glittermoomin

Hi there! I am a new CNA (been at my CNA job for three months now) working almost full-time on a VERY busy rehab floor of a nursing facility. We work with the people that have just been discharged from hospital, but are too ill to yet go home. I work evening shift every day, 2pm - 10pm, although it usually ends up being 11:15pm or even later, after finishing charting and giving report to the oncoming night CNA are taken into account. This means I typically get home around midnight. I have a hard time unwinding and relaxing after I get home, after running around like a headless chicken all night answering all the call lights (did I mention it is a BUSY floor?) I am always very physically exhausted, but my brain has a really hard time switching off. I don't typically fall asleep until 2am or later, and then I sleep all through the morning until 11am or even later. Sometimes noon. I then have to be back at work at 2pm, leaving me only two hours or so to get ready, and undertake my commute to work. I am feeling like I am on an endless treadmill right now of: go to work ->work -> come home from work ->try to get to sleep for two hours -> fall asleep finally -> sleep way too late -> wake up feeling super-rushed with no time to walk the dog, make a meal, do yoga, do housework etc - > go back to work -> repeat. Do any of you have any advice on how to deal with odd schedules? And/or just sleeping too much after you get off shift? Thankyou!!

Hi there! I'm a new CNA, and I am having a problem with a small number of my residents over-using (dare I say abusing) the call light. This has meant I am unable to provide adequate care to my other residents, and I don't even get started charting until my shift is over. One of my residents is on contact precautions, and yesterday I had to go into their room almost 30 TIMES in one eight hour shift. I don't know if that is deemed a lot for most people, but it felt like a lot to me, especially when I had to gown and glove etc. Incidentally, I know it was almost 30 times, because I went through 3 packs of gowns! One out of every ten calls is actually a legitimate issue for these type of residents. The rest of the calls are all "pull my covers up, pull my covers down, close the curtains, turn the tv up, turn the light off, remove my tray table, find this phone number, find this other phone number, get me a coffee, now get me some sugar, now get me some creamer, get me some milk, turn the tv down, when is my medication, I need my medication, why hasn't the nurse come to give me my medication (I will get the call bell pressed literally TEN TIMES about medication, even although I have notified the nurse, and let the resident immediately KNOW I notified the nurse)...." etc etc. A lot of it is residents waiting for me to return to the room with a first request to give me a second request, and then a third request when I returned from the second. I ask my residents to think of EVERYTHING they might need in one go, but it never works. I don't think ANY of these requests are WRONG, but when the call bell is rung for each and every single request separately, I just end up getting SO BEHIND. I will bring a glass of milk, and THEN they decide they want a snack. I bring them a snack, and THEN they decide they want some creamer for their coffee. I try to assess the room and bring EVRYTHING they might need in one go (water, ice, cream and sugar, etc etc) but there is ALWAYS something else. It is driving me nuts, and affecting my ability to care for the patients that ACTUALLY need something (brief change, hoyer lift, commode use etc). Any advice on how to deal with people that abuse the call light would be much appreciated. One final thought - I am quite a nice person, and I wonder if I should be a little more abrasive with patients. I hate to say that, but I think they tend to abuse the kindness of the people that give them attention.

Hi there! I just graduated as a CNA, and start tomorrow in my first ever CNA job. I read a lot of posts from new CNAs asking experienced CNAs what their own first day was like. But they tend to be more worried about things that don't worry ME so much - that they are too slight/petite, that they are too shy, etc. What I am worried about is more the logistical side of being a new CNA, and was hoping people who were/are experienced CNAs could shed some light on this. My questions are more along the lines of things like - How do you know if someone is weight-bearing or not? How do you know WHEN to change the bed linen? Is there a schedule? How do you know WHEN to give somebody a shower? Again, is there a schedule? Is it the same for all patients, or different for each? How do you know which order to get residents up in? What on EARTH to you do if noone will help you with, say, a two-person transfer? My questions might sound basic, but to me, they are complete mysteries. I did my clinicals in a not that great facility, where the CNA staff were pretty sullen and unhelpful to pretty much all of the students in my class. We just sort of, trailed around after them all. They never explained WHY they were doing WHAT they were doing WHEN they were doing it, and I just kept wondering to myself, "How do you know so and so needs a shower today?" etc. Help!!

Hello everybody! :-) I am a 35 year old female considering a career in nursing. I just completed my CNA programme as a first step. My question is this - how good at maths do you need to be to take nursing? I'm not so much interested in responses that are all like, "You go girl! You got this!" Rather, I'd just really, REALLY like to know how hard the maths is. How did you pass the pre reqs? Did you just have a much better high school than me? I was looking at the prerequisites required for various programmes here in the States, and I honestly don't think I would be able to pass the prerequisites alone, let alone be a nursing student. This is honestly NOT a case of me being all faux-modest about my abilities. I grew up in the UK, attended a terrible secondary school, and have no math skills whatsoever. When I look at the math prerequisites required, I am not able to test into ANY of them, my maths is so poor. I look at the math pre req course syllabuses, and it might as well be in Chinese for all I know! It's frustrating, because the prerequisites alone seem insurmountable. Because I do not have the skills to test into any of them, what this means is that, in order to get Math 111, I need to first do Math 105. In order to do Math 105, I need to first take Math 95. In order to take Math 95, I need to take Math 65, and so on and so on, pretty much down to Math 26... It all seems impossible,not to mention, impossibly expensive. A math tutor is a possible option, although after taxes I currently earn $9/hr, so then again... Sorry to sound like a Debbie Downer! I just want to know if there are ANY other potential nursing students going through this right now. I think about this a lot, and the whole thing just makes me want to burst into tears sometimes :-( Thankyou!