Caligurl

Another thing. I spent all morning looking for a dentist in this county and other counties who would help me and no one would. They all said that I should go see the dentist I have now. So guess they won't be getting any business from me. The oral surgeon was the only one who'd help. I'm paying for this procedure. What's the big deal anyway???

You're right. If they don't treat tooth pain or anything along those lines then it's fine by me. But they did not have to be so rude about it. What gets me is that they've treated dental pain before (my husband) and my clients who come in and apply for medi-cal in order to cover the cost of their dental procedures have gone to the ER and were given pain meds and antibiotics. I wasn't expecting the ER that night to perform a miracle and treat my pain like a dentist would. All I asked was that they take a look and prescribe an antibiotic. The other thing about this ER is this is a very small town. They're known for their high turnover rate in physicians and nurses. I can understand why. But to go out of your way to make a patient feel like they 2ft tall is just wrong. If you're not in the profession to help, then get another job. I LOVE helping people and if I were a doc I wouldn't treat my patients this way. Before we left that night the doc said "Don't worry. She'll be back." Yeah okay. Not after that mess. As for my dentist..yes I am in the process of finding another one because I called him this morning and they can't see me or prescribe any pain meds until after I see them on the 22nd! I even explained to them the situation. The pain happened suddenly and only got worse overnight. In the past he was always ready to see me and help me the same day. I guess since I paid him off two weeks ago he could care less now. Oh well his loss. What happened with my tooth is weird and I've lost all patience, time, and money on this dentist who I thought was great until this morning. I find out that what he did to my tooth was not a root canal type of procedure that he described to me when I first went in for this tooth. He only removed the pulp and partial nerve. Now Im in pain and suffering because I thought I was going crazy (he also had me believe that there could be no pain since he took the root out and that the sensitivity would go away after I healed from that procedure) when I told him that sometimes I feel a little pressure or stinging in that tooth. I won't be spending my hard earned money on his practice anymore. I am happy to announce though that an oral surgeon has decided to do the emergency oral surgery I need on Monday morning. :) However I am still in pain and lemme tell ya I just want to drink a whole gallon of liquor right now but I can't do that. LOL

This may not belong here but I couldn't think of anywhere else to post this. About 3 weeks ago I went to the ER for tooth pain at about 3 in the morning. I couldn't wait any longer and I couldn't get in to see my regular dentist for another two weeks and I had put off going to the ER because the one we have here...well..the doctors are RUDE. When I checked in, the nurse said "You know we don't treat dental emergencies?" I was shocked because my husband went there months before at the advice of his dentist because he coudln't get in to see his dentist either at the time and his face was swollen and they didn't treat him that way. Well, after I was taken to a bed a doctor came out and stood across the room from me and said "We don't treat tooth pain here. Why don't you go see your dentist?" I told him that I had an appt but the soonest I could get in was in two weeks and I only need an antibiotic." He just stared at me for a minute or two, huffed and puffed and walked over to me and looked in my mouth, stood back far away from me again and said "I don't see anything wrong. Your face isn't swollen. What are you doing here? We don't treat tooth pain." and he walked away and back into his little room where he was before and started watching TV. My husband was very upset and so was I. My husband then said "Why is he treating my wife with such disdain? Such disrespect?" And the nurse that was there said "You're on medi-cal." We looked at eachother and then looked at her and said "That's why you won't help me because you think I'm on medi-cal?" She said "Well yes. Medi-cal won't pay for that type of treatment here." I looked at her again and said "Check my chart. I'm not on medi-cal. I have blue shield/blue cross." She just stared at me in amazement. I could not believe that they were treating me according to the type of insurance they thought I had!!!! I work for social services and they knew that. I did get in to see my dentist soon after that and he prescribed an antibiotic for me which worked but yesterday I came home early from work because all the sudden my tooth flared up again and now my face is swollen, I haven't slept, and I'm in terrible pain. Everything I've taken I've vomitted up all night long and my husband begged me to go to the ER but I refuse to. I do have to see an oral surgeon but I can't get in there until the 21st. So today I am going to look around and find a dentist who can see me and maybe get rid of the swelling because the antibiotics are not working right now. I just don't understand why some doctors are so rude and others are just happy to help. The happy ones make me happy that I went and got treatment. It's not often that I go to the ER either. Once in a blue moon but c'mon!! Are some doctors like this no matter where they go? Sorry for the long story but I just had to get it out. :angryfire

Hi Krissy, you sound the exact same way I did when I first went into LTC as a cna. i went to the administrators a butt number of times asking them to do something about the new aides they hired, to show them or at best, let me train them in giving care. i'm no professional, but the people i trained were always complemented, i was complemented as well and it helped me get through to some extent. but the fact remains, there are cna's employed at my former employer who give the WORST care. they will leave residents in their "T's" (attends, diapers, whatever you call them) for hours on end. There were aides who only did their last round while sitting around all nite doing nothing and not answering call lights. we had a meeting once regarding the "making up of weights, BPs, etc...) and it still kept going on. the same aides who were doing this are STILL employed. a lot of cna's quit their jobs because they see a lack of care going on and no matter how many times they document and report it, these same uncaring cna's are STILL employed!!! its an outrage. meanwhile, the great cna's are leaving their jobs and going elsewhere while their former residents are recieving the worst care. this sickens me. it really does. i worked with a lot of under 21 girls who had children and gave the worst care. it makes you wonder how they take care of their home and family if they don't get their jobs done.

A couple of months ago i posted about my old job at the nursing home and the conditions. i quit that job after much debate and i've been happy ever since. in the months before i quit though there was a lot going on with theft. i remember countless mornings going home and sharing the details of what was told to me by other nurses to my husband. as far as what i was told, the only things that were missing were 5 bucks from a new resident and employee lunches. during my first month of employment, my stethoscope and bloop pressure kit were stolen. i had written my names on both in permanent marker but they were never found. in january, i had forgotten my purse after working a double shift and it was stolen. i called my bank to cancel my bank card and cancelled all of my credit cards. the next morning, my purse was found on top of the employee lockers in one of the break rooms. it had been gone through but i didn't have cash on me, i never carry cash, i always use credit or my bank card for any purchases. after that i bought a lock and got a locker for my things. i then was put on the PM shift and worked nocs about twice a week because we were short. on one evening, there were 4 aids for 99 residents and i was scheduled to split 2 halls with another cna while the other 2 split the other 2 halls. on the other 2 halls, there is a laundry room and the laundry staff are there until midnight. that night before i left home, i called my husband to come pick me up and he sent a cab for me which took me to his job until he got off work 2 hours later. i was told by a nurse and friend of mine that the woman who works in the laundry room had her wallet stolen and in it was 600 dollars. she called the police as soon as she noticed it was missing. i also talked to her the night after that, we talked often and she told me as well as well as the police (or so she said) that she saw one of the student aids in the laundry room while she was passing out the laundry. when she got back from passing out the laundry, she noticed "her purse was open, jacket was tossed to the side, and her wallet was missing". a week or two after that, i quit and heard nothing more until today. this woman, we'll call her mary whose wallet and money were stolen, looked up the place of where my husband worked and called him. she told him that she was in the process of suing us because she "knows" that i took her wallet and money. she said that if we wanted to settle out of court, that she would be more than happy to do so. my husband immediately called me and gave me her phone number. i called her immediately to ask her about her accusation and she said "the administrator, (fake name) janet, came up with a list of possible suspects on the dates that things were missing those last two months, she then began a process of elimination, called me into her office to explain all of this to me and she showed me your name on the top of the list and so i called your husband. my wallet was found not long after the incident (destination where found) and the cops are fingerprinting it and as soon as they get back in touch with me, i'm suing" i told her that i did not ever take anything from anyone. we had a good conversation with my husband on 3 way and she then said that she hurt her back that night and has not been working as much as she'd like to and asked me if i was there during a lockdown. i have no idea about this "lockdown" so i asked what she was talking about and she said that the office was broken into, someone tried to get in with a key and broke their key on the door lock and the maintenance guy had to replace all the locks in the building. after that, a residents daughter went to visit her and her purse was stolen. as soon as she reported it stolen, the administrator put the entire building on lockdown until they found that purse. they never found it and i wasn't employed any longer. but i am at the top of this administrators list for all these offenses including the theft of my own purse! i asked mary how my name even got on this list and she said "i don't know. that place is wacky and janet is doing something. she's gone around questioning all of the nurses and aids and they're all talking about you and accusing you of doing all these things". i am very hurt by this and have been crushed by it all day. i know it shouldn't affect my decision for wanting to further my career in the nursing field but i am at a stand still. employment has been extremely hard to come by. i'm still unemployed and only had one call for an interview with a temp agency. they said they were going to verify my references, my old job was one of them, and they never got back with me and won't return my phone calls for employment. i've applied at every hospital here in the town where i live and nursing homes. i even spoke with a woman who works directly with the only two nursing homes here in town, got an application from her, returned it and nothing. no phone calls, no return on phone calls, nothing. i went to unemployment and they said that my story and the story that my former employer gave them were two completely different stories and ever since i got this phone call from mary today, i am on a mission to at least get to the bottom of it. i know that if there even was such a list, nothing will probably be found and my name is being dragged through the mud and i just feel like a real idiot for even quitting in the first place. i should've known when i took this job, that my instinct told me to refuse and i didn't. i went into it naively (sp) and now i regret it more than anything. the whole experience was a nightmare when i realized how little they cared about their employees. they wanted me to work double shifts all the time with no rest eventhough they told us "do not come to work if you're too tired to work. do not put the lives of your residents in jeopardy. mistakes happen when you're burned out etc... just talk to us and let us know and we'll work something out." and regardless of how many times i went to them and spoke to them about how i felt burned out and just not able to cope, they ignored me and told me to keep working. i know for a fact, my husband and family and anyone who knows me knows that i am not a thief. never have been nor will i ever be no matter how much of a financial struggle i am in. nothing is worth losing my family, home, etc.. over. especially not over theft. im at a loss. thanks for reading. :)

Yes, I have asked for a pay raise numerous times and as far as I know, in over a year, all the CNA's at this particular facility have been asking for a raise for over a year and they were all just given a dollar raise in January of this year. That was and is the only raise they recieved in over 2 years. Meanwhile, all the lvn's and rn's got 2-3 dollar raises every year. So, the minimum wage in cali is 6.75 an hour. after graduation i would've been making 7.75 but because i graduated the CNA within the time frame of the new raise, I began making 8.25 an hour which is still not that big a deal. but they are still paying their new hired cna's 7.75 an hour.

Well, I got a call from an agency here in Cali last week and just called them back today. LOL They have me in their listings and they said they need people badly. So I will give this a try. The pay they described sounds a lot better and I get a bonus once hired. So I think this will be a great new start so to speak and I'll get to give my future patients the care they deserve. Not only that, but from reading this site, I have heard nothing but good things about agencies.

I just read that the average CNA payscale for the area I live in is $21,767 and in the lower end of the payscale the average is $19,999. I was only making 13,824. Now I feel like I have been ripped off. Working so hard, with little help and only making 8.25 hour. I would've been making a dollar less an hour if I had just started out as a CNA at this facility. They are currently hiring but no one ever stays and I see why. UGH how disturbing! :angryfire

I have since quit my job and called state and made a complaint. Thanks again everyone for your input, I really appreciate it.

I would not do this if it were passed. I plan on becoming a nurse in the near future and I just don't see how in the world, some of the people I work with are going to handle it! A lot of them are teens and early 20s and don't do half their job required. Who's going to make sure that these aides do their med passes? I am all for freeing up nurses times and giving them less to do but c'mon now! there's a better way than this.

In the facility I worked in, I have been sick almost constantly since Nov 2003 and right now as well. I have never made it a habbit to call off just because I don't feel like going to work but I was written up recently because they decided to "crack down on call offs". I called in twice in one week and it wasn't a good thing but I told my boss, "Look, if I come in, it's going to spread to my coworkers and residents and I don't want that on my shoulders." She said fine. After I came back to work, I was still feeling ill but I went in anyway and my boss talked to me about calling off then wrote me up the next day!!!! My hall partner who had never called off was forced to come in a PROVE to the nurses that she was sick. After that incident, she gave her 2 week notice and walked out. I have seen charge nurses call off all the time but because they're short on nurses, they get away with it. Whereas, we are short even more on the CNA's but get reprimanded all the time. On top of that, I see nothing being done about some of the CNAs whose work is just crap. They have a reputation, have had many complaints against them and yet are still employed. I guess it's more important to have a crappy work ethic than a write up for call offs. Not only that but there are many CNAs and CN's who call off every day after payday to go shopping and those days we are the most short staffed and yet nothing is done about it.:angryfire

Thanks! I really appreciate the feedback. :) I thought about going in and talking to the administrators of the ideas I have to change this field and to finally get things done but I don't know if they're willing to listen or even give these ideas a chance which is why I am going to go straight to the owner about this and the state. I have spent time over the past few weeks talking with other employees of this facility and they are in agreement with me on the matters at hand,which is great, but I am nervous and scared but it will be done and I will keep posted on the events as they unfold as much as I can. I love these residents too much to just walk away like most do and never do anything about it. I want to do something, or at least make some kind of change here and I know it can be done. I just have to figure out how to do it. Thanks again. It's greatly appreciated.

I work in a nursing home and graduated as a cna in december 2003. the facility i work in provides the training and experience to become a cna and i felt at one time the instructor and administration were actually a caring bunch of people. it seems a lot different now since i've been at this place for about 6 months. first, it's the pay. we are paid just above minimum wage. i am sure there are some here who know what it is like to be a cna and how stressful and challenging it can be-so i'll refrain from the explanation and try to keep this as short as i possibly can. this time that i have spent providing care for the residents in this facility has been rewarding. i love all of the residents but what i can't stand is the administration. the charge nurses and higher ups treat us with so little respect. they will talk down to you in front of your fellow workers and boss's etc... anyways, we have a very high turnover rate. there are always 2 classes of student aids going to cover the AM shift and sometimes (although rarely) the PM shift. i started out a nocs aide. we were fully staffed for about a month until one aide was terminated. then we 3 aides worked on 99 residents throughout the noc shift. it was extremely tiring as well. i have since been put on the PM's shift but am working both shifts as needed because we are short. a lot of the students, once they pass state, find other jobs and move on vowing to never work for this facility. in addition, cna's who were hired on are being paid less, working just as hard, but quitting after about 2 weeks to 30 days. they, like me, can not stand to be treated with so little respect and expected to do so much in a short amount of time or we are labeled as "neglecting our residents". the administration just recently took the T (attends, diapers) program away from the noc's shift because "the residents had or have UTI's and were not being changed at least every 2 hours during that time". this is not true. our charge nurse who works the noc shift does not agree with the statement administration has made towards the noc shift. on top of that, they do not and say they will no longer buy any new absorbent bed pads to keep the residents clean and dry. instead, they have all the old bed pads which do not abosorb even a drop of water. they have bought new beds though. these were purchased back in january and since they have stated they will no longer buy them. last night i worked a double and decided today to quit. i cried after talking with my husband about how much i will miss my residents and they should have the BEST care but that in this facility, they probably won't ever recieve because of the shortage. a lot of residents need treatments for skin tears and decubitus ulcers and only get them about twice a week at the very most. as a cna, we were told not to ever remove those dressings because they were out of our scope of practice and used to determine who changed it and when. i noticed many residents with the same dressing, covered in urine or bm or food for days on end without being changed. this i did not agree with. on top of all of that we are constantly short staffed and are called in to work doubles. last night i stayed for my first noc shift where there were not T's provided and we were extremely busy. there were only 3 of doing bed change after bed change constantly. we are supposed to have 5 aides during noc shift but that rarely happens. there would've only been 2 had i not stayed and i stayed because i care and love my residents and want the best for them. now that i've gotten some sleep, i am beginning to feel guilty about quitting and i am unsure of whether or not i want to go back. but i do know that i don't want to be a part of this facility simply because i do not agree with their treatment of the residents. state has come in and investigated time and time again. at least 4 times in the past 6 months and amazingly enough, this facility manages to cover their ground each and every time state comes in. thanks for reading.