MichaelLooney

Okay, I've been on both sides of this argument...I actually ended up having to go to the doctor because I was injured trying to get to work on time when I worked LTC. They didn't CARE about how you got there...you HAD to be there. No ifs, ands, or butts. But on the other hand, because the weather was so bad, I'd rather have stayed and knowing that someone ELSE wasn't risking their life trying to get to work. I care more about people's safety than how long I've been working, or if I'm going to be relieved by the next shift. Isn't that what it means to be in heath care? To put everyone else first??

Thank you. :)

I'm worried about calling and having either the long stretch of silence over the phone line, hearing sudden laugher at the audasity of me calling with that question considering the circumstances, or having the person answering ask me just how stupid I could be. Or, worse case senerio, all three. =/ But looks like that might be the chance I take.

I wasn't sure what forum would be best to ask this particular question, so I figured general would be good enough. A few years ago I was attacked by a resident here in Nebraska, who fractured my wrist and broke my glasses in the process. After that I was terminated by the LTC I worked for, and the state held two seperate trials concerning my alleged abuse of her. The first resulted in my CNA lisence being revoked. The second they decided to allow me to keep my Medication Aide lisence. First off I know that sounds COMPLETELY off the wall...I figured when they revoked one, they'd revoke the other as well. But I did not try to go back into any sort of medical work after that. Now, almost 4 years later, its coming around to looking like I will be moving from here (Nebraska) to Montana, likly this summer/fall. So my question is, would I be able to retake the CNA classes in Montana, and try to re-earn a CNA lisence there, or would they automatically tell me there's no way in H-E-double-L that they would allow me to practice in the state after loosing my lisence here? And how would it look on my record to have what I was convicted of here when all they did was revoke my lisence (I was not forced to pay any fines or serve any jail time)? Thank you for your time and patience in this matter. Basically I'm just trying to sort out what hope I might have, if any, of returning to a profession that I enjoyed immensely.

What I want to know is why can't we do something against the abuses TO nursing? I love my job b/c I had a "porr little old lady" who broke my glasses and attemtped to break my arm as well. Had x-rays of the fractures she left in my wrist, but ended up loosing my job and nearly loosing my lisence over the whole matter. Only thing that didn't complete it was that she didn't have even a bruse on her. That's just an example of physcial. We also suffer emotional and social damage as a normal occurance, as well as many other forms.

It you're right...you are...but at the same time, its a good idea. Problem with changing a nurse's wage (even though they're much more likly to be hurt or become ill on the job than a construction worker) is that you have people who will scream and say, 'I worked to get to MY position, so I want a pay raise, too!' Even though all they might do is type stuff into a computer all day and check blanaces people ow to a hospital or whatever. So everyone all up the line gets paid more, including the big high and mighty muckity muck who probably doesn't even know what colour the walls are in the nurse's box...er, breakroom. This means each patent will be charged more, insurance companies will decline more things, and everyone will go back to feeling the way they did before 6 months later. That, on the flip side of course, means we'll have an influx of people going, "OMG! Nurses get paid decently! I want to be a nurse!" This means schools will see the massive profits that can be made, raise tuitions, requiring more aid and more out of pocket to cover the classes. This, of course, will mean even MORE bills people have to pay off when they get out of school, which means even LESS money... I all trickles. Like this minimum wage rase they're talking about: Raise the minimum, and people making above expect a raise, too. The cost of this trickles back to the consumer, who has to pay more, and really aren't making any more money in the end, but might actually be making less at the end of it all. Speaking of patient to professional ratio, there's nothing you can do about makeing people nurses. Its like the place I'm working for now. They're CONSTANTLY asking, 'How can we get more customers?' I answered, quite seriously, 'Hold a gun to their heads.' If someone doesn't want to do it, or doesn't have a way to do it, they're not going to. And you can't change that. We don't have enough nurses to handel the patients, but how do you expect people to want to become nurses when we went from being the perfect ideal of an order durring the wars, to being walked all over and disreguareded as inferrior because 'the customer is always right', until they're dead, so their families can sue us for things we had no control over? I could go on forever...but I won't.

The problem is not that we're not united. There's LOTS of jobs that have the same problems we have. I've worked in countless places with lots of differnet people in different professions, and its all the same ****, just different stories. And being united isn't going to do anything, b/c we'll still have people who get paid massive amounts for sitting on their asses making decisions for people who break their backs for measily pay. Its the way everything works, and there's nothing that's going to change it until we find the perfect way to build a utopian society without people feeling like the rocket scientist isn't doing as much work as the ditch digger.

That's assuming you can afford this thicker, stain-retardent fabrics, aren't busy, and don't work at a place that screams at yoiu about being "unforfessional' if you have even the smalled spot on your clothing.

I had a complete nervous break down last week. Everyone says it was probably stress. Had a talk with a higher up. Was basically told if I needed t talk to talk about it, he was there, but I can't just do that in front of people. Asked me what was wrong. I have NO idea what was wrong. Woke up that morning all jittery and feeling like the world was falling apart. Was fine the night before. Explained all this to him. It was fine. Kept feeling jittery and funny for the rest of the week. But can't afford to go to a doctor (insurance only covers ER visits I found out, which is making me thikn of droping the insurance b/c our hospital is non-prophit). Well, to make a long story short, I've been told by others (not the guy, luckly), who heard about what happened. And they all have this attitude that once you walk into work, you're suppose to leave your problems at the door. Now, first off, I've NEVER been able to detach myself that easily when I'm having problems. I can usually COPE well enough to get though the day until I can go back to crying at home (or at least have a good one durring lunch when no one can see). Secondly, I don't know WHAT my problem was (still is, since I havne't completely gotten over it, really, particularly b/c everyone keeps talking about it even after I've stated repeated that I don't want to), so how could I "leve it at the door" anyway? How does anyone else deal with problems like these?

I know a LOT of people (on here and not) have discussed the pros and cons of white unifroms. And I'll give my two cents (like I have before): White uniforms are ruined the first time I wear them. Now, if they can figure out some way I can either get the stains out immediately, without having to stop caring for the patient or bring 5 changes to work every day, I'm going to stick with coloured ones that don't so as much. Now, I do like white uniforms, don't get me wrong. But it just never seem praticle outside of movies and TV shows to wear them.

Yeah, well, this is the same place who decided that after I got abused by a resident, I should SOMEHOW stay away from her and STILL take care of her at the same time (they kept assigning me to her care), then fired me after she abused me again just barely over a week after the first one. I'm still fighting with the state Health and Human Services.

We were told that breaks are a bemefit, not a requirement.

My problem was always that I'd be busy busy busy and be exhusted, then I'd sit down to to do my charting and fall asleep before I'd hardly get started. Been told I'm strange b/c I'm a 'day' person, and even as a child, I've never been able to get myself up or work or do anything before the sun was up, or after it was down. It was like my brain just shut down. Unfortunatley the morning shift has to start at 5:30, before the sun is up, and the evening shift ended at like 11 pm, long after the sun set...so I chose the lesser of two evils and went with the evening. I tried different things, like drinking coffee (I am NOT a caffine drinker at all!), standing up to do my charting, even moving around while I was doing it, but I'd just fall asleep on my feet or end up leaning against the wall. I guess I was just lucky that by the time I'd finish getting all the residents into bed and have everything situated with them, it was about 9:30 at night.

since this has been stated, i'll post what happened to me reguarding an abusive patient. i not only was verbally abused by a patient, but physcially. and she was one of those 'grandmotherly'-types, so she looks all harmless until she's angry. now, they tell me i can't refuse her any care under any curcumstances, then fired me the second time she hit me, claiming i was abusing her. (now, i'm the one with the broken glasses, the bruses on my thigh, and the fracture in my wrist, while she comes out of it happy as a daisy and sparkeling as a diamond, and _i_'m the one abusing her.) i think it really depends on the place you're working on, and their views on everything. the place i worked assumed that every time a patient became combative it was automatically the cna or nurse's fault, and they were consequently blaimed for the entire fiasco.

The place I worked at had that problem. We had enough beds for, I blieve, abut 67 residents or so, were full most of the time, with both people working to get their way out and those who were there perminantly. We had 4 CNAs on the floor, one just for baths and assistance, and 2 nurses to handel the two halls of reidents. And yet everyone kept telling me OVER and OVER agian that we had it easy because there are places with more people and less staff. I still thiought it was a little too much to provide adequate care for all the residents we had, and often left in the evening feeling like I'd hadn't done enough for all of them, felt like I had to rush though too much, because we had too many residents and not enough staff. OH! Just want to add that the facility didn't want to hire anyone else. Higher ups kept complaining we didn't have the money for more hands.