Small facilities, short staffing

Published May 4, 2015

318 Posts

I work at a very small hospital with maximum of 23 beds; there currently are 7 CNAs who are full time and 2 part-time, with one of them out due to an injury received in a car accident. Our census has been extremely high and a large number of those patients have been max 2x assist or very needy, first shift has been short staffed, and we have scrambled to keep night shift covered. Although no one has been mandated to stay over, several of us have had to come in three hours early or stayed three hours late to make sure night shift was covered, and I have been asked to stay over on 2nd shift to help when people have called in sick. However, no one has been asked to stay over or come in early and help us on first shift while we have been short staffed. It has been very frustrating since on first shift, we get people up for breakfast and lunch and we have to give all the baths and showers.

It got me to wondering: Those of you who work in small facilities, how is short staffing handled in your facility? Honestly, we have made it work because the 2nd shift people can't keep up the pace we have but the extra person would make it much easier for even just a couple of hours.