Stupid Rules...

[CoffeemateCNA]

We all have stupid rules to follow that were created by people who have never seen a real resident in their entire nursing careers (if they are even in nursing at all -- Helloooooooo, Mr. CEO!). Some of my favorites:

1. No chux if they wear a brief; only use chux if they are continent. We all know how leaky briefs can be. Thus every brief change turns into a full-blown bed-and-gown-change. This ****** off the residents, ****** us off (not to mention creates more work for us), and necessitates further linens for laundry to clean because their jobs are oh-so-hard (see #6 below). And what's the point of putting chux down in the first place if a person is fully continent? There's nothing for the chux to absorb; they are just hot, uncomfortable sheets of plastic that are rubbing on the residents' skin. All. Night. Long.

2. Only 3 chux can be stocked at a time for each resident. Of course, they're not the heavy duty chux, either. They're the cheap, thin ones that do little better than if I had coated the bed in a single layer of toilet paper. If the person is a leaky, heavy wetter, multiple chux must be put down each time. So I'm supposed to make a new trip to the supply room every time they wet because I wouldn't want to exceed having 3 in the room at any given time? And another thing, if they bought the good chux in the first place, they would SAVE money because we wouldn't have to an entire package for every drop of pee.

3. A CNA must be in the dining room at all times. We don't want residents to choke. Apparently our very presence magically prevents it, whether we are 10 inches or 10 yards away from the resident. Please disregard the fact that per facility policy, CNAs are not permitted to do the Heimlich or initiate CPR. So, in the case that a resident starts choking, this means we have to run around the facility like crazy looking for a nurse, any nurse, to come and save this poor person's life. And you KNOW how long it can take to find someone (and you know we're not allowed to have walkie-talkies or cell phones). Mrs. O'Reilly, I hope you can keep that french fry from further obstructing your airway just long enough for me to go find a buddy. Like they say, "Two's a party!"

4. No clothing protectors. "They're undignified." "They make the resident look/feel like a child." "How would you like to have a bib on?" They're only undignified if you make them undignified. If they are so worried about it, why did they purchase several hundred of them that have FLOWERS on them that look ridiculous on everyone, let alone a 250-pound man? And is it "less" undignified to be wheeled around with dried, crusty drool and smeared, pureed "chicken" (I'm not sure what type of "meat" dietary prepared today -- as far as I know, they all look and taste the same) all over your shirt and pants? Really?

5. No matter how long you have worked, you still only get a 30-minute lunch break. If you work 6 hours, you get 30 minutes. If you work 16 hours, you get 30 minutes. So if I work day shift and take my lunch at 11:00 am but then graciously agree to stay and work evening shift due to a call-in (because people are tired of being worked to death), according to management, I am just "out of luck?" I'll let my unconscious, emaciated figure do the explaining for this one.

6. Each type of linen must be bagged separately upon leaving the room. Sheets, pillow cases, etc., go in one bag. Washclothes and towels go in another. Clothes go in yet another. Non-compliance to result in write-ups. All this to "make things easier for laundry" because nursing is "always making extra work" for them. I know that each department thinks they have it worse than any of the others, but really??? I have been in laundry and seen them practically having parties that would rival Jersey Shore when nobody else is around. Yes, they do have it hard.

7. Drinks must be covered when taken from the kitchen; water pitchers do not. Let's ignore the fact that regular drinks have no more than 2" diameter exposed, while water pitchers have around 4". That's only a two-fold increase in the area available to be contaminated by numerous microorganisms freely floating through the air. Shouldn't it be the other way around (if at all?)? Are malaria-infested mosquitos really going to infect the watered-down fruit punch and multiply during the 30-foot walk from dietary to the table but decide NOT to do so if I carry an open water pitcher to a resident room?

What are some of your facility's stupid rules?

[yousoldtheworld]

No chux or bed pads of any kind. AND OUR RESIDENTS ARE ALL INCONTINENT. We are not allowed to put anything under anyone, except for a single drawsheet. Then they wonder why the mattresses start to smell.

[Poi Dog]

Great post.

1. We cannot wear gloves in the hallway. How about you, the genius, who made up this rule, come and carry a poop/urine/vomit soaked sheet to the laundry bin gloveless?

2. Emptying trash cans can only be done by housekeeping. Great! Except that housekeeping works limited hours and never at night. We get to smell dirty briefs everytime we open the flipping trashcan. *puke* Never mind that the trash cans are left in the residents rooms so they get a whiff of the lovely smells all day long. I would love to empty the trash if you idiots would give me some bags.

3. Dietary brings meal trays at 12 pm and we are given 30 minutes to pass and assist with feeding. Then the RN's whine about why residents are losing weight...hello. We have asked for longer meal times but it ain't happening. Then we get the lecture about not rushing residents while they are eating. All dietary cares about is going home.

4. Laundry does not work on the weekends. When Saturday morning rolls around, the joint smells like a barn.

[CoffeemateCNA]

We cannot wear gloves in the hallway. How about you, the genius, who made up this rule, come and carry a poop/urine/vomit soaked sheet to the laundry bin gloveless?

I do this all the time!! I'll walk into a resident's room, put gloves on first thing, get all the supplies out, realize I'm missing something (dangit, there's only 3 chux in here [see #2]) and then run to the supply room for it. I don't want to waste time and supplies (after all, the gloves aren't soiled) so I'll nonchalantly stick my hands in my pockets. Out of sight, out of mind.

In regards to trash/linens, they say that the outside of the trash bag they are in is "clean" and thus we can touch it with our bare hands. But how many times have you seen people put new trash liners in the trash cans using soiled gloves (actually I do this myself. Shhhhh).

I guess you have a whole new can of worms with not being able to deal with trash cans. Too bad the same didn't apply to laundry and you could fill up a whole barrel and put it in the laundry room to ferment over the weekend.

[Mikey31079]

1. only one bed pad is to be used per bed change, per resident. oh, and no briefs on in the bed either. ummmmm, yeah, okay...why don't you spend an 11-7 shift here and clean up our heavy wetters, who we have to do a bed change on 3 times a night because they flood the bed every single time. (yes, we have the thin cheapy pads that work about as well as toilet paper.)

2. this one i've never heard of until a couple months ago when i started at this place: bed pads are to be marked with time/date at each change. i understand the rationale for that and everything, but then we get to hear laundry b**** and moan because they cant get the masking tape off of them.

[interceptinglight, CNA]

Coffeemate, fantastic post. Funny how I kinda read it wrong.....I thought that the title of your thread was an actual assessment of the facility I work in, where Stupid RULES !!!!!

[yousoldtheworld]

One rule I HATE: aides have to fold and put away all the residents' laundry on 2nd and 3rd shifts. We have four kids per room. Laundry brings us a big pile of clothes. WE have to sort them, fold them, and put them in the proper closets.

Now, let's think about this for a minute:

Our duties: when fully staffed on 2nd shift (which we rarely are), we have 12-13 total care residents apiece. They are incontinent, immobile (with the exception of 5 or 6), if they are not tube fed, then they have to be fed at dinner, we have 5-6 showers to give per night. We have several that have self injurious behaviors and sometimes require 1 on 1 care.

3rd shift duties: Same as above except with 20-24 total care residents, plus wheelchairs to clean and workshop bags to pack.

Laundry's duties: Washing and passing out laundry.

Now why the heck can't the laundry people put the clothes away? There are times I get out 45 minutes late because i have so much laundry to put away. It also takes away from the time i can spend taking care of my residents. Bullcrap.

[JDZ344]

We have a stupid rule with plastic aprons. The things are colour coded: white for "general" activities. Yellow for isolation patients. Green for reverse-isolation, red for sterile activities, blue for anything food-related, green for the RNs for their drugs pass, pink for when we're cleaning something, etc etc.

OK, geniuses who thought THIS one up. You think we can't change our gowns between activities ourselves? You also don't give us enough aprons, so if there is no blue apron, then we're supposed to hold off on giving food/feeding someone until we can find a blue apron. Sure that's gonna happen *eye roll*.

[fuzzywuzzy, CNA]

Geez... I can't think of any rules as bad as any of yours! We're not to have gloves in the hallway either, but I think that's universal.

[SnowbirdinFL]

To start off with..I currently work 2nd shift. Will be going to 3rd shift in two weeks.

Between 5 and 7 PM, we are not allowed to change briefs due to a concern regarding cross-contamination.

Earlier this week, we had a special inservice because residents complained about being told their briefs could not be instantly changed (due to whatever reason) and how this is considered abuse.

So should we be concerned about cross-contamination or being accused of abusing residents? I love it when you get to choose between the choices of crappy and crappier....

[fuzzywuzzy, CNA]

^ Wow, that is truly stupid. So you are supposed to let someone sit in a wet brief for 2 hours? Are you not allowed to *wash your hands* between 5 and 7? Because otherwise, I don't see how that poses a greater risk of cross-contamination. It's not like you're going to run down the hallways waving the dirty brief above your head like a flag whether there is food around or not!

[yousoldtheworld]

Um. How is cross-contamination magically going to happen between 5 and 7 and not the rest of the time? Even if the residents aren't eating dinner, the rest of the time there are always snacks, ice waters, etc.

That said, we don't change anyone between those hours because it takes us that long to feed everyone (40 something total feeds. Dinnertime is horrible.)