"The Nurses and HCA's will be responsible for...

allnurses Guide · May 18, 2011

Will the HCA's be passing meds under your license or are they licensed to do that?

Exactly! That makes no sense.

Guest233447 · May 18, 2011

The on-site pharmacy will be packaging all the meds with pt name, name of pill, description of pill ie: "Mr.Smith, Levodopa, round, white pill" and these will all be kept in a locked pill box and in a locked drawer in each patient's room just as the meds would be if they lived in their own home (the idea being: this IS their home). I can't seem to clarify if they're passing under my license - I wouldn't think so but don't know for sure. If the resident refuses the meds, they chart it on the MAR and in the communication book.

I hate the idea that I don't know who is taking what, how they're taking it - how it's being handled (if the pt. refuses).

I don't think I'll stay. Makes me really nervous. And it's not unionized so you have zero protection should something go haywire.

N.U.R.S.E. · May 18, 2011

Why would anyone want to stay there nurses are suppose to nurse and housekeeping is for housekeeping as if you don't have enough duties already ? If you went to school to be a nurse and to pass meds how much schooling and training have the hca had are the licensed or unlicensed personnel are they working on your license and how can you be sure they are administering the drugs safely who is liable if they make an error my judgement is run forest run!!!

**LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM** · May 18, 2011

It's not going to get done. No one is going to have the time. I think I'd stay for the write-up so I could frame it and laugh really hard every day.

This statement on its own made me laugh really hard for a solid few minutes! Agree 100%. :lol2:

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · May 18, 2011

Cleaning the resident rooms and bathrooms."
This line drifted to my ears in the orientation for a brand new (lovely) private LTC facility opening here soon. This is Canada - we don't really do "private" care but the gov't of the province in which I live has recently handed over LTC to private for profit companies.
I am a new graduate nurse and so am happy to find a job wherever I can... until I hear this!
They have a housekeeping staff - these staff are responsible for keeping the (carpeted) hallways and common areas clean. We've been told they don't set foot in the resident's rooms - the nurses and health care aides will be responsible for cleaning these! What?!?
I am curious if any of you have heard of this before? I mean, great facility and all - the food, decor, building, etc all new and state-of-the-art. But they're saving money by having their nursing and auxillary staff acting as housekeeping??? How does this enable the best resident care?
I think I'm going to quit before I even finish orientation. I didn't go to school for 3 years to clean toilets.
What do you think?

I think it's a load of hooey. It's one thing if a resident's toilet gets plugged and you have to trot up to their room with a plunger to unclog it; but it's a whole 'nother set of issues if a facility's management actually expects the NURSE to walk around with a dustcloth and a can of Pledge.

Things are getting tougher all over. Just last week, I pitched a fit when a well-intentioned care manager (who works the floor on occasion herself, so she ought to know better) decided that the staff was going to start ironing this one male resident's shirts for him. Now, we are talking about a generation that liked its starched and pressed cotton shirts and dresses, and the residents who do want ironing done and cannot do it for themselves will have it sent out to a business we contract with to provide this service. But this particular fellow, who for some time had another female resident ironing his shirts before she went to a memory care facility, is perfectly capable of doing his own.......he just refuses to because "it's woman's work". :mad:

So when Anna put this new service on the gentleman's care plan, the other care manager and I blew our tops. Our staff do a good job, even with having to play "waitress" every day in our fine-dining room and do their assigned residents' laundry; but they are NOT maids and they do not have time to stand there and iron some man's permanent-press cowboy shirts! Her take was "well, we're here to provide services, aren't we? We'll be charging for it, anyway." Yeah, and the poor caregivers who get stuck with the task will never see a dime in extra wages. Besides, who deals with it when the OTHER 75 residents get wind of the fact that ironing is available for a nominal fee and they won't have to have it sent out anymore?? Can anyone say, "cluster-(fillintheblank)"?

It's all a part of that wonderful concept of the 'universal worker' that corporations just adore. This is the idea that any worker in a facility should know how to do other peoples' jobs. While it's certainly not a bad idea in theory, the disproportionate burden of work ALWAYS falls on the nursing/care staff in a communal living situation. I don't know what it's like in Canada, but in the States it saves companies all sorts of money because the caregiver is trained also to cook the meals, serve the meals, bus the tables, set up the dining room for the next meal, clean the public bathrooms, wash, dry and fold the laundry.......and oh, if they've got time, to wipe a butt or two and give somebody a shower. :uhoh3:

BOOYARN · May 18, 2011

cooking breakfast in the cottage!!!! lol

DeLana_RN, BSN, RN · May 18, 2011

This place is screwed up... the UAPs (HCAs) give meds and the nurses do housekeeping?! Run, while you can.

Good luck in finding a nursing job.

DeLana

Guest233447 · May 18, 2011

Yep, you guys are all confirming my gut feeling.

I did get an offer today for a casual position on a med/telemetry floor, so I'll resign and let the housekeeping/nursing duties go to some other hapless nurse.

At the risk of sounding... racist... and I DON'T mean to at ALL because I respect all nationalities *you'll see my point in a minute* I was quite surprised at orientation too. This is a non-union facility, the LTC facility they are closing down IS unionized and many of those workers are out of a job when the final resident transfers are complete. The new facility has, out of 50-60 new hires in kitchen, HCA, housekeeping and nursing, only 15ish members who are NOT Filipino. Now here's my point: what better way to keep your facility union-free than to hire staff who will NEVER ever "rock the boat" because they are so happy to have a decent paying job (they've matched local union base pay rates) and are afraid to lose it?? I could be wrong I guess (and feel free to correct me) but I see that as a fairly deliberate move on the part of senior management here. The ones from the old facility who are pro union and caucasian (for the most part) did NOT get hired.

DarkBluePhoenix · May 18, 2011

Yep, you guys are all confirming my gut feeling.
I did get an offer today for a casual position on a med/telemetry floor, so I'll resign and let the housekeeping/nursing duties go to some other hapless nurse.
At the risk of sounding... racist... and I DON'T mean to at ALL because I respect all nationalities *you'll see my point in a minute* I was quite surprised at orientation too. This is a non-union facility, the LTC facility they are closing down IS unionized and many of those workers are out of a job when the final resident transfers are complete. The new facility has, out of 50-60 new hires in kitchen, HCA, housekeeping and nursing, only 15ish members who are NOT Filipino. Now here's my point: what better way to keep your facility union-free than to hire staff who will NEVER ever "rock the boat" because they are so happy to have a decent paying job (they've matched local union base pay rates) and are afraid to lose it?? I could be wrong I guess (and feel free to correct me) but I see that as a fairly deliberate move on the part of senior management here. The ones from the old facility who are pro union and caucasian (for the most part) did NOT get hired.

no I believe your right....no sane citizen would put up with that crap

RNforLongTime · May 18, 2011

Hey, I have to do that where I work as housekeeping leaves at 10pm! We had two patient transfers out of my unit at 11pm making those our only empty beds. I cleaned one of them so there would be a clean room in case of an admission. I'm leaving the other one for housekeeping to do in the am because it should be terminally cleaned as the pt was in the room for almost a month. Yep, I do it ALL where I work

AnaCatRN · May 18, 2011

You should definitely run far away! Nurses aren't maids! Any nurse who allows herself to clean on the job should be kicked out of nursing. When dim witted nurses clean, people think we all should. Hell no!

morte, LPN, LVN · May 18, 2011

Hey, I have to do that where I work as housekeeping leaves at 10pm! We had two patient transfers out of my unit at 11pm making those our only empty beds. I cleaned one of them so there would be a clean room in case of an admission. I'm leaving the other one for housekeeping to do in the am because it should be terminally cleaned as the pt was in the room for almost a month. Yep, I do it ALL where I work

Acually there should be some protocol in place to have some one come in to to this. You, unless you have been trained, don't know how to do that job. And, have your own to do.