camci

The take away the shower team every now and then and bring them back a couple months later. This time was because a resident went months without her infected toe being reported by the shower team, so she had to get part of her foot removed. One of my residents just moved in with family, and another passed away. It's amazing how one or two residents leaving the hall makes it so much lighter. I hate being relieved when a resident passes but he was really sick and wasn't getting any better. Allot of what makes it so hard is feedback from your coworkers. The seem to ignore how much work you're doing and focus on what you haven't done. When I try to explain the workload, they say "you're gonna have to learn better time management" or "how do you expect to be a nurse?" but really, there is only so much time you can physically manage. Things happen, residents have accidents, colostomy bags explode, unexpected complete bed changes.. you know. 6am this morning when I got on the shift, I saw my residents colostomy bag was full, so I told the nurse because CNA's aren't allowed to change them (no matter how much the nurses complain). She said she would get it, then I noticed at 12pm it still wasn't changed so again I reminded her. Then at 1:50pm when it was almost ready to leave, I went in his room and his bag exploded. I told the nurse, she said she forgot and told me to clean it up and go ahead and put a new one on... yea..

We're nurse assistants, not nurses. Can you imagine doing CNA work AND nursing work at the same time on a hall? Nooooooo. Never. I would quit and go into computers.

I've been working at a LTC for 6 months, and the past 2 months have been miserable. I work on the total-care hall that has two residents in every room, and half the time get a decent partner (when the hall needs to have 3 aids). From the moment I walk in I hear call lights go off, and the weight of all the work I have to do for the next 8 hours starts setting in. They recently took away the shower team, so every hall has to do their own showers now which is about 6-7 showers a shift, which take about 30-45 minutes each. Since it's a total-care hall all of my residents are very difficult to transfer, especially the heavy ones. Even if a transfer takes 15 minutes, my back and body feel like I just lifted a refridgerator by myself, even if my hall partner was there to help. We also just got a new critical resident in last week. He's young and had to have half his brain removed due to a motorcycle accident. He's completely paralyzed and un-aware, we give him care every two hours that takes up a good amount of our time and our backs, all with his mother watching which is everyday. I don't know how I made it to 6 months, but as it is I really really hate going to work in the morning. I had to call-in today because all the work has just gotten me physically sick and emotionally drained, and I'm going to hear allot of hell for the next few days from my co-workers who had to work short because of the call-in. Any advice from people out there who are/were in the same situation? God I can't wait till I get my LVN.

The nursing home I work at does 6-2, 2-10, 10-6. I worked 10-6 first for 6 months, then 2-10 for 6 months, and now i'm on 6-2. The morning shift is definitely my favorite, it goes by soo fast and I have so much time after work. Also, I try to get atleast 4 doubles in a month, that's 16 hours shifts. About 80% of the aids in my facility do double shifts, we couldn't pay our bills if we didn't, (we make 9.75 an hour). The aids that do doubles are generally considered the more valuable aids to our management and supervisors, so like when I was about to be fired for being late too many times in a month, they decided to keep me because of all the extra work I do. 16 hour shifts suck though. They're evil.

Good news, I didn't get fired! Just a 2 weeks suspension, whew.

I'm a 22 year old male whose been a CNA for a little over a year. I've been at my current nursing home facility for 4 months now and I love it so much I want to continue working there after I get my LVN. I know every resident backwards and forwards and nobody has ever complained about my hall during shift changes, I'm just a good CNA. All my nurses love working with me and some of my CNA coworkers will fight to work with me because they know I'm fair and I always make sure everyone has an even load on the hall. If they pick up one of my residents because I was busy, I pick up one of their residents. Recently I had a semi-no call no show. I called in saying I'd be late because my babysitter hadn't showed up yet and I couldn't get ahold of her. My babysitter is my mother in law, she finally got ahold of me saying my baby's mother tried to commit suicide and is in the hospital. I was so distraught I didn't call the facility back telling them I was late. I did however go back to work as soon as my rotation started back and told them what happened and that she was now in a mental hospital. They really got on to me for not communicating and told me how difficult it is for the facility to work short. They gave me a written warning. A couple weeks later I worked 2pm-6am and didn't wake up until 15 minutes after my shift started. I raced over there, clocked in, and sneaked onto my hall. They told me they were fine because they were full-staffed before I got there and someone might even have to go home. However the ADON saw I was late and blew a gasket. She told me I already had a warning for not communicated and I'm now suspended without pay until further notice. My supervisor and nurses were all upset, they don't want to lose me because they say I'm one of the very few good CNA's that come through the door and other people who are late never get in trouble. It's in corporate hands now whether to keep me, and they'll base their decision not on my work as a CNA but on my time sheets. My supervisor wrote them a letter telling them what a good CNA I am, but she still told me it would be best to start looking for another job, you all know how corporate is :/ I guess my question is, will it be easy to find another job with a termination on my record? My supervisor told me they wont tell them I was fired, they just give them the dates I was employed. I'm still not convinced though.

I'm a CNA and will be starting (hopefully) LVN school this fall, but last weekend one of our agency RN's came for the holidays and I started asking her about her job and stuff. She is a 60 year old woman who has been in the business for decades, and told me she only makes $30 an hour. I said "but the LVN's here start at $27!" she said "I know, aweful isn't it?". She said everyone will try to glamour me about how much money I'll make as a nurse one day but the truth is they're more underpaid than they let on. She told me just to stay away from the hard dirty work of nursing and go into computers (uhm, no) or maybe go to something higher than RN one day. My goal is to one day be a nurse practitioner, but that could be 10 years down the road since I have to be an RN first for 2 years with most NP programs. Are RN's really this underpaid though? Everywhere I read says RN's make 70-80 a year, is this woman right or is she just an unfortunate exception?

My first LTC/CNA job and I love it, despite the low pay, my relationship with the coworkers and residents are what keeps me staying to gather some experience. However in less than a month cooperate comes in saying since not everyone is taking 45 minute breaks, they have to cut our hours to part time and we are now short on aids every shift. Night shift, the one I work, now has 3 aids for 4 halls, can you imagine how hard that is if someone calls in? We never finish our rounds on time now, ever, and aids are now quitting because they can't support their family with partime so now we're really short. A nurse told me cooperate does this at least once every other year or something and it gets fixed quickly because sooner or later we'll be so understaffed that management will have to help with shifts because they cant hire anyone because no one wants to work parttime and for so much work. Has this ever happened in your facility?

You'll get over that fairly quickly. If everything was done by the book, you would absolutely positively never finish your work on time. As long as you're practicing good hygiene and you're keeping the resident safe, you're doing the job right.

I'm a new CNA working for a month now at LTC night shift for $9 an hour, no shift differentials, and i'm friends with a coworker who has been working there for 3 years and she told me they still have her on the same salary as when she started, which is 9. I love the facility, I get along fantastic with my coworkers, and adore my residents, but the money is atrocious. A nurse gave me a tip that when she was a CNA she started working for an alzeimers facility that payed her $3 dollars more than LTC plus she had shift differentials, so she was making 14 and was still a new CNA. Can anyone confirm this? I don't want to get apply at more facilities that will just pay me the same as the LTC that i'm comfortable with atmosphere wise.

I've been having allot of wrist pains recently since I started working in a nursing home. It flares up whenever I move a heavy resident up in bed (most of the time I HAVE to do it myself, my coworkers hate helping out) and also when I hold I heavy resident on his side while I'm changing him. At first I thought it was carpal tunnel since I used to have that it my right wrist, but that went away a year ago after I got a trackball mouse, and the pain has been in BOTH my wrists. Has anyone else had this?

By explosion I mean every resident on all of our halls (minus a few) are having diarrhea, MASSIVE. I'm talking you lift the sheets up and there is a pool of stool inbetween their legs. I obviously have a strong stomach to this stuff, otherwise I wouldn't be in this field, but it's the time it takes to clean up one diarrhea resident that is stressful, not the actual diarrhea itself. The past two days i've been having to start my last shift early and STILL end up going overtime, even THEN I have to leave without finishing everyone because the nurse tells me just to leave and don't worry about it. I have to clean about 14 residents, a little over half of whom have diarrhea which can take up to 30 or more minutes to clean because I have to keep going back for another bag of wipes and do a complete bed change on all of them, and I had a couple make an accident after I change the sheets and before I put a clean diaper on. Have any of ya'll experienced this? What do you do to make sure you finish everyone on time?

I just started my first nursing home job (rehab) and so far the night shift is very easy, the staff and nurses really like me and commend how I care for the residents and that I go in and talk to them before every shift instead of sitting down watching tv waiting for a light. We're supposed to do a round every 2 hours, but every cna and nurse told me that if I wake the residents up every 2 hours they wont get their rest and will give the morning and evening staff a very, very hard time. So they told me to do atleast 2 rounds if I can. My CNA orientators from my first 3 days told me to start my round a couple of hours before the end of the shift (6am) but i've been starting at 3am, get through my 20 residents, and then start on waking up who I have to get up that day, and as soon as I finish it's exactly 6am. But the other night, a cna asked me why I was starting so early and he told me that starting that early there might be a resident wetting his diaper right before I leave and the morning shift might think I didn't change him at all. But if I start at 4:15 like they said, I might not be able to finish in time because i'm not as fast yet like the other cnas and the people I wake up are very heavy and I have to get them on the sit and stand which usually takes 20 minutes each, and I also have 2 heavy residents I have to change in the middle of the night and usually no one is around to help me so it takes allot of effort and energy to get them on their side because their entire body covers the draw sheet. Any advice? How do you guys do it?

I know, it's absolutely disgusting taking advantage of very hard workers. This job was supposed to support me while going to nursing school, but looks like i'm going to have to take up another job too.

How should I go about negotiating with the agency? They are the top agency in my county and I was very lucky to get an interview, I don't wanna seem greedy you know?

I guess they can, I tried to wager with him, but he just told me take it or leave it :/

I just got hired for a job at assisted living PRN for 7.61 an hour. Seriously? That's below minimum wage, and he said it's because I have no experience in the health field yet. I have a 2nd interview with HomeInstead home health next week and they said they'll start me at 8.25. Again, seriously? My friends make more money playing with a cash register. Should I just keep looking? Is this low pay common?

Passed mine today, October 1st :)))))) Was soooo nervous because our tester is a "new" tester and doesn't cut any breaks. I had 5 skills: Handwashing, Communicating w/ resident during care, denture care, ROM, and make unoccupied bed. Pretty easy list I would say, I passed it all :) First stepping stone in my future career, DONE!

I probably won't file any complaints for the very reason someone listed about being "blacklisted". I have a 7 month baby to support and don't have the time to deal with that kinda thing. But then again, I also don't have the time to have someone tell me a week in advance that "I want you to come to orientation next week, I want to hire you" and in turn I don't apply for anymore places for a week or follow up anywhere and spend money on scrubs and toys for my daughter thinking I'll be able to afford it, THAT is VERY upsetting. I'm telling the truth. I have long hair and a high voice, she had to ASK me whether or not I was male or female but AFTER she had me sign papers and even give her days I want vacation.

So i get to orientation and they tell me an hour in that they cant hire me because they didnt know i was a guy and they dont have any room for male assistance. Yea, big tease. Im still really upset. She was taking me to the restroom to do a drug test and said "ok, I have a serious question, are you a guy or girl" i'm very androgynous, but I didn't think it'd be a problem so I told her male and she said "I'm really sorry, but I can't hire you, we only let males work with male patients here and I already hired a male. It's just company preference, but I can try and talk to my boss to see if he could change his mind, but i'm sorry I just can't hire you" Yea, REALLY upset me, I went to my car crying because I was so excited about my first job.

Ok thanks guy. So we actually get paid for orientation?

I've got a four hour orientation at a nursing home on Wednesday I feel silly for asking this but should I wear scrubs or dressy/casual clothes? Thanks!

I just passed my CNA class and unfortunately the office messed up a little and our exam date has been postponed for another month and I wont have any hands-on practice anymore. I was wondering if anyone knew of any websites that showed in-depth skill videos that could help me?

Really? The nursing program doesn't look at your overall GPA when they consider you? Well thats great news for me!

Oh I see, so in order to get the ADN degree we have to have the gen ed classes done? Well that makes sense