NEW CNA JOB 10pm-6am. FIRST NIGHT JOB. HELP!

lidleanjel · Jul 10, 2011

I started working as a CNA in a long term facility, then went to the hospital. I would not say either of them were easy, but the both work about the same.

starting in long term care the hardest thing for me was a sleep pattern. I am hit the wall about 3am and need caffeine. so best advise is find the best time for you to sleep and take at least an hour nap before going in.

the route for me was....

get report from the last shift of aide at 10pm. I would then check on every patient I had. this would include make sure patient dry and change if need be or empty foley (some will sleep with the leg bags) and turn the patients who needed to be turned, then I would make sure rooms were clean and stocked. after first round, I would do whatever chore we had to do that night. for example, clean wheelchairs or refill soap/shampoos. we did our rounds every 2hrs. once you learn the sleep patterns and route of the patients, it will be easier. at first it will seem to take for ever just because 3rd shift does have more patients to watch and take care of. the worse thing about nights is when you have a patient that is trying to get out of bed or having problems sleep related to the safety issues. at last rounds for me which started about 3am, I would make sure everyone was dry and toileted everyone that needed to be toileted. then would dress and wash up the 2 people that need to be getting up before the next shift.

you will fall into routine after a few weeks. I always took the heaviest load of patients to stay busier, plus made me more confident once I really figured out the job route.

this is just extra information if you were curious. LTC is different then the hospital in which you take vitals every 4hrs on everyone and weights on the patients that the doctors are monitoring. you will make sure all patients needs are filled such as water or ice and bathroom and report to the nurse anything abnormal. answer call lights which I think occurs a lot more than in the LTC and taking care of some of the geriatrics is very similar to the LTC. some may need to be check and changed every 2 hrs or maybe they are on a turn schedule. some nights I think the hospital is busier then I ever was at the LTC, but I love the acutity of the floor at the hospital I work on. not necessarily will you be checking on every patient related to the nurse has a bigger responsibility for this. and I clean all my rooms immediately when doing my first set of vital signs. and clean as i go the rest of the night.

hope this helps

katehensley, BSN, RN · Jul 11, 2011

This helps a lot thank you. :) hopefully it goes well!

northernguy · Jul 12, 2011

It probably varies depending on the residents. All it takes is one or two that are on the call light or setting off bed alarms all night to keep you very busy. Generally where I work its pretty slow up until around 5 am when some residents start waking up and have to be toileted or put on a bed pan.

Doing turns and wet checks are the most important part of the job, but you should also be noting and reporting anything out of the ordinary for the residents, such as a persistent cough, or voiding an unusually large number of times.