AudreyJ

What it sounds like you're describing is the lap buddy. It hooks onto the wheelchair in a manner that makes it difficult for the resident to take it off. Technically that's considered a restraint. Illinois no longer allows ANY bed rails, not even two at the top. My facility replaced them with Halos and everyone hates them. Anything that impedes the residents free mobility is a restraint. Even broda chairs are considered restraints and we had to jump through hoops to get them for some residents. We all live and learn, don't take it too hard :)

Good for you! Most places just want an accurate BP because really that's all it boils down to.

I once had a resident who started seizing in the dining room, we got him into bed, and called the private transport company. His O2 sats were low, he was tachy, and continuously seizing. It took the private transport about 15 mins to get there, the fire dept would've been there in 3 (this was the nurses error). Would it have made a difference? I don't know but it still makes me wonder. He returned to the nursing home a week later then passed on another week after that. Another resident came to us and was a WONDERFUL man! He had lost use of his legs (I don't know what his diagnosis was) and was undergoing PT to hopefully walk again. Both he and his wife were wonderful individuals. He went to the hospital about a month into his stay and came back a week or two later and was rapidly declining. He became very confused, incontinent of bowel and bladder, and too weak to even raise his own hand. His family brought him home to spend his final days in a familiar comfortable setting, he passed about a week after that. Recently we had a resident for comfort care. He had severe CHF and was at our facility to die. Our nurse sent him out due to severe SOB, he was a DNR. She checked the computer but it wasn't entered yet, there was a copy in the chart. The POA came to *US* for a copy of the DNR while the staff in the ER were performing life saving measures. He was supposed to die at our facility, not in a cold ER. He did die later that nite. This was TOTALLY the nurses fault, the family had every right to be ticked. Death is to be expected, tho sometimes it's very unexpected. And at my facility we were told to begin CPR even if the person was a DNR. The DNR status had to be confirmed by a nurse before CPR would cease. In my assignment I made darn sure who my DNRs were, who my full codes were, and who my hospice residents were. And if you can look at the charts make sure you know what their DNR status is. Ours have 2 boxes, one was only attempt CPR if respirations were absent but a pulse was still present, the other was DO NOT attempt CPR if respirations were absent but a pulse was still present. Knowing what your patients status is will help you in the event that something happens (tho ALWAYS call the nurse if something does happen).

When we were taught how to take BPs we were told to inflate the cuff to 180-200mm/Hg then start deflating and listen for the first sound which is the systolic and then continue deflating until you no longer hear the sound and that's the diastolic. If you pump the cuff up to that 180-200 and then hear the sounds as soon as you start deflating it we were told to inflate it to 240 then start deflating it. The highest BP I've ever auscultated was 186/114 and that was on an always agitated post fall resident. The lowest I ever got was 72/40 and he was still responsive and A&Ox3 with good color.

I understand where you're coming from. I know she was probably frazzled with 9 admissions rolling in but this has never happened before and I was only late once before because I misplaced my keys. My babysitter is incredibly reliable but she just had an emergency she had to attend to, it happens, none of us can predict what will happen.

We still use a bunch of abbreviations at our facility but the main ones we use are NPO, PRN, and q2h (and the like). We always use PRN in upper case because prn in lower case can sometimes be mistaken for pm.

Our facility has thermometers that take a LONG time so I usually get resps while taking the temp. Makes it easier because they aren't as tempted to talk which makes it a little harder. I also count for 15 sec and multiply by 4, unless they have irregular resps or pulse in which case I take for a full minute

Thankfully this has never happened to me but I can understand your frustration. Just last week there was a night shift CNA that called and said she'd be a few minutes late so I said I'd stay until she got there so this way there was an aide on the floor. My shift ends at 1030 and she didn't show up until 1130. I'm sorry but an hour is more than a few minutes. I said I'd stay so I digress. And with the kids, things happen and my kids will always come first. Just yesterday I was supposed to work and my sitter cancelled on me at the absolute last minute, like as I was dropping the kids off. I called my DON and explained what happened and she said she really needed me because we had 9 admissions(!). The situation was out of my hands, there was NO way I could've found another sitter on such short notice. When I told her that she got mad and said since it was 30 mins before my shift it was a no call no show and slammed the phone down. I was expecting the NC/NS but the level of nastiness was uncalled for. I refused to do double shifts as a favor for my facility. I've done two and got screwed both times so I stopped that a long time ago. When you treat your employees like crap don't expect diamonds in return, expect the high turnover that's present in LTC.

The cost of the test was worked in to the fee for the class. I took my CNA class at the local community college and there was an extra fee in addition to the tuition that paid for the test amongst other things.

I'm a CNA at a nursing home and I work from 230-1030pm. A typical day for me goes as follows: 230-500 Toileting, showers, answer call lights, socialize with residents, pass water, vitals, weights 500-600 Downtime before dinner, pass clothing protectors 600-700 Dinner/Dinner Clean-up 700-900 Residents to bed 900-1030 Special Assignment, charting, clean up, garbage out, linen to laundry, smidge of downtime And mixed in with all this are answering call lights, changing and toileting residents, and rounds as well as checking sounding bed and chair alarms. Then there's whatever else the nurses decide to throw at you. I typically have between 12 and 15 residents a night and some like to get into bed at the start of the shift so it's one less thing to do at the end of the night. Also depending on the unit there may be admissions. And we also have discharges (more common on days), residents being sent to the hospital for evaluation, or even deaths so those tend to take priority over the "routine".

I'm new to allnurses but where I work the base rate is $10/hr. There is a 2nd shift shift diff of $1/hr and a 3rd shift shift diff which I'm not sure of. Weekend AM shift gets $1/hr on their shift. We also have extra little bonuses that we can get too for perfect attendance during a pay period and cash comp which is about an additional %age of your base rate for opting out of their benefits package. Without any over time or bonuses I bring in about $1100/mo take home.