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Discussion

lazy staff

Let me give you a little history. I am the DON at a LTC facility that has several challenging issues. I have been here only a short while and have little experience but am willing to learn and do what is asked by my administrator. I live in an area where it is difficult to recruit nursing staff, basically no one wants to come here. It seems I have to work with the staff I have or do all the work myself. I'm not sure if it is spring fever, but everyone, CNA's and Nurses, seem to be slacking. I have talked and talked to my nursing staff about staying on top of the aides and making sure they are staying busy and not sitting at the nurses station. It seems to go in one ear and out the other. I cannot be on the floor constantly making sure residents are getting checked every 2 hours, vitals and weights are getting done, baths are getting done, etc. IT seems there are very few good charge nurses anymore. The one good nurse I do have, who tries to get on the staff, gets the cold shoulder, staff roll their eyes at her, etc have no respect. So to keep a long story short, what do you do in your facility to make your CNA's/Charge nurse accountable? How do you stay on top of your CNA's and make sure they are getting the job done? Like I said, I am not in an area where I have staff lining up outside my front door. You either deal with what you have or pay out the *ss for temp nurses, which my facility is not in a good financial situation to do. I wish there was an easy answer to this situation, but I'm not optimistic.

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    Since I began at my facilty, I have fired 9 people for not doing their jobs. Yes, they are hard to replace, have worked 3 shifts back to back with no sleep whatsoever after cutting them. Was it worth it, you bet. When I hire new employees, I tell them whats expected right up front. I then give them a choice to sleep on it and decide whether its a choice they want to make. I will not tolerate a lazy employee. Write them up, make sure you have good cause. They will probably agree and see that they are not picking up their slack. Your license is on the line and no matter what they do, you will get tagged for it, not them. Have your ADON do chart audits, check MARS and TARS. Do rounds with her in the morning. Let the staff see you answering call lights. When they see you are willing and capable to do the same, they gain respect for you, even if you are wearing dress clothes that day. The DON should lead by example. I'm not saying that you dont, but if you set it up this way, you are more likely to have eager followers. Everyone started out as a CNA at one time or another. Its tough work. I wear dress clothes on Fridays, and scrubs during the week.

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    • Author

    Thank you! I know what I need to do, just am not looking forward to it, but like you said, it will be worth it in the long run.

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    I agree, hold them accountable. if they are not doing their jobs, then they receive disciplinary action, up to and including termination.

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    discipline them, make sure you do your employee reviews, and expect a lot from them, including your cna's. Be choosy on who you hire

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    • Experts

    A Charge Nurse must be like Superman - impervious to everything but Kryptonite. And you must back her up. If you know the aides are rolling their eyes at her and not obeying her, why do you let them get away with it? By tolerating it, you encourage their disrespect.

    Let them know you saw it and that it is not acceptable to not obey the Charge Nurse. And that's the word you can use. Obey. They need to know who is the boss. As Am Train said, you will be punished for their bad behavior. Let them know that you will fire them if they make you and the facility and the Charge Nurses look bad and if they don't do their jobs.

    As you said, you know what to do and it's hard. But it's also hard to keep putting up with lazy staff, rude, disrespectful staff. Yeah, they have hard personal lives - kids, riding the bus, going to school, low pay. Too bad. As humans we empathize. As bosses, we can't afford to. As bosses, the job is to run the facility properly. Be nice if possible. if not, be hard.

    you might want to reconsider being DON. Being the boss is not for everyone. I found out that I am much happier just doing my job and going home, leaving the 24 hour responsibility to someone with better people skills and more creativity and higher energy and more knowledge about the law governing the LTC facility than I had. It's no shame to decide to no longer be the DON.

    I wish you well.

    Also, if you don't feel optimistic, that's not good. Can you figure out what to do about that? With a pessimistic outlook, you're already starting behind.

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