mindyfromcali

You've never met me, and you can't judge someone by what they say on an online forum. The culture where I work is not an easy one to be in when having to work for two weeks with other people knowing that I'm leaving, and asking all kinds of questions. That's the reason why I'm quitting. Sure it's the easier way to take, but it's not irresponsible. Irresponsible would be just not showing up for work one day. Going to PRN is giving notice in a way, but without having to deal with nosy people who don't follow social norms.

To avoid the politics of it, and people treating me differently because of I'm leaving.

My shoulders hurt, sleep doesn't help my fatigue anymore. Anything I've posted on here before about being able to handle this job doesn't work anymore. I don't know if it's because I'm in a hostile work environment or my body is just saying no more. I was okay when I worked acute, but this skilled nursing job for the past few months has done a number on me. I'm done. I'm thinking of just going from full-time to PRN and not answering my phone.

In my first place I worked at it was haunted for sure. I never actually saw a ghost, but I could feel a presence in one of the bathrooms of a room. I'd worked all three shifts at one time or another (CNA here) and was doing rounds as usual, but for the first time on night shift in this one particular room. I'm getting water to change an incontinent patient, and all of a sudden as I turn the water on I can feel the walls closing in on me. I went to a different room and got the water after disinfecting the faucet. Went back to the nurses' station and asked some people how they feel about that room at night and I'm not alone. Now I work at a facility across the street from that one, and one of the nurses used to work at the same place in the above story. She said she quit and moved to the one we're at now because her friends were dying off one each year, three years in a row, all nurses. She told me about a dark hooded figure that had been seen going into the bathroom inside the breakroom during night shift, and that's why no one eats in there past a certain hour. I've heard that story too, never seen it myself, but kind of weird hearing it more than once after a few years. Apparently, the figure goes into the bathroom and never comes out. People go in there looking for it and it's gone. Happy Halloween :)

I work night shift in a LTC SNF. It's pretty busy during rounds, and it depends on what type of Residents you have. For me, they're a combination of alert-independent, alert-dependent, total care and others. Some nights can be lots of call lights. Call lights can be tough to answer when you have a certain amount of incontinent care to complete by a certain time, especially if you have heavy wetters that need to be cared for. I would say after working day evening and nights that nights are probably the easiest because there are less transfers, so not as much lifting.

If the Resident falls, they can't blame you unless you weren't using proper precautions according to their care plan. I don't know what it's like in assisted living, but that's how it is in long-term care. Examples: tab alarms, crash mats, bed low to the ground etc. Don't beat yourself up, it will be okay. Sorry you have fellow employees who don't try to help you.

I could not agree more. I have worked both acute and SNF, and could tell you that both have their challenges. It irks me that people make blanket statements and assumptions that obviously have no basis in experience. The nurses in the hospital would tell me that they learned a lot from me as a CNA who had experience in LTC. We learned from each other.

Being a CNA in a nursing home does not "ruin" them.

If they're re-testing you, I don't think you have to actually shave hair off a person. You just have to demonstrate knowledge and "fake shave" them. Look up CNA skills videos and you should be good. All of the skills are relatively the same, start with knocking on the door, intro of yourself, what you're there to do, check their name on their wrist, close curtain for privacy, make sure following safety procedures for each type of skill and such. There are a lot of threads on the skills testing by the way on here.

No, not as far as I know. They can ask, but they can't keep you there after your shift is over. Sounds like whoever manages staffing there sucks.

Have you tried applying for somewhere that does rehab? Usually the rehab part of a skilled nursing facility has less lifting. The only issue is more time on your feet because the Residents are going to be using their call lights more.

I can't count how many times I've had to deal with this ( CNA Here just in case anyone hasn't seen me post before ) The others are right, be firm but professional. Report it ASAP as well :) Funny story: I had a male Resident with an amputated arm. He was a "grabber", as well as raunchy comments all the time. I'd just ignore the comments, and eww one day I had to give this guy a shower. He thought me giving him a shower meant "we" were taking a shower together. ::blegh:: No buddy, never gonna happen. So I figured out that that if I gave him care, and passed trays on the side that was amputated, he had to take more time to reach over the opposite side of the bed to try to grab me, giving me more time to scoot out of the way :)

Congratulations! For me the difference was more vital signs, but WAY better equipment and more of it to go around to get them. Each patient usually has their own BP cuff, and the machines are super fast for everything. The nurses will help you more with ADLs than in a nursing home. It will depend on where you work, how much responsibility they choose to give you. I've worked at several hospitals and seen CNAs insert indwelling catheters, doing EKGs, checking blood glucose levels, and all sorts of things. It will take some getting used to, but I think you will like it :) enjoy

I have all kinds of people try to talk about religion and politics at work, and to me those are both taboo with people I don't know so well. I just say "oh that's interesting", if they are just talking about it but not asking me anything. If they ask me directly what my thoughts are, I just politely say I don't like to talk about that type of thing at work. People are usually pretty understanding if you're nice and professional about it. I don't think I could get in trouble for not wanting to talk about that. :)

I've had issues with that at all of my facilities, except one. That particular facility, you had to call the DON or ADON no matter what time of day or night to call in sick. Then you had to bring a doctor's note in to back up calling off. Not many people calling sick at that facility unless they were actually sick. They also had a lot of CNAs working PRN and they would actually call them in to cover and they would say yes every time.

I get burned out from my job, too, but I have a few ways of destressing which may be able to help: On my last day or on days that I come home sore from head to toe, I take a nice hot bath to loosen up all my muscles and then sleep like a baby. It's a nice recharge. I have a little hot pack that I got at a drugstore. It's made of clay and microwaves and stays hot for over an hour. That's a good replacement for a bath. (not the cleaning part, but for loosening up muscles) Drinking hot herbal tea also helps. Having a good friend, one who may have also been in healthcare before or works a similar stressful job so you can be eachother's sounding boards. For me , I just have to take a deep breath and take pride in knowing I did the best I could to do right by my patients and give them proper care they deserve. Once the shift is over, I leave it behind me and try not to let it rent space in my head. I hope you can cope or find something that is a better fit. Big hugs, good luck

I have a similar one at my job. The others have given some good advice, and I don't feel there's much I could add to it Big hugs, we all have a challenging enough job without people whining all the time and making it more stressful

I've been bullied at work, but usually float so much that it doesn't cause much of an issue for me. My first job I had to switch shifts because I was being bullied pretty bad by another CNA. I tried handling it myself, and through my charge nurses but the person had way too much pull there. Eventually I just went to staffing and told them I'd like to be moved to a different shift. When asked why, I said it worked better with my school schedule. I'm glad you took a stand, it's never easy to do. Good luck in your new job.

I don't think anyone can compare their job to someone else's line of work, especially if it's in a completely different industry, unless they've worked both.

Go to the department of public health's page for your state you live in and find out what the requirements are. As far as I know, the requirements here in CA are less hours for HHA than CNA, and so here you can't just test out. A lot of schools will do both certs at the same time if you pay a little bit more. I wish I would have done that, having more certs is always a good thing :)

My first job as a CNA was probably the hardest place to work for so far. That being said, I don't think anything will prepare you for being a CNA as much as hands on experience. If you get plenty of orientation, that does help. Just be patient, pay attention, try not to be too hard on yourself, and be open to any suggestions from your coworkers. Big hugs :)

Yeahhh, that doesn't sound like anything I ever had to do. We practiced our skills on eachother, and did do all of them, but there was never any water or clothes coming off. We learned bedpans but with our pants on and no bodily fluids tyvm!! Sorry to hear you got a nutjob for an instructor

Have you tried applying at registries? Some take CNAs with no experience, and it's easier to get the shift that you like.

Room numbers are better than names, and easier to remember. As far as I know, no one has ever gotten into trouble for their cheat sheet getting lost. Don't write down stuff so people will know what it means. Ex: I put an "I" for the incontinent patient, and a "C" for continent ones. If they toilet, and I don't have time to chart, I put a little tick mark next to the "I" or "C". If they're in a wheelchair, I put WC. If they need vitals taken (yes I know on some units all of them need them taken, mine the max is like 4 out of 14 or so Residents) I put a little V by their name. If they're total care (cannot help do any care), I put TC, if they're independent I put "ind." If you want to put transfer info, you could put like 1P for one person assist, 2P, and so on. Mainly, it's the toileting information I'd worry about people finding, who don't need to know. As long as it isn't too personal, like Mr. so and so has diarrhea all the time, no one will be offended if they find it and report you.

I'd find it amusing, but as the above poster said, it keeps them occupied. That being said, who's with me on xbox's in all their rooms!!! not realistic, but I can wish.