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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.

Fuzzywuzzy, your idea of having them cleaned/lotioned then back to their jammies sounds like a very good idea :idea: :). I normally get away with getting two people dressed as I argue one of my residents is cleaned and dressed by the 11-7 shift. So even when they don't do it, I get her dressed and up anyway ..then one more. :). Sunshine, you have no idea how many times I have said and wished that just for one day..not two, or a week, one day, this rule makers could show up to work to do a complete CNA shift. I hear some of them were Aides at some point so I wonder 'WHAT THE 'F' HAPPENED????'. AMNESIA? Geez! Then there's this lpn who is younger than anyone on the floor but my oh my!! her ego! appaling! You should see her ranting and saying things like 'wait they'll see. They'll know who I am. I have to make a point." like *****? cummon now. She's only been licensed for a year and this is her first job but her head's grown so big!!! :-o its just sad. The things we have to put up with! LOL. My colleagues and I say we don't get paid enough for the work we do, the verbal & physical abuse and stressful environment. Try add the heat now that temps are soaring to 100 + degrees!!:smackingf

There are some colleges that offer the theory part of CNA course curriculum online. But one cannot learn the complete CNA course online, as you can’t have practical hands on training experience there. Therefore, if you come across a website that is offering complete course online then be aware of these forge sites, as they must not have state board accreditation. CNA classes are an essential part of CNA Training and prepare you for the CNA Certification Test. Depending on your state of residence, you may have to go through a training of 100 to 180 hours.

Ashmeg87, frustrating doesn't even start to express it. I love my residents and I love the service I give (at least most of the times lol) as am sure so do most of us..but oh my! by the time its almost 2:45pm we are literally running out the door waiting for the next shift aides to come relieve us so that we can go home! :-o and to top it off, try working around a nursing station with the two team nurses, the unit manager, ADON, DON popping up every other 5 mins, family members..list is endless. It just gets overwhelming by the time we get to 10:45 :). Oh, and not forgetting that soon after breakfast we re-arrange the dining room for activities then re re-arrange again to the normal sitting table position 15 mins prior to lunch. Then after lunch we put almost half the population to bed and transport the rest to the TV room where we then transport them out again to the Occupational Therapy room at 2:30 and somehow in all that do your charting too. How we manage to do it, I still don't know but somehow it gets done. Sometimes I just employ an 'f' it attitude and say I'll do what I can at the fastest pace that I can handle..so long as am done before lunch. So I guess in some twisted kind of way we are mini miracle workers after all. :)

Hello everyone. just me... again lol :). This time however, I'd love to know how other LTc's have their times worked out. So my shift starts at 6:45am - 2:45pm. The place I work at came up with this policy that we can just get ONE resident dressed before breakfast or we risk being written up. The rest of the residents we just get them up and have them go to the dining room in their johnnies/night gowns. Breakfast starts at 8am (that's an hour 15 mins). Patient care starts again at 9am after breakfast and is supposed to end at 10:45am. That's an hour 45 mins. In this hour 45mins we, (CNA's), have an assigned 15 min break (that I've never ever been able to take), a 15 min activity room monitoring time (that every one has to do since residents can't be left on their own) and a 30 hour lunch break which isn't paid for (meaning we don't work the standard 8 hours but 7.5 instead..so you might as well lol). That pretty much leaves an hour or less to do care to the rest of the residents (like 7/8, including showers). This same facility expects us to give 100% quality care (which I would soooooo love to!), toilet, clean after ourselves and the rooms and other miscellaneous unforeseen things like 'accidents' since am on the dementia/total care unit . Am just wondering, is it only my facility that expects its cna's to be miracle workers? :)

This is not to mention also that she talked to my assigned resident too, who every now and then has spells when she 'wants to die' and she keeps saying 'ok, goodbye, am leaving now, am going to die' and this aide told her 'when you get there say hi to' ...and she listed several residents that had passed away already), 'and send me a postcard.' This is when I intervened and comforted my resident telling her she wasn't going to die because I'd be lonely if she left, then gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek...and she smiled and said 'thank you' :). And these are the moments I live for really. After running my own little investigation I've found out that this aide has like other 4/5 jobs. Someone actually said there was a time she went 2 weeks without sleeping in her house. Worked round the clock. Whether this is true or not, I don't know. All I know is that her attitude is all wrong. - well, at least that is how I feel. I stand corrected.

Thank you so much for all your encouragement. I have decided that I will not be bullied into silence. If asked again, I will still stand by my story. I saw what I saw, and it made me uncomfortable. Its funny when I talked to one of the nurses she told me to feel about it because that aide had other things riding previously reported. Whether they are abuse related, I don't know. Normally I like staying out of people's businesses and I didn't ask :). All I know according to the DON is that she was suspended and they are running an investigation. As for the Unit Manager, I've come up with a way to deal with her - do my job the best possible way I can and give her no excuse to bully me. [its so bad I had a dream last night that I was at work and she was giving me a hard time so I decided to change shifts lol :)]. Am very grateful for all your kind words, advice and input. Thank you, thank you! :):)

Thanks KatieP86. Its good to know that I've got support and that I did do the right thing. I haven't been in such kind of a setting for long (nursing home/rehab center) so I really don't know if this things do go on and go unreported. I just know what I saw broke my heart and made me very sad. These people barely have their families coming over to see them and some of them all they have is us. It doesn't take much to be nice to someone who needs that niceness for just 8 hours of your time. Whatever the outcome, I will stand with doing the right thing. I took the day off today to stay away from the negative vibe going on so am going to have a loooong weekend :)

Am a very sad person right now. So confused on what is expected. My scenario. I work on a dementia unit so most of the residents of course make little sense when they talk. However, I have had several instances where you can actually have conversations with them even though they wont remember. So, I was in a shared room with another aide, my curtain drawn as am giving care to my resident then I hear the other resident who has been awfully quiet lately speak out and ask why she was being treated so meanly. I pull the curtains a tad bit and true, she was been shoved roughly back and forth when getting dressed. The aide goes ahead and tells the resident if she didn't like the care she was getting, she might as well go tell her family to pick her up and go give her care themselves. This made me very very uncomfortable and sad. So I shared it with someone...and that person reported it. Now its become a big issue with the DON following me for statements and signing in-services, questions -all which I don't mind at all because am saying what I saw and how it made me feel. My unit manager however, is now treating me differently. I heard she made a snide comment yesterday when she automatically assumed I did something I didn't. When the nurse she was talking to told her that I couldn't be the one who left that mess esp. after I've been told not to, the Unit manager said 'Well, right now I really don't know what to think about her.' All because I talked about something I felt uncomfortable with?? I actually never even said the resident was being abused. I just said I felt uncomfortable. Now word is out and other aides are talking about it too. Now that makes a very uncomfortable working environment as well. It almost makes me feel bad saying the truth. It feels like all eyes are on me from the UM waiting for me to screw up. My question is, if I can't talk about this things without being retaliated on or treated this way, then I suppose am in the wrong profession?

....3 months down the road..I think am still a fairly new CNA in the geriatrics Ltc environment:igtsyt: but I couldn't help but smile. It is very true what you say. I couldn't apprehend half of what was being done or had to be done on a whole shift but, I stayed quiet, learnt my ropes, helped as much as I could, eventually got my own assignment and figured out how to manage my time well..ie, which resident to do when and what works best with me. I guess am doing an ok job coz am orienting someone on Sunday - already! :) :[anb]::loveya:

:)) its funny I used to get abit upset during my day shift because I could hardly get some of my residents to stay awake until I worked the evening shift. Now I totally understand and don't bother them unless its absolutely necessary. @Coffeemate, I have this one resident too who is always so calm and collected but the moment we close the doors to give her pt care, she wants to kill us! Soon after saying that she asks, 'are you ok?'. Ha! last night, one of the male residents went into one of the ladies' room, took a pair of pants and wore it. In the meantime the door shut itself. couple of mins later we hear a knock...coming from inside the room. I guess he couldn't figure out where the door knob was! :)) I was worried when I started out that I wouldn't be able to work well at the dementia unit but now, I don't think I'd like to trade it in yet. True, I suppose the workload is way heavier than other units with more total cares but, I think what I prob like most about it is that there aren't crazy amounts of call lights going off at the same time!! and we're always sure if a call light goes off then its a resident either fidgeting in bed or trying to get up...coz its pinned to their johnnies :loveya: