To the nurses: any advice for CNA for time management on the floor?

[mamacita2]

I need advice. I'm a nursing assistant in the float pool. I am a hard worker, and I never take morning breaks. I always take lunch breaks close to the time I go home. I get so anxious because I am so hard on myself because I want to finish everything. I work for a big hospital.

I'm getting floated to a cardiac unit. Their vitals are done for 10am and 2pm. I plan on getting the sugars done by 7:30am. Then start on my the washes. I start my vitals at 9am and put them in for 10am. I get so paranoid and anxious that I can't finish the washes on time. Do I need to give a head to toe wash for each patient or can I just help them wash their face and brush their teeth?

[Tait, MSN, RN]

Could you go around, get everyone set for breakfast with a quick wash-up and teeth, then go back after your vitals are done and do the full baths that you need to do? Sort of a "get them comfortable" and then schedule a time for the full baths? My cardiac experience yielded that a lot of cardiac patients are self-maintenance, so you might find that they won't need as much help as say a full blow med-surg floor. Now that isn't to say there won't be a heavy patient or two, but I felt, when I worked cardiac, that there were a lot of "walkie talkies". So post caths, post MI, pre-OHS etc. If it is a post surgical cardiac floor, they still move them pretty quick after CABG to get moving, so they shouldn't need as much help either. I wouldn't expect to see a full dementia isolation, multiple wounds heavy patient on a cardiac floor, and those I would think take most of your day.

[loriangel14, RN]

It would depend on how independent the patients are.They certainly should be encouraged to do as much as they can for themselves. If they need help bathing I would do face, hands, axillas and peri area at least.

[clmafm05]

When it comes to a hospital settings, it is part of the therapeutic regimen for the patient to participate in the washing.....it is part of their ROM's and AROM's. assist them the best that you can, but if a patient says "no they want you to do it", then by law all you can do is encourage them to help. By setting a timed schedule, you will better your time management and your skills. Do the priority first then what ever you feel is important would be next. Another thing is, when you walk into a patient's room and start caring for them, try to do as much in the time frame that you can while you are in there.....vitals, body check for red areas and sores, repositioning, and if You have to do the therapy for the patient (PT or PTA not available) while you have to do the ROM's on the patient, grab a bath pan and cloths, performing those tasks if able and patient not in casts or post surgery, you can easily do bed baths at that time. Before becoming a LPN, I was a CNA for 7 years.....that was what I would do, in a nursing home setting that is. Always consult your nurse over that patient first.....ask about allergies, frailty of skin/bones, medication reactions, watchful s/s of hyper/hypoglycemia, and always talk to the patient while doing this.....it gets them to be more motivated an most of all, gets them to trust you as a person and as a nursing staff! Nothing is greater than a patient telling the administrator or director of nursing that "you" and only "you" made them feel worth healing during their most depressing time in life. I hope this gave some good insight to what you were asking.

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