ashleed

*Trying this again as only part of my original post was viewable. I'm curious to know what the CNA to patient ratio is at your facility? I typically have 16 patients from 7P-7A on an inpatient rehab floor. I'm responsible for answering call lights, toileting, Accu-Cheks, bedtime snacks, vital signs on each patient at least once a shift. Our 16-bed unit typically stays full with currently one CNA and two nurses. As I was saying, I'm responsible for vitals at least once per shift on each patient and will follow up on anything out of range as well as low blood sugars. Of course, there is charting involved for all care provided, 2 water passes, as well as some other clerical tasks to be completed. I often feel overwhelmed as I am often helping one patient and the majority of the nurses will come find me to tell me that so and so needs to go to the bathroom or is in need of such and such. I'm very grateful any time they do answer a call light and apologize that I didn't get to it but also thank them. I don't want to bother or interrupt their med pass or charting but this isn't the kind of care I want to provide. The last night I worked a patient told me that it seemed that the techs were spread too thin and didn't have enough time for her. I apologized and felt sincerely bad about the situation. My nurse manager has tried to put a positive spin on things and say I basically run the unit at night but I really don't find much comfort in that. I'm afraid that money has taken priority over good care. Perhaps this job isn't a good fit for me, even though I'm often praised for doing a good job. What is your unit like?

It appears as though only part of my original post is viewable. Our 16 bed unit typically stays full with currently one CNA and two nurses. As I was saying, I'm responsible for vitals at least once per shift on each patient and will follow up on anything out of range as well as low blood sugars. Of course there is charting involved for all care provided, 2 water passes, as well as some other clerical tasks to be completed. I often feel overwhelmed as I am often helping one patient and the majority of the nurses will come find me to tell me that so and so needs to go to the bathroom or is in need of such and such. I'm very grateful any time they do answer a call light and apologize that I didn't get to it but also thank them. I don't want to bother or interrupt their med pass or charting but this isn't the kind of care I want to provide. The last night I worked a patient told me that it seemed that the techs were spread too thin and didn't have enough time for her. I apologized and felt sincerely bad about the situation. My nurse manager has tried to put a positive spin on things and say I basically run the unit at night but I really don't find much comfort in that. I'm afraid that money has taken priority over good care. Perhaps this job isn't a good fit for me, even though I'm often praised for doing a good job. What is your unit like?

I'm curious to know what the CNA to patient ratio is at your facility? I typically have 16 patients from 7P-7A on an inpatient rehab floor. I'm responsible for answering call lights, toileting, Accu-Cheks, bedtime snacks, vital signs on each pati

Would anyone be willing to share what their facility uses for patient behaviors/actions on close or 1:1 observation sheets? The inpatient unit I work on is considering adding to our current list. At the moment we use: situationally appropriate, inappropriate, depressed, anxious, restless, hostile, hallucinating, isolative, attention-seeking, resistant, and confused. Thank you in advance.

Long story short, I have since been written up over this ordeal by the nurse manager who claims they never did such a thing and that we are unable to hire anyone that has been a patient before. The nurse manager who previously held the position had said that it would depend on the nature of the reason for the person's admission. This was said while she still held the position. Either way, I feel like I was trying to do the right thing and as a result have been unjustly disciplined with a written warning. Because I had made all of this up (according to what the NM wrote in my file) that I was disrupting the unit and undermining their authority. This is the first occurrence of any kind to be put in my permanent file, something that has left me worrisome and fretful. The NM said if I ever had a problem with these alleged actions I should have come to her. Once I rephrased what she had said, she then changed her answer and said to go to HER boss instead. She also tried to ask me details about how I had come to find this out, the identity of the person interviewed, etc. Even yet I still told her how I felt it was wrong and so forth. I do not recall her responding, though it was an understandably intense time.

It was revealed to me by my assistant nurse manager that she and our nurse manager had looked up to see if a prospective employee had a mental health history with us. We are an inpatient mental health unit connected to a community mental health center. Despite a good interview, they chose to look because the interviewee had mentioned a few things that had led them to believe that she had been there before. They were unsure if she had been there to visit someone or had been a patient herself. It turns out she had been a patient and was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Unfortunately, there is a lot of stigma associated with the disorder and this prevented her from being hired. I can't help but feel that this was wrong even though it may have caused us problems should she had been hired. I'm curious as to how other people would handle this information. Thank you for your time.