shix

Oh shucks y'all must be tired of hearing this over and over again.. ~sigh~ - no response *pout* - trying a different way here lol. Oh well..hopefully someone will come along and offer some help.

Greetings!! I know this is an LPN/LVN corner and I am posting here because this is the program I am looking to get into (hopefully in September). So, I had started out taking classes geared towards the ADN Program but decided that the LVN path was better (time wise and earning wise too). I have already taken English Comp 1, Comp 2, Psychology, Human Growth and Development, Biology, Speech and Elementary Algebra. Now, I just got a new job as a Tech working nights at a hospital nearby - 3 12hr shifts a week. I want to know if the school work load I am picking is too much? I plan on taking introductory Algebra in a short 3 week mini class from 16th Dec to January, then for the Spring Semester take A&P1, Nutrition, Intermediate Algebra and Medical Terminology and for the Summer Semester take A&P 2 and Microbiology. Also, I am also required to sit for the HESI entrance exam in one of the schools I have applied to (the one I'm taking the above mentioned classes in) - any pointers to that would be appreciated. I took the TEAS V test last year in Boston but apparently didn't meet the pass rate for that school - bummer! Then I bumped into this other school when I moved to Texas and they actually said that I performed well enough and got 20 points already on that! Yay! :) Now this school works with points and they told me all other classes I take will give me points that will raise my chances of getting into the program. So I know for sure if I pass my "pre-req's" well, I will get into that school's LVN program. However, I still also want to apply to the other school but I am required to take the HESI test first..and can't take it till I have met their requirements (reason why I am taking the math classes). How is the HESI entrance exam? Is it super complicated? Sorry if I sound all over the place :)

Wow..I had no idea we could get mandated to stay. My situation was different. I work 11-7 so that night we had a full house with only 2 cnas - its a hospital ward - with two 1:1 which makes the acuity high. However, there were 4 workers scheduled for days and 4 of them showed up, two getting assimilated into the 1:1 which left 2 on the floor...the team leader not even a CNA himself. So a pt. apparently was going out of the unit and so the charge day nurse tried to make one of us (my co-worker and I) to stay. I had school to attend and she was dropping off her grandkids to school. So our charge nurse decided to stay back and do morning checks while one of the day crew took the patient out. However, this same day charge nurse has once before told me and another co-worker then that it wasn't a choice and one of us had to stay. Luckily he did. So this other CNA who's been through nursing school came up the other night to do a 1:1 and when she heard my story, she seemed to be of the idea that only nurses could be mandated according to their license...but not CNAs. So confusing...I emailed the unit manager and I guess I will read her response tonight when I go back to work.

Can a CNA be mandated to stay OT in the next shift because another CNA called out?? Am asking this because it happened on my floor...and today a fellow CNA tells me that only nurses are mandated, not CNAs. Tx.

I think it doesn't matter which profession one is in, a lazy person is a lazy person. Personally I jump when a bed alarm goes off (I work the night shift on a psych ward as a "Mental Health Worker" ie CNA lol), and for good reason. I would hate for any of the patients to end up on the floor (the paper work is immense esp. for the nurses), and I enjoy getting positive feedback on how well our shift works. However, I do realize that I tend to pull my weight and that of my fellow workers alot. Most of the Nurses help with the call lights and every other small thing - getting a glass of water, toileting..it makes me feel like part of a team. They don't "belittle" us (CNAs). On the flip side, there are some nurses I've worked with who sat in front of the computer screen on fb or watching some video while the call lights were almost deafening. I had to ask one if he felt it was too much to ask if he could please answer the call lights if he notices we're held up helping other patients? :). I guess my point is, people are different. Some people like to help, some just don't care. I personally like to make sure I did my job to the best of my ability at the end of the shift. If am feeling tired, I verbalize it. I too, am working on my "pre requisites" haha but at this point am torn on whether to go with nursing or respiratory care. Am sure I'll figure it out by the end of my school year. Good luck with the CNA.

Take it in stride maddiem. A step at a time. I was super duper nervous when I started out. I was afraid to get into pt's rooms, do adl's and I was really slow. Fast forward, 2 years - am an activities assistant at the ltc I started out at. Honestly, couldn't have survived being a cna there. But, am thriving as a CNA working part time at a local hospital. Horn in your confidence, pick up your pace, be a team player, stay neutral to the floor drama and you'll be alright. Your expertise gets better with time. Good luck! :)

AAArrrrrgh!! for the first time in ages I've met a patient I cannot stand. Granted I work on a Senior Psych Unit at a local hospital, I do not know how much verbal abuse we should take esp. coming from an alert and orientated pt. x3. So the hospital upped the admitting age limit to 50 years onwards. Culprit last night was a 50-something y/o female who is manic depressive. Sometime at around 3am, we got an admission. A 96y/o that had gone physical on her daughter. Sweetest thing ever but she was hitting, biting, screaming, name it. We had to call security and she ended up getting an IM. During nights there's only 2 CNAs so the other aide was put to do a 1:1 with the new pt and I had to run the floor by myself. Now, back to the 50 something y/o..she thinks we hurt people on the ward. So here I was re-directing other patients and everything then she sat outside the nursing station and started hurling insults. Said I was the worst of them all, touched on race (even though she is Hispanic - am black), said I would never amount to anything, gave me the finger etc. It had been a very hectic night and I normally get along very well with almost all the pts. She was rude and she was doing it such that no one else could hear this hurls of insults. She followed me and actually looked like she was trying to bully me. Honestly and truly, she got under my skin. The nurses were super busy doing notes getting ready to go to the report meeting I didn't want to bother them. Luckily for me, when I was leaving as I was talking to another CNA, she walked over to where we were and continued with the bullying. Oh, and she tried to change the story and said that I gave her the middle finger when in real sense SHE gave me the middle finger. She got really personal and as much as we are told to ignore it, I really couldn't I don't mind getting this kind of behavior from old demented patients but an alert and oriented one??? . I was doing my job, and I did it well. No one fell, no one got hurt, no one (else) was upset, every body's needs were met. How is it that we have places for patients to call when they feel threatened and/or abused. Who ever takes care of our needs? Who cares if we get threatened or abused? I can't wait for her to be discharged!!

Yay!:yeah:Sounds like it went pretty well! I hope that you get the position. You'd see a difference and get a break for sure! Thanks for the wishes. :)

Baubo516 I wish you all the best in your interview!! I have been an Activity Assistant for a month already. Its not physically demanding..just mentally I guess but you can deal with it am sure. I just usually bump into people with all these ideas about how I should do the activities (nurses, family members) and my hands are tied as the calenders are already done! They don't seem to understand that..and the fact that I couldn't change it if I wanted to :) but, I do mention it to the A. Director. My biggest challenge so far is keeping my last stage dementia res. that I love to bits...AWAKE! Omg! After breakfast am usually pretty much almost talking to myself! lol. But I love it! And, my fellow co-workers quiet as I do my morning meeting Am also interviewing on Monday at a hospital for a CNA job (so that I can keep my certificate active) - so, fingers crossed for me too.

oh goodness! It is such a relief to know ours isn't the only one going kookoo for cocopuffs! 'I'm heading off in a different direction... :) Yeah, I think the craziness is everywhere. It definitely is ay my facility. Dondie'- Well my dear Dondie, you and I are kinda heading in the same direction..but different lol. I become an Activities Assistant in 2 weeks. Goodbye Nursing Dept , hello Occupational Therapy Dept! woohoo!:clpty:. Like I was telling my team nurse, I love being a CNA, don't get me wrong. But I refuse to work in such hostile conditions. I was given a choice and I took it. I'll probably do a couple of hours here and there (outside of the facility tho:rolleyes:) as a CNA.

Am wondering if its just the nursing home I work in or is this common?? Geez! They're coming up with new rules and regulations, CNA's are being written up, fired, some have handed in their resignations and others have gone per diem..mostly because during the implementation of these new 'rules' we were talked at in a pretty condescending manner and pretty much told by the ADON that she had never been a CNA so she wouldn't really know how work is but she doesn't care, she wants her work done. She actually said these exact words 'I don't care if you eat or not. You shall not take your lunch breaks until everything I have said should be done is done and if you don't like it, you can go find yourselves another job.' Rubbed the CNA's the wrong way definitely . However, why should they rush us to do things differently a month prior to the state coming in? Why not implement these things gradually during the year?? sigh.

So the ADON calls for a brief meeting today at 10:30am. We show up at the nursing station...CNA's, the Unit Manager, the unit nurses..and two other people I didn't quite know who they were lol. So anyway, she starts reading each CNA's assignment and asked which residents had been toileted, which one's had not and why. Remember earlier on I'd mentioned that we can only get one person fully dressed for breakfast and the rest we have from 9am to 10:45, minus the 15 min activity room check and 30 mins unpaid lunch break which pretty much leaves an hour. So the ADON says we have reached a record high of skin breakdown issues and she's really dissapointed. All this time she's using the same tone you would use on a 5y/o with her voice raised she said 'I don't really care if you don't take your break or if you don't eat. If my mother/father were here we would be having a totally different conversation. I want care done by 10:45 and I want everyone checked/toileted/changed every two hours.' FYI, my unit has 14 hoyer residents. Then she caps it all by saying 'if you don't like it you can as well find another job'. Everyone was so offended all the CNA's gathered and wanted to storm out into the CEO's/DON's office. Well, being the 'neutral' one :) which am not so sure is a good thing or a bad one, I was sent as the CNA's spokesperson...so I passed on the message to the appropriate people..ie the DON and CEO. However, the DON and ADON are like two peas in a pod, so I don't know if that will help this case. I just told the DON tho that there was a HUGE communication barrier maybe if she took time to talk with her employers they would figure out what was going wrong where. Sigh. It is so sad when CNA's are made to feel like the worst lowest pieces of scum. We work very hard. I think CNA's work the hardest - physically and mentally.

@Fuzzywuzzy, I did ask about going per diem but they said the facility doesn't allow going over 40 hours. I guess this applies to everyone but CNA's coz I have sure worked way over 40 hours so many times. :) I suppose I'll pick up a couple of private hours here and there..or go per diem somewhere else depending on my schedule if it all works out fine.

:) Thank you all so much for the support & positive responses. The Activities Director actually came in looking for me today and caught me smack in the middle of giving a shower lol but, yes, I did go over for an interview and she expressed how she's been interviewing for the last 2/3 weeks and can't seem to quite find someone who fits the profile like I do. So at the end of it all I did ask about the $$ and she asked 'have you been working here for at least a year?' :) - of course I haven't and - am a fairly new cna too in general. So she said most of the times they pay you the same or they may up it a little (which is what she said she would work on with her boss). My argument was I needed an 'incentive' to leave my CNA position haha - I tried to make me look professional . But I have a good feeling about it. The hours are very flexible. She said I could pick to do 8:30am-4:30pm, 9-5, 9:30-5:30 or 10-6..and I could pick a mon-fri job or pick a weekend day if I don't want a rotating weekend schedule. I am sooo keeping my fingers crossed for this one. I want to do it for sure :)

Back with a totally different scenario :). My facility's HR dept called me in today to ask if I would be interested to fill in an Activity Assistant position that previously went vacant. They have been interviewing for the last 2 weeks and I guess the can't quite find the right person? This position is to work on the Dementia unit (which I currently work as a cna) :) so I know each resident, their mental capacity, their likes and dislikes and besides, I actively participate in activities anyway. So HR told me this would be a 40 hour position (compared to my current 37.5 hours), I would prob get paid a little more than I am making as a cna at the moment, its a 9-5 job as compared to me being at work at 6:45am and - as he put it, the job is not as physically demanding as CNA work. I said I'll go home and think about it. I have two days to get back to them. Any pointers? Would you take this position were it offered to you? I still would love to keep my CNA license active tho. Thanks in advance.