bon149

I work in LTC and I work every weekend 10 hr shifts and then every Mon a 10 hr shift ( my choice by the way) What other job can you find where they work around your life. 10 hours is never enough, I always have more to do than will fit in that shift. I love it. The patients are wonderful. Even the woman who asks me the same question every 10 minutes, and there is a guy who breaks into song at random moments....we also do rehab so our patients run the gammet. I wish my rn (or any one for that matter) could do all the charting, it is the worst part! But it has to be done. We all work together and somehow we get all the work done and give our patients the time they need to just to talk with us. I went into nursing to help pay the bills while I went to school to be something else...I'm still a nurse. LPN working on RN but if I never finish I have to say I have been one lucky person. Continually learning and getting paid to do it. I wouldn't give it up for anything......okay if I won the lottery I might cut back my hours but not completely!

Thecommuter is correct, we can and do, do a whole lot more!

I need some advice on treating a skin problem, my patient has been undergoing dialysis for about 3 years 3 times a week and has recently developed a problem with access to her port, she has been unable to receive full treatment for about 2 weeks due to clotting and bp falling. She has received 2 new ports in this time. Now she has developed an area on the Right quadrent of her buttock that will not heal. It resembles an excoriation with several black patches measuring 1-2 cm in diameter. the surrounding tissue is pink but not warm. However it is very painful. She is on an antibiotic at this time for cellulitis of an extremity. I am at a loss as how to approach this. The pain seems to exceed what I would normally expect of this area in relation to the appearance. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Kudos! That is pretty much what my RN's do for me! This is a great reply so often we all think our job is the only one that is so busy but we all have our stuff to do. Sometimes we need to be reminded!

Wow...I'm amazed...and blessed with good management and good CNA's. I have to be sure to tell them how wonderful they are. Just out of curiosity about how long do these CNA's work in that kind of facility? Our day shift has a great retention rate, our newest cna has been there at least a year and the rest are around 5-10 years. Night shift is the same, evenings are more difficult to staff and the girls tend to be younger. They have to be reminded to a bit more. But if the bar is high most of our girls strive to reach it. To each of you that has reported abuse to management and nothing was done, did you call state? And if so, what happened there?

I have to say that after reading these posts I feel so lucky to be working with the CNA's that I do. Even the CNA's who get on my nerves or need reminders are not this bad. Yes sometimes I do have to follow up and remind some of them to do thier work but usually it has to do with cleaning up rooms, making beds etc. Rarely do I have to get on someone about patient care. I work in a small facility (80 beds) and and I am in charge of 40 patients. I usually have 4 or 5 CNA's and a resident aide on the floor with me. These girls are wonderful. We all take pride in how our residents look and in the fact that thier needs are met. We are all there for the residents and when we have a cna that isn't she doesn't last long. I will say that all of my CNA's are bossy, some more than others but usually they are bossy when it is in the patients best intrest. I respect them tremendously and ask thier opinions often in dealing with my patients because they spend more up close and personal time with the patients. My CNA's return that respect. I have worked with a lot of LPN's in my 15 yrs as a nurse and one of my biggest complaints about us is that too often we hide behind the desk. Supervising is out job but we also need to know the job we are supervising. Very lucky nurse, Bon

This is a great thread....every post has been helpful. I plan on enrolling in EC in Jan 05, I've already applied and have been accepted. I started with A&P, I am going so much slower than everyone here and I'm wondering if I'm being too careful. How hard was that A&P test anyway? :)