I didn't see the light on???

[LightX]

I must vent or I'll explode.

I work in LTC. I'm usually pretty good at staying "on schedule" with my residents.

Lately, when any nurse is filling in (we have an open position), that nurse (different each day) seems to feel the need to point out to me and my hall partner that "Ray's light is on, he wants to be changed", "Mary wants some ice"....etc...well NO KIDDING!!

Do you think I don't see it!? Do you think I don't know!?? Do you think I'm just hangin out in the hallway twiddling my thumbs!!!??

I can SEE his light is on and I just changed him 20 minutes ago, his light is ALWAYS ON' and he's ALWAYS wanting something. ....and I'm sorry "Mary wants some ice", she's going to have to wait while I change the resident who had a BM in his brief and the other resident' who's been wanting to get into bed for the past hour, and then I have to take Millie to therapy, and get John into bed so that SAME nurse can hook him up to his tube feed......

I KNOW THEIR LIGHT IS ON, I KNOW WHAT THEY WANT AND IT'S JUST GOING TO HAVE TO WAIT A BIT LONGER OTHERWISE YOU WILL BE PULLING ME IN THE OFFICE FOR HAVING A RESIDENT WITH SKIN SORES, MISSED THERAPY APPTS, AND A RESIDENT WHO FELL BECAUSE SHE SELF TRANSFERED.

It drives me crazy sometimes. Our other nurse would help if she could (get Mary some ice), and she knew that we KNEW what had to be done... and it just bugs me that the new nurses haven't figured that out yet. I know they don't know us, but just let us do our jobs and quit harping! We know what we're doing with the little time we have for the amount of work needing to be done...

The day we stand in the hallway twiddling our thumbs is the day you can harp on us.

Thank you, I feel a little better.

[kenya1005]

CNAs everywhere are underappreciated, not just in LTC. We have the same issues in the hospital. It's just motivation to be an awesome nurse one day and treat your techs better. :)

[beshacohen]

It might seem that the nurse has plenty of time to help you, but you don't know what she has on her plate. She is the only one who can hand out pills, give injections, change dressings, do trach care, administer tube feedings, the list goes on and includes tons of documentation. I'm happy to do things that I can finish quickly, but you never know when a quick request can turn into half an hour and suddenly you're out of compliance with your med pass. I'm not going to give a resident a shower, or do their PM care unless I am WAY ahead of schedule. It just eats up too much of my very limited time. My time is not more valuable than yours, it's just overflowing with things that you don't have to think about.

The CNAs are there to assist the nurses. Not the other way around. We point out things to you because our bosses point them out to us. We are told to see to it that call lights are answered promptly. I hear it from my DON at almost every staff meeting. No one is riding you for the fun of it, and if they are, that's a conversation to have with someone higher in the chain of command.

I adore the techs who really care about providing good care to the residents. I really appreciate what they do. I would help them all the time if I could, but sometimes it just isn't possible.

[slilly]

That filling in RN needs to help out too, cause if Ray is her patient then she is just as responsible for him as you are I would think. Its wrong of her to try and boss you around, I would think this issue needs to be addressed to who is in charge. I know at my work if I am in a room doing care, and I hear the call-bell go off which seems to happen every time I go in a patient's room, but that's beside the point....my nurse that I am working with would be glad to go and answer that other call if she could and change my patient if they needed to be changed or get the ice. To have a nurse who thinks that she/he shouldn't help out is wrong and I know they have paperwork to do and meds to give out, but I stop documenting on my computer when I hear a call-bell and I save my work for later, I can stay later than 7p to get my documenting done. I put my patients first before all of my breaks at work.