She did WHAT?

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Specializes in LTC.

Can we have a thread for stuff we can't believe our coworkers did?

The other night we had this lady who was really tired and wanted to go to bed right away. She had family visiting but they were going to wait till she was lying down to say goodbye. So after supper my coworker was going to wash her up, and I asked if she needed help transferring her (she's assist of 2), and she said no, not yet. So I said, "Well I'll be with Anne when you need me."

I finished "Anne" and I think I put 1 or 2 other people to bed too. Then the nurse asked me to put "Bunny" in bed right away. She's another assist of 2 and she was already in her nightgown, so i went to find my coworker. I'm looking around and I see the 1st lady's family members still standing out in the hallway. I'm like "damn she's been in there for 20 minutes? What's she doing?" So I knock on the door and the lady is just sitting there half-washed, with her family members waiting outside and NO CALL BELL. My coworker is nowhere in sight. I pass by Bunny's room and her whole family is waiting for me to put her in bed. I tell them I need to get help and I'll be right back. Then I find my coworker wandering around on the other side. I tell her the nurse and family want Bunny in bed right away. She goes "Okay let me just answer these call bells." UM, NO. So you can disappear for another 20 minutes? You can take 10 seconds to help me walk this lady to bed and then go answer the call bells.

I couldn't believe it.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

How tacky! I would have been annoyed as well.

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I have a co-worker like that. When she's supposed to answer call bells, she doesn't answer them. Instead, she disappears or runs around like a chicken with its head chopped off, saying "I have to do this or that!" HOWEVER, when it's time to do vitals or blood sugars all of a sudden she says " I have to answer call bells!" So either she gets those done late, they don't get done at all, or someone else' does them. She's some type of advanced PCT or something and get's paid more than the rest of us. She thinks she's really slick, but everyone's been on to her.

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Half washed and no call bell? That's a safety issue not just an annoyance! Did you report it to the charge nurse? A call bell is a resident's life line- gods forbid something would have happened while that CNA was MIA- especially with the family right outside! Not only could the resident be injured/killed- can we say "instant lawsuit"?

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Specializes in LTC.

Yeah, the supervisor knows about it. I definitely said something to the CNA herself about it, and started sputtering out excuses. Later that night she left another woman with no bell, and no O2. I found her with another aide and said loudly (not caring who heard), "You know, you left someone else without a call bell." She acted like I was being bossy. Well, I was irritated! She's aggravating to work with in the first place, and then when she starts compromising safety it's like, ***? We shared 16 residents that night and when I thought about it later, we washed 2 residents early (who were not feeling well) and of the remaining 14 that we did after supper, she only put 3 of them to bed! I did the other 11. Apparently it took her 2.5 hours to put 3 people to bed. One of them was a bath and we only had one shower working at the time and she had to wait for it because other aides were using it. I'm pretty sure that instead of doing something else while the shower was in use she was pacing up and down the hallway freaking out instead of just doing something else.

3 people all night and she only managed to give one of them a call bell.

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And the charge nurse knows about it but hasn't stepped in to do anything about it? Might try going to the DON? For something like that I'd just keep going up the chain of command until I got someone who was listening and willing to DO something about it... :(

Yeah, the supervisor knows about it. I definitely said something to the CNA herself about it, and started sputtering out excuses. Later that night she left another woman with no bell, and no O2. I found her with another aide and said loudly (not caring who heard), "You know, you left someone else without a call bell." She acted like I was being bossy. Well, I was irritated! She's aggravating to work with in the first place, and then when she starts compromising safety it's like, ***? We shared 16 residents that night and when I thought about it later, we washed 2 residents early (who were not feeling well) and of the remaining 14 that we did after supper, she only put 3 of them to bed! I did the other 11. Apparently it took her 2.5 hours to put 3 people to bed. One of them was a bath and we only had one shower working at the time and she had to wait for it because other aides were using it. I'm pretty sure that instead of doing something else while the shower was in use she was pacing up and down the hallway freaking out instead of just doing something else.

3 people all night and she only managed to give one of them a call bell.

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is this the same co worker you spoke of in another post? "dumb cna..... who is responsible?"

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Thank God you were there. Aides like that make me :angryfire

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Specializes in LTC.

yes it is the same coworker!

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Bless you Fuzzy - I don't think I am as patient as you. You are a better person than me having taken it for so long.

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Did you offer to speak with the CNA and ask if there was anything bothering her or perhaps something that you could do to help her? I am not sure I would break the chain of command and go directly to the DON. Maybe something is happening in that CNA's life that is traumatic and she needs a friend.

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Specializes in LTC.

??? I'm not going to the DON.

Anyway, problems at home are not an excuse to consistently leave people without their call bells.

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