Residents that need constant supervision

[Anne36]

I often find that the residents themselves interfere with me getting my nursing duties accomplished. During med pass they wheel over to the cart, stick their hands in my pockets, the trash, try to grab things, stick their hands in the sharps box. Tonight I had to pull a resident out of several different rooms. He wheels in and takes things, gets into things and even took the hand sanitizer off my cart, put it in a med cup and tried to eat it! Another time was in a room pulling on someones Foley catheter. A resident was even found in an isolation room drinking out of another residents straw. I had a 10 min break the entire shift, so did one of my CNAs. Constant alarms going off because the residents wont keep them on, etc. Im just so frustrated, what can be done?

[Mn nurse 22]

We have found that organized activities, even for a few minutes can keep residents busy for a long time after the activity is done. Mating gripper socks, washing tables in the dining room, folding towels or napkins, tossing a beach ball or balloon around seem to engage them enough that they are content for a while to keep out of "trouble".

We try to learn their past habits, for instance one gentleman was a commercial fisherman so it made sense that he was using our blue carpeting to "let the water out" every day.

Another gentleman who was notorious for banging on the doors was an office manager, he will now spend hours filling out fall reports, hydration reports or anything else we hand him on a clip board.