Training as a CNA...

do cna's who work this shift have a lesser stress working environment? i would imagine the rounds would be designed a little different since all the pts or residents would be asleep.

in a sense you are right. there is probably less stress at night because you don't have all the administrative and other people who normally work during the daytime around. and, unless you have a couple of noisy patient's it's usually pretty quiet and more laid back.

every shift has it's own unique routines. i worked as a night shift aide in a nursing home when i was in nursing school. first of all, i always liked being up at night. i like the quietness of the night. primarily, we made "rounds" of the patients we were assigned to every 2 hours and checked to see that they were ok. we assisted some to the bathroom, but many others who had been incontinent needed to be cleaned up. we also turned patients. along about 5 or 6am we started getting people up, dressed and getting them to the lobby or the dining room in readiness for breakfast which was served at 7am. we also had special things that had to be done during the night. we had one day each week where we had to collect wheelchairs and wash them; another when we collected bedpans and urinals, washed and sterilized them. sometimes we had to do a load of laundry if we were short of linen, but that was rare.

nursing homes have unique problems. i learned more about assisting patients with basic adls in the nursing home than in the hospital. i always felt it was a good experience and a good place to practice what i was being taught in nursing school. i had a small crisis when the skin of my hands got red and raw because i was washing them faithfully between every patient contact as i had been taught in school (we didn't use gloves in those days). i had to use the orginal formulation of aquacare hp hand lotion (which is no longer available) to fix the problem. i was very fortunate to find myself often working side by side with a philippino aide who was an rn in her own country. we hit it off from the very beginning and always worked together as a team. we prided ourselves on seldom having patients ringing their lights because during our rounds we took the time and care to know which residents did better if we woke them gently and ambulated them to the bathroom so they could empty their bladders more efficiently than using a bedpan (try using a bedpan some time). instead of sleeping at the nurses station like so many other aides did in between rounds (something that will get you fired if you get caught) we would go in and sit with the noisy and restless patients when we had time to keep them quieted down. sometimes we would give a bed bath to a bed bound patient. we never just sat around. we always found something to do. this partner i worked with eventually went to a u.s. school of nursing, got her rn here in the u.s., worked in the acute hospital for many years and then went back to the nursing home where she became the director of nursing! that is how you make change in the way things are done because i'm sure she makes sure things are done at a high level of professionalism now that she is the head honcho.