Carolyn_61

I wish more medical establishments would have In-Services about how negative attitudes and comments can affect your co-workers, the patients or residents, and the general mood of the place. I read somewhere that most people know that everybody is affected by their environment, but they don't think or don't seem to realize that they themselves happen to be part of the environment of every person they come in contact with. I worked a short time, about three months in a LTCF the summer before I started nursing school. I was amazed at all the backbiting of some of the CNAs. I suppose RNs and LPNs could be like that too, but I only heard it from the CNAs. Of course, some of them KNEW much more than the nurses, NEVER made a mistake, ALWAYS stayed with the schedule, and everybody else was to be considered LAZY! :icon_roll

I agree...besides there's really no way of knowing what anybody is doing or has done unless you had walked in their shoes. I can't even plan my own day. One morning I thought, "Okay, I'll shower so-and-so, then so-and so, and then it'll be time to pass trays." HAHAHA! The first one I showered began a long slow BM in the shower room and I don't dare leave her to do anything else. Result? I'm behind schedule. And that type of thing happens all the time! We can't predict every thing the residents will need all the time. Nor can we predict when some of them may poop all over their bed, only to do it again right after you clean them up! I try to never judge the previous schedule, or even a same-shift fellow CNA. It's too easy to just imagine that they (other CNAs) stand around talking while call lights were going on up and down the hall. I would like people to have some trust and confidence in my ability and dedication to my job as I have in theirs.

Some of us have taken to bringing some supplies from home. I carry around my own tube of Desitin. And I know a couple of other CNAs who actually bring their own can of air freshener. I agree about the lack of communication. We've had a real problem getting accurate I&Os, because we don't seem to work together on it. I'm going to start asking that they let me pick up my own trays, otherwise I end up guessing how much was consumed. I try to write down on the meal slips the food and fluid intake on every tray I pick up, but a lot of them don't do that.

We each do about 2 or 3 showers a day, which, I think, works out pretty well. Btw, the schedule above for days works for me now. They just switched me to days.

Wow! Thanks! I know it took a bit of your time to write all that out! I'm comparing it in my mind with what I do. I think I'm mainly just slow right now. I've noticed that it takes longer for me make an occupied bed or dress someone than the more experienced CNAs. Once, I was sent on a wild goose chase looking for a male urinal bottle. Everybody was too busy to help me. You add a few minutes here and there and it really adds up! Surprisingly, the last two evenings I worked I got all my residents in bed, dry, clean, and fed by 10:00 (2200) Some say that should have been by 8:00 (2000) but I felt pretty good about it anyway. :)

I just had a thought I wanted to share here. I don't think the lazy CNAs who truly hate their jobs and care nothing for the residents or patients would spend much of their free time on a forum like Allnurses. It seems like all the CNAs I've "met" here truly do want to do a good job. I'm the type that bolts upright in the middle of the night if I think I forgot to put the call-light by one of my patients during my shift earlier that evening.

Hey! I have a good recent example of not knowing enough about a resident! Last week one of the residents, a partially paralyzed resident who I didn't think could stand at all, asked me to turn his bed around. I thought it was an odd request but set about to do it for him anyway. I just about had the bed facing the opposite direction when 2 CNAs came running into the room, "What are you DOING!?" I told them that I was just turning the bed around as he requested. They took me outside and said, "Don't you know!? He's only paralyzed on one side. When the bed is turned the "wrong" way he tries to get out of it in the middle of the night and falls!" I honestly had NO idea! :uhoh21:

I know this is going to open myself to attack, but hey, here it goes anyway. BTW, I am a new CNA so be gentle please. It's a little impractical, especially if the resident is difficult to lift without help, to go from the bed to the wheelchair, to the showerchair, back to the wheelchair, to wherever! Have you noticed that those showerchairs have wheels? They are built for transferring, but only for the purpose of going to and using in the shower room. I always hold them when transferring and never use the showerchair if they can't sit up on their own. And I ALWAYS protect their privacy and also try to keep them warm. I don't transfer them through the halls naked or anything like that! I also make sure I hold them while they are on the shower chair. We have a special shower chair for those who can't sit up. I've only used it once so far. As far as I can tell, this is the way it's done at our LTCF. I can ask the DON to make certain. It could be that everybody is doing it wrong and the nurses are letting us get away with it! Personally, I don't think all CNAs rinse well enough during the bedbaths. Any leftover soapscum irritates the skin. There are a few residents here who only get bedbaths, but I think everyone who CAN get a good shower SHOULD get one, at least once a week! If you have doubts about whether someone really should be getting a shower or not, ask the nurses! Actually, at our LTCF, it's the nurses (RNs and LPNs), not the CNAs, who decide who gets a shower and on what day, so it's not up to us anyway. I'm still waiting on tips for making mine and others' work more efficient. Unlike what you may think, I often have to skip my breaks and work fast just to keep up! Maybe some of you have CNAs sitting around on their butts where you are at, but not here! I don't want to spend so much time doing everything "just so" with a couple of residents and then end up short-shifting someone else! Okay, I'll get my shield out now. Fire away!

Yeah for MA! Boo for KY. :-( Yeah for squirrels! :-)

I have to repent in dust and ashes for my early ignorance of the importance of nurses. When I was younger, I had the misconception that nurses just recorded vitals and made sure the patient was comfortable. I thought the doctors did all the thinking. I can't believe I was so stupid! :imbar I had an appendictomy when I was 19. You'd think that would be old enough to know better, but I did things like test the call button to see if a nurse would really come. Later, I couldn't get anyone to come when I was freezing and needed a blanket. Like the boy who cried, "Wolf!", I learned my lesson. I also remember being disappointed if I had a health question and the only one to talk to me about it was a nurse! :imbar I'm just curious if anyone else had wrong ideas about the nursing profession before they got into it themselves. ~Carolyn (presently a CNA going into Nursing 101 this fall.)

I feel like we kind of got off the subject with all the talk about bedbaths. I think this could be a more useful thread if we keep with your original question which, I think, was on the lines of "How can I give all my residents the best care and still do it quickly?" Great question! I'm pretty much in the same spot as you. To keep from feeling overwhelmed, I try to keep a "Just do the next thing" attitude. It helps me from freaking out. I've only worked days a few times so far and I really feel for you. At our LTCF, everybody is expected to have a bedbath in the morning before you dress them for breakfast. One tip, which you probably discovered a long time ago, is don't worry about the beds if you are getting them up. I went through this phase where I just HAD to remake their beds as soon as they were soiled. What a time waster that was! Now I just strip the beds and make them as soon as is feasibly possible. (Of course, if they are staying in bed, then that's a whole other matter. It's changed immediately then.) I wish they would let us feed more than one resident at a time, but they tell me that it is now against government regulations. No wonder meals take so long at our LTCF. I really love nurse aid work too, which surprised me because so many people actually tried to warn me away from it! Good luck! ~ Carolyn

I'm so glad I wasn't taught hardly any of that stuff! I was taught to only sponge bathe and not take a bath on my period. In a desperate attempt to get clean one time, I discovered on my own that baths don't hurt you, and the bathtub does NOT get filled with blood. If anything the presence of water seems to hold back the flow so one can wash normally. As far as men ignoring me, that only happened after I got married! If I realized that I was going to be invisible to half the population after I married, I might have stayed single longer! :uhoh21:

As far as not walking into temples and stuff like that, I wonder if that might be because women used to not wear any underwear. I have 3 daughters and I'd hate to have them walking around bleeding all over my carpet and furniture. Still, wouldn't just wearing a rag work a whole lot better than sending them out to to storage shed to bleed on our lawn equipment? :chuckle

Whoa! Maybe "wipe them down" sounded bad, though that's exactly how she put it. Everybody gets 2 showers a week at our facility, not just one. The reason it came up was because I couldn't find a basin to give a bb with. Apparentally, this resident didn't have one! The other CNA said they always just use the sink and "wipe them down". I'm sure she didn't mean to never rinse the cloth or anything. That would be yucky! I KNEW what she meant. I'm sorry if it wasn't clear. I figured you'd use a little common sense! I guess that's why these online forums don't always work so well. Good grief! I've already got someone writing me up on here and I didn't do anything wrong!! BTW, not having the right materials to work with has been a pet peeve of mine. Edited to add: I'm a very good CNA even if I am fairly new at my job. I actually LOVE my residents, much more than some so-called nurse who looks for reasons to write people up instead of teaching them. This might be my last post on this site. I didn't come on here to be attacked for posting.