ok. Working 3rd shift(soon changing to second shift) at a LTC.
I dont have problems taking care of the incontinent residents. but If i were to honestly wake a resident up EVERY 2 hours to see if they need changed, they would kill me!! I find it important to KNOW the resident and before working solo in that section of the LTC(this is important to the question) No the nurses don't help, we are more or less left to 'figure it out' Each day during the shift report, i write down on a pad room/bed numbers and who is incontinent and who 'needs help' getting to the bathroom.
Ok, Saturday evening for Sunday. I spent an hour dressing a resident who had a stroke, and thus has difficulty speaking and has a one sided weakness, and is OVERLY picky about the care i gave her(which is her right) She is also 'large' in size, and is unable to help me the way some others can. and I am a single male. I will be damned if I am going to be perfect at putting a bra on a resident , the first time ive had to do it. this time consuming task did indeed leave me 'saying some bad words' about being behind, which was overheard...
so thats part 1.. part 2 is this...
i also dressed another resident. partially.. meaning i put her pants on 1/2 way in her brief needs changed. i was rushing as i was an hour behind.. i noticed wetness on her sheets behind her back. I assumed it to be sweat. it did not smell of urine, nor appeared yellow. I should of stopped then and there to change the sheet, but did not, due to me wanting to get done.. I also asked a dayshift CNA for help, and he flat out told me no.
Ok.. so it was brought to the higher ups of both incidents, and I was told to not return the next day till the DON and admin can discuss this. my major concern of course is it going on my record as Neglect, which I feel was not but it will pretty much my short career as a CNA and any chance of me becoming a surgical technologist as I want to be.
I realize my mistake, and regret it immensely. that resident is somebody's mother, daughter, wife, aunt...
It was my first night alone on that section. Should I give up on myself and wanting to help others, or firmly believe, I tried my hardest. i was trained on dressing with a one sided weakness on a mannequin. I will be damned if I get it perfect on a human being, with weight and girth. Hell, its hard to dress myself perfectly..
AND another thing.... the getting the resident up, and dressing them.. I will be damned I am perfectly comfortable with the sit and stand and hoyer, anytime soon. just because I am given 5 minutes of training, does NOT make me comfortable using it ALONE with a human being. this is another reason I am going to second shift, should i keep my job. help more readily available.
am I 'at fault'? should i be given a 'second chance'? I absolutely love what I do. I love to help residents, I have no problems with the nightly changing and cleanings, I love to take a minute and make some residents smile and laugh, or discuss books.
just do me a favor.. if you ever meet someone about to become a CNA, tell them addimently to NOT work 3rd shift starting out, but rather second. Thats my mistake I think
I started out in LTC as a 15 yr old; i ran into multiple problems because our state law dictated that no one under 16 was allowed to come in contact with another's bodily fluids (urine, blood, bm-the works).
Well, like anything else it didn't happen. Just the same as you trying to do nursing tasks, it never goes the way you want. Until you have extensive years under your belt you are always running behind unless you do not do your job fully as an aide. You will not get help very much, learning to use the machines i.e hoyer often comes with the more you use it. I used it 1:1 all the time when i worked, but many facilities have since changed it two 2 people minimum for safety reasons. However, you still run into a bind having to be a one man army.
I never put a bra on ever until i was an aide. Same with dressing old ladies in appropriate clothes. Which is why i chose the PM/night shift. However, either way you just learn best not by being taught on a doll, but through doing over and over until you get it down and have the confidence to get through hell and high water when you need to.
Dude it will take time. Patient care is not easy thats why not everyone can do it if they are trying to do it right. You will be able to handle the stress of being an hour being, or handle difficult assigns, and combat the stress of State over your shoulder watching your every move. It all just comes with the job. Just keep workin at it and be calm for your self and for your patients. An anxious caregiver makes an anxious patient. If your slow, then be slow, but work at getting faster, and better. Talk to your patients so they know and talk yourself through it it helps relieve the stress.
Get used to the idea that you may be alone as an aide and don't expect help from nurses. I've been in different situations over the years as an aide and nurse. Some facilities are great with teamwork with the nurses helping out and others freaking terrible.. You got to give the nurses some credit because they have an entirely different job to do and don't always have time or want to do patient care. Some even forget how... Its CNA's not nurses that know the patients best. Take pride in that.
Have you ever thought about working in a hospital setting? Its a different change of pace somewhat. Where i did my clinical had many male aides working on the floor. Many were young. I was surprised.
Unfortunately, the nature of LTC is that it is chronically short staffed. Exactly how long had you been working before you were "left to get on with it"? I know the frustrations of taking a long time on one person in LTC while you still have another 11+ to deal with.
Re: Night checks. You don't necessarily have to wake a person to check them. For example, one of the wards I worked on had a no briefs at night rule. You can check them just by lifting the sheets. And for turning, I position them on their side around 10pm. Around midnight-1am I remove the pillow at their back so they naturally roll over onto their back. Then I just have to wake them at 2am to give them a turn- and its just a roll and to place a pillow. Of course if they need changing at midnight, I change and turn them to the other side (so that the next time I can just pull the pillow out again...). But some wards allow us to turn every 4 hours at night instead of every 2, so that people can get some sleep.
I had 3 days of training, which was more or less, helping another person, not really 'doing it on my own' or helping to establish my own routine... I helped a CNA use a hoyer lift once, in those 3 days of training, but never a sit to stand lift. Thank you all again SO much for your help and advice.
I feel better, and want to strive even more to do what is right, for the resident and not get frustrated. I have a meeting today at 2 pm with the admin and DON, part of me wants to give up and not even goto the meeting, but I am dedicated to the residents there, and to the commitment I made to the LTC. I have asked before to be transferred to the second shift, and hopefully they will allow this. I will note about learning about the residents habbits, and plead me case of inexperience.
I will take into mind 'running late' as not a bad thing, when you are trying to do your job right.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
You need find another job. Expecting you to use the hoyer or the sit to stand alone is dangerous.
And finding fault because you struggled to dress a large female patient and had trouble with her bra? really? That's pretty petty. Dressing people that can't help/move is really challenging, even with experience. Don't beat yourself up over this. Sometimes all you can do is your best. I hope you are able to find a better place to work. Good luck.
I don't think the finding fault was with the struggle to dress a large female patient, but with the bad words the OP was overheard uttering. (He sort of glossed over that, and I had to read it again to be sure.) There's no excuse for the bad words being overheard. It's not professional. I don't think there's anything at all petty about addressing that incident.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
Hoping for the best job fit for you, Eddie! Lots of great time management tips in our forum archives to help you with the dilemma of wanting to do right for the residents vs ridiculous time constraints.
i did lose my job.... no hard feelings.. ill get a good recommendation should i want to use them. but they said... 'nursing' isnt for me.. I am more fit for more technical healthcare.. that is my goal... with surgical technology... but i need something to 'get me to that point' i will look elsewhere... checking the us news world report website ratings... the place i was working was rated 2 stars, ill goto places rated 4 and 5 stars tommorow :)
If nothing else, remember this: If a resident falls during a transfer with a mechanical lift and you are the only one operating it, you will be reported to the state (by your facility) for neglect and you will lose your certification.
You can also be reported for neglect even if 2 ppl are operating the lift, & the resident falls while in the lift because you didn't follow proper precedure (such as keeping the base open for support while patient is in it). It happened in our facility and 2 very good CNA's will never work as CNA's again.
In my 20 yrs of experience, I've never used a mechanical lift that didn't REQUIRE 2 ppl to operate.
If you can't find help, don't do the transfer, and tell your nurse you can't get anyone to help you which, is why it has not been done. Your job and your reputation and entire career depends on it.
Anything else I have to say here has already been said by other posters. Good luck!
I just read your post and sorry to hear you lost your job. It's terrible when you work in an environment where everyone is so worried about getting their job done that they forget why they work there, patient care. We are there for the patients but must also cover our own butts. At the facility I worked at a few of us newer CNAs decided on a buddy system to help with lifts and keeping a look out for fall risks since it was NOC shift and there wasn't a lot of staff around. We also helped each other turn patients that were extremely heavy. Wherever you find work try and find yourself people you can buddy with. It's just more pleasant and safer for the patients when you work as a team. Best of luck to you!
Best of luck to you!
William2
94 Posts
I started out in LTC as a 15 yr old; i ran into multiple problems because our state law dictated that no one under 16 was allowed to come in contact with another's bodily fluids (urine, blood, bm-the works).
Well, like anything else it didn't happen. Just the same as you trying to do nursing tasks, it never goes the way you want. Until you have extensive years under your belt you are always running behind unless you do not do your job fully as an aide. You will not get help very much, learning to use the machines i.e hoyer often comes with the more you use it. I used it 1:1 all the time when i worked, but many facilities have since changed it two 2 people minimum for safety reasons. However, you still run into a bind having to be a one man army.
I never put a bra on ever until i was an aide. Same with dressing old ladies in appropriate clothes. Which is why i chose the PM/night shift. However, either way you just learn best not by being taught on a doll, but through doing over and over until you get it down and have the confidence to get through hell and high water when you need to.
Dude it will take time. Patient care is not easy thats why not everyone can do it if they are trying to do it right. You will be able to handle the stress of being an hour being, or handle difficult assigns, and combat the stress of State over your shoulder watching your every move. It all just comes with the job. Just keep workin at it and be calm for your self and for your patients. An anxious caregiver makes an anxious patient. If your slow, then be slow, but work at getting faster, and better. Talk to your patients so they know and talk yourself through it it helps relieve the stress.
Get used to the idea that you may be alone as an aide and don't expect help from nurses. I've been in different situations over the years as an aide and nurse. Some facilities are great with teamwork with the nurses helping out and others freaking terrible.. You got to give the nurses some credit because they have an entirely different job to do and don't always have time or want to do patient care. Some even forget how... Its CNA's not nurses that know the patients best. Take pride in that.
Have you ever thought about working in a hospital setting? Its a different change of pace somewhat. Where i did my clinical had many male aides working on the floor. Many were young. I was surprised.