New Job and no organization!

[FutureNurse23]

I started a new job and I find it very unorganized. You float daily from 2 floors. You never find what you need on the linen cart. I always only see about 3 incontient pads on the cart a day. The diapers are brought up once a day by a lady who restocks the rooms with them. Most times its only 2 diapers in the closets. I'm so used of diapers being behind the nurses station. Also they have a shower list but there is just names on the list. It has no room numbers. You would think the name would be the least important and they would have the room number. Since room numbers are at times faster to change. So being new on the floor its kind of hard to know who has to take a shower. No one tells you who eats in the dinning area or who eats in the room. Most of the day the residents are all around the building so you have to leave the floor and look for them if you want to konw if they need changing,ugh. There isn't a set time the trays come up for breakfast or lunch. Its only 1 stand up lift and 1 hoyer on the whole floor. Mostly everyone though is body lift. And you never can find any bags for soiled linen or soiled diapers... The work is so easy most of the whole floor are ambulatory or w/c but you never have anything you need to make things run smoother. Or its never a direction of things to make it all successful.:zzzzz Also, its hard to identify fall risk residents. They dont have a colored armband or any fall risk signs above their beds. They have armband bracelets which are clear and their names are handwritten in them,. Its very confussing to know who is also diabetic. Seems you also have to learn the residents before you can even start. It would be so easier if the nurses had rosters of the patients with room numbers if they were ambulatory, if you needed a stand up lift or hoyer ect. Especially if you are floating on two different floors. Have you all run into these problems while being in orientation?

[fuzzywuzzy, CNA]

Can you make a "cheat sheet" to carry around with you?

[NM nurse to be]

Fuzzy's cheat sheet idea will save your sanity! I still carry a little spirl notebook in my pocket and keep daily notes. For awhile during report, I would note down every resident on my floor and what I needed to remember about them. That helped me learn it faster and keep track of who needed to what that shift or who has what new ailment. Granted I don't write down as much now but if I have a new resident, you bet they're on the sheet, as are my 'get ups' for the day because that changes quite a bit.

[FutureNurse23]

Well, I have been thinking on how I could make things work better for me all weekend. And I have came up with making a list of things. For starters, I will have a list of the female residents who only want female cna's. And I will write down my section every day... ex 310 A/B 311 A 312 A/B and circle which is female residents room who only want female CNA's. Also I will get my linen from the laudry room in the mornings since the linen carts never have what I want on them. I'm not worried about what resdient abilities are so much because most can walk or they are bodylift. I also will start in the morning by getting the most active residents up first. Then do my first round before 8am. Then after breakfast I will do my two showers. Since alot of the residents on the floor are ambulatory they are always gone off the floor or in activities. It makes it so much easier as a CNA than working on a Skilled floor where residents are on pegs and traches. Which takes everyone muscle you have to do incontinent care. The place I work is very unorganized but the workload is very easy since most you dont need lifts or all can turn while in bed.:wink2: