Vomit

When I was younger (I am 38 now, so when I was 20) I decided to be a CNA. I wanted to be an RN, but was young and had no idea which way to go. I walked into a local nursing home (which is still there today), and told them I wanted to be a CNA, and one day a nurse. At this point in my life I had dropped out of high school so I did not have a dipolma or GED, but they said that was ok.

They advised me to get some really good nursing shoes, and some scrubs, and told me I started the following week. I had no experience or training what so ever.

I worked there about 2 months before quitting. The entire time I never saw a DR in the building. There were usually two RN's working each shift, and they basically stayed at the nurses station, in the med room, and gave shots, iv's when needed. The LVN passed out meds pretty much. The CNA did everything else. What was scary is we had no idea what we were doing.

I remember another CNA showing me how to take bp. It wasn't until many years later I discovered what she showed me was incorrect. I was taking these patients vitals, and putting incorrect numbers on the charts.

I walked in and they said go to work. I had no idea what to when some big guy had a giant messy accident. Most of our patients were bed/wheelchair bound so we had to move them by ourselves. That took a bit to figure out. Then I would get a wet rag, and clean the patient up just as you would a baby, put a clean gown on him, and transfer him to his wheel chair. I would take all the sheets off very carefully to keep anything from falling on the floor, and throw them in the dirty laundry bin, make the bed, and put the man back in bed.

Nobody showed me that I just did it. The RN's and LVN's never cleaned up messes they simply called in a CNA. I quit after two months when I realized that they were just not going to train me, and that I could end up putting someone in harms way. I also realized I would never go anywhere doing what I was doing.

I did get used to it, and by the time I left it really didn't bother me anymore. I had gloves on so it really wasn't touching my skin.