recentlycertified

I definitely told the nurse, and my supervisor. I went out and I bought my own gait belt, my own manual blood pressure cuff, and thermometer, because theirs doesn't work. Have you ever known someone who lost their license because a family member made a false accusation?

Here is the current issue I am dealing with as a recently certified nursing assistant. I accepted a job from a major company in a skilled nursing facility, it's a bit of a shady place when it comes to a lot of issues that are presently there. I've been seeing a lot of things going on, that shouldn't be going on, I've reported things, but not too much has been done. I've been looking for another job, but I as a new CNA, nothing offers me the good hours and the good pay I have at this job. Anyways, we had a meeting last week about a family complaint. A family member said that a CNA was toileting, and changing her mother without using gloves. The meeting was just basically saying, that if there's ever a family member present, and you're going to provide care, ask them to leave because of the patients right to privacy, unless the patient says they can stay, and if that situation comes up, to always get someone else in the room as a witness. I said to myself, "that's a little bit gross, who changes someone's brief without using gloves?" Although where I work is a bit shady, I really honestly don't see someone not using gloves while changing a dirty brief. Later that day my supervisor came up to me, and asked me where my gait belt was. When I was trained, the person that trained me, lifted someone without using a gait belt, and I asked her where her gait belt was, she said she never uses one, and she didn't know where to get one. She has worked there for two years. There's usually one down by the nurse's station, but that day I didn't grab it. My supervisor says to me, "I swear to god if I get in trouble for you guys not doing your jobs correctly..." A patient was in the hallway, and she asked the patient if anyone ever put one of them on her. The patient said, "that goes on your foot, right?" which made me giggle because it pointed out to me my supervisor was clueless as to which patients were mentally functional and which ones weren't. My supervisor goes on to say, she was putting a particular gait belt in the patient's room, so everyone knew to use that gait belt on her. I said to myself, okay, well, when I went to school, I was taught how to use a gait belt, so I should do everything the way I was taught, but at the same time, the person that trained me, had worked there for two years, and didn't know where one was, so this issue in my opinion should have been fixed a long time ago, not when a family member complains, so they can cover themselves up. Now, keep in mind the family members are a little bit demanding when it comes to how they want things, which is fine, because I can understand their frustration, of their mother being sick and all that. We gave her a brand new chair to suit her needs, special cream to help her itchiness. We moved furniture over(there's two to a room) so they could have extra room, so they could put a chair beside the bed for them to sit down. The other day, her family members were there, and I made it a point to tell them that I didn't want to bother them, so whenever they were ready to leave to let me know, so I could get her ready for bed, to avoid providing care while the family member was there. She let me know her mother was ready for bed, and when I entered the room, they were complaining about her new wheelchair and how big it was, and asking why she needed that particular gait belt. I said, that if there were any questions to ask my supervisor. She than left, I gathered my supplies to prepare her for bed...and the gait belt had gone missing. I checked all her drawers, dressers, bathroom, even her roommates drawers and dressers. I notified my nurse, and wrote a letter to my supervisor. I said to the patient, "where's your gait belt?" she said, "what's that?" I said, "you know that thing that I put around you when I pick you up?" She said "My daughter took it." I said, "where'd she put it?" She said, "I don't know." Weather or not her account of what she saw was correct or incorrect in unknown to me. But this is very frustrating, because I have a strange feeling, that this family member is trying to get me in trouble for whatever reason it is. I feel like she took it because she didn't want her mother to use it, after she made all these complaints. I called the CNA who worked during the day shift to try and figure out at what time this gait belt went missing, I'm not trying to jump to conclusions. There was no response. But she obviously at some point during my shift, saw this gait belt. Has anybody else had to deal with family members like this? Possibly trying to lye about nurse's or CNAs? Can anybody tell me some personal experiences they went through, and how they handled it? Any responses would be great.

Well, after I reported what I saw, they asked me to come in to work, so I did, and when I came in, there was definitely a lot of people there who were looking into it. There were a lot of people there that had on suits and stuff that I've never seen. I saw one person go into the residents room, and I saw them examining her, I guess looking for bruises, (which I highly doubt the will find anything). They usually just leave her in the middle of the hallway, but yesterday they had her seated in front of the care plan manager's office. All the supervisors and stuff leave at around 6, but I saw her there when I left at 11. They didn't have me sign any paperwork, which I really don't want to, all that legal stuff makes me kind of nervous, but I understand why they do it. I feel very scared and nervous for some reason, I guess it's because I'm a new CNA and I don't really know what to expect. I don't really think there's too much they can prove because I'm the only one who saw it, and if they keep their jobs, they're going to know I was the one that told, because when I saw them, they stopped what they were doing. I heard a story of a girl who reported abuse, and they didn't find anything, and she lost her job, because after they investigated it, didn't find anything, they just thought she was lying...I hope that's not me. I know I did the right thing, but why am I feeling so nervous?

Well, I just let my supervisor know, about what I saw with the pulling the hair, and the sweater. I hope I did the right thing. For some reason I feel...guilty, but I know I shouldn't. They said they have to investigate it, so, I hope this is going to be okay.

Thank you very much, I appreciate your honest advice. It means a lot to me, and I'll definitely keep that in mind. I get the feeling that they're doing that, but not because I've said anything about them, but because...I feel like they may be jealous for some strange reason, which makes me hurt even more. But I do my job very well. Good Luck to you! And thank you again for the good advice. I appreciate it a lot. It's good to know that there are nurses who do care, and have been there already who can give me some insight.

I haven't said anything to anyone out of fear of that happening. I've heard stories where one CNA didn't like another one, and they lied and said they were doing something inappropriate when they weren't and I've heard those stories so I never made too much of an issue about the little things, because I was prepared for that. I definitely don't know everything, that's why I decided to not work from an agency, so I could see more and learn more by working with more people. I knew it was going to be hard and I knew I wasn't going like everything I saw, because I understand that there's a lot of issues with staffing, but, it just kind of hurts when you try to do your best, but you feel like your teammates don't do the same as you. Do you consider yourself a hardworking CNA?

True, true true. I understand completely. I was watching the news the other day, and it was talking about "recession proof jobs" CNA and RN was on the list of top 5, and I thought to myself, "Oh my goodness, I hope there aren't going to be more nurses coming into the field that do what they do for a paycheck." Because I've met some good ones, and than these not so good ones...and you can tell which ones are there for a paycheck, and which ones love their jobs.

That was my thoughts exactly. I've been doing a lot more research on them, they're a very big company, and have a lot of employee complaints about the same issues I mentioned above, but I definitely understand that a lot of facilities are short staffed, and good CNAs are hard to come by and blah blah blah all that other stuff, I see a lot of the companies perspective, but I'm more about the care of the residents. I became even more worried when a resident who was much more functional, told me about a situation where, a CNA was giving her a shower, and splashed freezing cold water on her, and when she told them it was cold, they laughed, and when I asked her to describe them, she described two of the CNAs I saw taunting the one resident. We have two units on our SNF, we have one that's for more rehabilitation styled care, and one that handles more critical long term care (strokes, cancer ect.) If the CNAs that I'm thinking of are the same CNAs that splashed the cold water on one of the residents, they put them on the unit where the people can't defend themselves. I'm doing a lot more research, and thinking that I may have made the wrong decision in selecting my job. I think I may report it, and play it by ear, see what happens, than take it to a higher power if nothing is done, and than maybe quit. Because I didn't get into this to witness this kind of stuff or provide that kind of care. If what I'm reading on the internet is correct, I really have to get out of there, fast! Thanks for the advice!

I recently became a certified nursing assistant, and quickly found a job working in skilled nursing/rehabilitation for the elderly. I was very fortunate because I had quite a few job openings available to choose from. I have been working for a few weeks now for a major company, and have become very disappointed with the behavior of the other nurses. Before deciding on which job I wanted to choose, I wanted to get all the information I could on my company, after doing some research I found a lot of lawsuits against them for medical malpractices, but I met the staff, met the residents, and thought well, if my family members recently passed away, I'd be filled with a lot of sadness and anger, and I'd want someone to blame, so I'd blame the people who were supposed to be providing care. I also understand, that there are a lot of people just trying to get money, and suing for a medical malpractice is a good way to do it. Before taking the job, I had to meet the residents and understand their needs, I guess they wanted to make sure it was something I could handle before taking the job. I of course, instantly fell in love, and put all the lawsuits in the back of my head, and took the job. The first two days were very stressful because as I'm sure everyone knows, everything is on a need to know basis so I didn't really know the residents needs very much, but they've been putting me with the same residents everyday, and after getting to know them and getting organized, it's been much easier. I'm a very fast learner and very fast paced, and very detail oriented, and organized so being a CNA has been very easy for me. I've been getting my work done so quickly the past few days, I've been noticing a lot of things that really irritate me. 1. The line..."that's not my room." a call light will go off, and the other nurses say,"it's not my room," "it's not my assignment," or the wonderful line from the lpn or rn, "that's not my job." 2. If a resident doesn't want their food, the nurses will eat it. from my understanding we're not supposed to take any gifts, or money, and under policy we're not supposed to take their food. 3. Putting an annoying resident in their room, and than locking the brakes on the wheelchair. 4. Discussing resident issues with people who don't need to know. These are all little things that have just been getting under my skin, but I've just been putting it off. But the other night, I was working, put everyone to bed, finished my checks, did everything that needed to get done, and decided to just walk around to see if anyone needed help, or if any call lights were going off. and I walked down the hall, and heard some yelling. So I decided to see what was going on, I saw a group of 3 CNAs taunting a resident who had a heart attack, who could barely speak, and has very limited movement with her arms and legs. They were picking at her sweater, poking her, and tugging at her hair. She's known to be very combative, but when I saw that, I had a feeling that the reason she was so combative was that she didn't trust the other CNAs. I was so disgusted. I spoke with her at the end of my shift and told her I was going to be watching everything, and she started to cry. I had her the next day, and she was very pleasant with me, no biting, nothing. Which further makes me believe, that the issue lies with the CNAs. Is this technically considered abuse? Is this normal for CNAs to be basically **** on by the RNs? Is it normal for CNAs to not want to help other CNAs, because it's "not their room?" I got into this to help people, and I do the best I can to help all my residents, and I feel I do a pretty damn good job. Any advice for a new CNA?