indierock

To be honest, in the beginning you will have very little time to sit and talk with residents. Once you become faster with your work you learn how much time you can sit and talk with a resident. I try to give about two or three residents a day more time to talk. As for number one, it depends on the resident. Can they be consoled? Some people because of medical conditions or lack of medication cannot be consoled. The main thing to do is give yourself a time limit before you go in. Let the resident know that you can't stay indefinately. 2. I use the time i "do my job" to talk to the resident and listen to what they have to say. So i guess a lot.

most of the care plans for my residents are out dated. For hoyers and sit-to-stands, i always use two people. No questions asked. As for the two person, nonmachine lifts, it depends. Im not a big burly guy (actually i am a little woman, 4'11", 120 pounds) but a lot of these people just need the right approach to get them to do enough work that it would be a one person assist. It all depends on the resident i guess. Once you work with a resident for long enough you begin to realize their strengths, weaknesses, and what they bluff about not being able to do. For new residents or if i haven't worked with someone in awhile, i go to the cnas that do. They know more about how someone transfers than the care plan could ever tell you.

you do roll them towards you. After you get out of the test, its a lot harder. Just a bit of advice for practical use: roll them as far towards you as possible and tuck the bedpan in as far as possible before you roll them back because once they are laying on that bedpan, they usually start going and you don't have a second chance to roll them.

this is a really good idea. Also, the voicemail on the cell phone is a wonderful thing, use it. just don't answer. When we are short staffed, the person calling usually uses guilt to try to make us come in. the truth of the matter is that we have all worked short, we all know its not fun. BUT everything gets done.

I love my job, i love my residents. That being said, i am getting burned out quickly from the other aspects of the job. We are understaffed and the politics are constantly visible. I guess i am just complaining but i am wondering if any of you guys are in the same position? any advice?

you are right to not go in there alone. I actually just got a tough resident as well. He didn't want me to leave him alone, gets mad easily, and wanted the opposite of anything we got him. If you think about it these have lost everything. Yes some do take it out on the staff. Since this seems behavioral, i would try to get to the bottom of it. Tell her in a nice way that you and everyone else is tired of being disrespected and ask her what is wrong. I find a lot of behavior comes from pain or discomfort in any way. Physical, emotional, etc. If all else fails, try to avoid her, and talk to the social worker. hope this helps!

i agree with the above post about finding humor in this type of thing. i know its very kindergarten of me but i think laughing about poop is fun. i have a resident that is very shy and self conscious. One day she farted in front of me and got so embarrassed. all i could do was bust out laughing. it turns out that i laughed so hard i farted. and then she started laughing at me. since then, she has been a bit more comfy around me.

what part of pa?

hahaha. this made me smile

Another thing i have noticed is that if you watch someone that is dying, hours before they die, their eyes begin to move in a very calculated way. i have noticed with almost all of them that they will have their eyes closed and all of the sudden they will open them, dart them to a certain spot on the ceiling then peacefully close them.

the three's thing i have in fact noticed. If your residents are on the death watch they should also be on comfort measures and although the resident can't necessarily say she wants to go outside i think it would fall into comfort measures. i agree with above, follow the chain. i mean if you put yourself in their shoes, would you want your last days in a bed or would you want to be able to do one of the things you have always loved?

i can understand your nervousness about taking blood sugar. if you have the resources i would say invest in a tester and practice with friends or family, people that you know/ trust. they will tell you if it hurts too much plus you are comfortable with them. All it takes is practice and the reminder that depending on what is in the shot, it generally doesn't hurt that bad.

i always hated that part of the job. the truth is that you do learn people and how they react. Actually funny story. i had a resident when i first came onto my hall that was extremely right, hard to get up and never spoke a word. But by looking in her eyes you can tell she gets everything you say. One day i walked into her room and she just started talking to me and got up without any trouble. I guess she just finally got used to be and decided she liked me. All residents are different. you just have to watch what works and what doesn't.

i apologize if i have posted about this before but it seems even more true now. Every time i go to my nurse with a change in a resident, she responds with a "oh that is normal". I have had nurses that have filled in for her immediately respond when i say something is wrong but she won't. its frustrating because i notice everything and over the time i have been with my residents i have learned what is and what is not normal, for them and in general. I just feel like why bother? Anything i notice gets dismissed anyway. argh.

thank you for that!

i understand perfectly. The mistakes my siblings have made have always overshadowed my successes. I actually remember my mother saying that she was happy that she never had to worry about me. I can see where my siblings have gone wrong but there is nothing i can do to help them (and i have tried). I guess all i can say is that you have to go about your merry way and do things you want to do for your own reasons. it sucks that people won't always realize the milestones you have crossed but you will. do your best and try to be a good person. That is all you can do.

On my hall we seem to have a lot of behaviors. Not just people with medical problems that make things difficult but people who want special time with us...almost demand attention but in a negative way. At first it started out as one person asking for special attention. well now its up to about six. And now if we don't have the time to sit down and chat or do whatever it is that they want when they want it, we get terrible attitudes. We are trying to break this cycle of rewarding negative attention. We are understaffed and we don't have the time due to new admits that are more extensive than the ones that were in their beds previously. So i guess my question is: what do you do about this? Not rewarding these behaviors causes difficulties (for example one resident will refuse to eat) but catering to them causes more behaviors and difficulties...

This job is one that you can't really think of yourself much. Take even taking a pee break. you have to pee and so do 5 of your residents. Sometimes though everything calms down and no one is flipping out and you get to see these people...actually see them. They truly are amazing. They have lived lives that we can only guess about and at the end their bodies being fading. They can't take care of everything like they used to. Yet they still find a way to laugh and experience joy. I love the fact that i get to help them do that. This job is physically and mentally challenging. You see these people day in and day out and you have to realize that one day these people are gonna let go. You watch people going down hill. You do your best but you can't stop it. I agree with above that also pay and management don't help. On a good day everything gets done perfectly, everyone is tolieted when they need to be and everyone is cleaned to the hilt. Good days don't happen as much as i would like. We try but its difficult with staffing. This job is one of those "you wouldn't know unless you have been there" type of deals. People don't understand, i think, that we deal with human beings. We can't always get them to stand up or eat if they don't want to. This also makes the job hard. If we were in a cubical playing sims with these people, it would be a lot easier.

Once you get through all the "being new" stuff, everything calms down, i promise. After the classes you begin to feel a bit more confident and once you are on the floor you being to get the hang of what exactly you have to do. deep breath, everything will be okay, i promise.

make sure you have it in the right place. As long as you see the needle ticking, you are close. If all else fails, the blood pressure *usually* starts after the first tick (not counting it).

this actually happened to me the other day. I was giving pericare on an elderly resident who had fallen asleep and he got an erection. Truth be told, even if they are old, the are still human. Its a natural response to stimulation.

just curious as to what you guys think of this old adage. I had a good buddy of mine die this week at work and someone replied with this when i found out he had died. I think however that by me getting close to him at the end (knowing he was close, i took extra time with him) i would like to think i helped him. i love all of my residents and i have found it hard to not get close. These people have gone through a lot and they still have reasons to smile, even if it is just asking them how their day is going or listening to a story they have to tell.

my problem has always been that i cannot find scrubs in the colors i need for my place of employment. We get three colors to choose from and they are supposed to be exact. They order theirs through Cherokee and the online store doesn't even carry two of the colors. So my choices are go to a scrub store with my scrubs to compare colors or order through my job, but always the same style. argh.

#1 - chances are if she was told on for asking a question as a student nothing happened. I have found a few cnas with use redirection with higher ups. if they point the finger first, no one will be looking at them. A lot of cases not true. If this happens again, i would say something. #2 - I always ask them what they mean and try to get them to talk about it. I help them weigh the options and if they appear to be depressed, i try to get them to socialize a bit. think about it a minute. These people have lost a lot to be there... (i am assuming you work in a nursing home type setting). Of course they are going to be sad at times. The best thing is to try to get them to talk about what is bothering them and point out the good qualities of life they have gained.

i am a lot like you. No bodily fluids could scare me but i am terrified of death. I have been told by a few older cnas that i shouldn't be in an LTC because of it. I love my residents though. i love my job. I work with these people as if they were my best friends, and in all reality, a couple of them are. I can't help but get close. I view it this way: if you don't get close to these people, you aren't really meant for the job. You have to be able to feel for these people, understand them because there may be a time when they get confused and can't tell you what is wrong. Also, yes these people are closer to a natural death than the people we generally choose to spend time with but everyone is close to a sort of death. tomorrow anyone could get in a car accident or have complications but you still choose to get close to them. death comes for all eventually. Where i work, a lot of these people don't have a lot of visitors so i try to throw everyone a little extra attention. good luck!