on your own and keep copies of right ups.
Its hard to raise the standards of care when you aren't receiving any support from management. Its like trying to move a mountian all by yourself. Keep your head up and move on to a place that supports people who strive to keep their standards of care high.
I left an employer (health insurance) because of a toxic environment. My mental health is worth more than any amount of money. I have a supportive husband also.
Good for you for sticking with what you believe is right and wrong. It's just unprofessional they way they are talking and the things they are talking about. In most employment places, you could NEVER talk like that to a customer, so why should CNA's be the exception?
I start my CNA clincals on Monday and I've been warned about the things some of the nurse aides have said. All of our residents are coherent. They are MS patients. I have been told to just report the CNA to my instructor. One student got kicked out of the CNA program for engaging in an inappropriate conversation with the nurse aide in front of the resident. Oh and they said if they even see our phone in our pockets, they will kick us out. lol.
How would that nurse aide feel if they were that resident? I wouldn't want some aide talking about certain things and ignoring me while they were caring for me. As if being in a nursing home isn't lonely enough.
limey
38 Posts
I'm so sorry to hear of a facility like that, because I thought the facility I work was the only one where there are no work ethics, no moral values and the department heads just don't give a crap. You feel like you are between a rock and a hard place. If you don't do anything about it, you get into trouble and if you do, there is retaliation. Even if you call the number printed on the employee handbook, the facility will be informed as to who called and the retaliation is even yet a lot worse. It is not worth getting set up and losing your license. It happens because I have seen it. Good luck to you!!