You know it's going to be a long day when...

[eveningsky339]

...your partner rolls a resident over to check his brief and mutters "Oh my God..."

...it's 8:30 am and only half of your residents are up for breakfast.

...a resident who usually eats with supervision decides to be T1 today.

...you lay a resident down, only to realize that they have liquid stool streaked up to their armpit, and night shift didn't bother putting an incontinent pad down.

...all of your co-workers smoke, and insist on taking a smoke break every five minutes.

...you've just started evening shift. Gads, that first hour is slower than Christmas.

[fuzzywuzzy, CNA]

I don't smoke but where I work no one gets an extra break just cause they smoke. You can tell who the smokers are though, because they're so desperate to go.

[heLpoHoLic]

are the first one the floor, the halls are lit up like Christmas trees, and the previous shift are nowhere to be found!

[CoffeemateCNA]

The 2 smokers that worked the floor with me today took a 30 minute break. My partner and I worked our butts off trying to answer all the lights of our residents + theirs. I am ALL about teamwork but when folk like that take advantage, then I say "screw them".

It's also fun when your partner disappears for 45 minutes after dinner and leaves you by yourself with 28 residents all demanding to be put to bed *right now.* Not wanting to risk any falls, you do your best to keep up with all of the call lights. Then when you go to find your charge nurse and complain, you discover that she, your partner, DON, AND ADMINISTRATOR are all outside taking an extra long smoke break And then you get in trouble for "not being on your hall to answer lights when you KNOW that this is the busiest time of the evening!"

[CoffeemateCNA]

. . .when you spend the first 25 minutes of your shift filling up 75 water pitchers with ice and water, jam those stubborn lids on, stack them neatly on a rolling cart, then wheel them through the fire door. Just as you are passing through those fire doors, 1 of them suddenly unlatches, smashing into your cart, knocking the whole thing over, spilling about 10 gallons of water all over the linoleum floor. And then you wonder, "If the first 25 minutes have gone this well, how are the last 455 minutes of my shift going to be?"

What can I say? I love my job! :)

[Poi Dog]

. . .when you spend the first 25 minutes of your shift filling up 75 water pitchers with ice and water, jam those stubborn lids on, stack them neatly on a rolling cart, then wheel them through the fire door. Just as you are passing through those fire doors, 1 of them suddenly unlatches, smashing into your cart, knocking the whole thing over, spilling about 10 gallons of water all over the linoleum floor. And then you wonder, "If the first 25 minutes have gone this well, how are the last 455 minutes of my shift going to be?"

What can I say? I love my job! :)

That sounds like an "oh poop!" moment.

[CoffeemateCNA]

That sounds like an "oh poop!" moment.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the exact word that I yelled.

To make it worse, the loud noise attracted nearly every staff member in the facility who then just HAD to stare at me as I cleaned up.

Long story short, I never trusted those fire doors ever again.

[annacnatorn]

you know its going to be a long shift when you 1. have worked an extra shift 3-11 , 2. then reg shift 11-7:zzzzz and 3. all the other CNA's call off :madface:and your the only one there and 4. no one is answering the phone to work extra:madface::madface:5. the census is 65!:angthts:...and the DON (director of nothing) says no to registry calls. then the 7-3 shift comes in and says "why does it smell here and why do you look so tired" so you tel them and they say tuff stuff , then when you get home the phone rings and its the admin asking what you did all night!

[CoffeemateCNA]

you know its going to be a long shift when you 1. have worked an extra shift 3-11 , 2. then reg shift 11-7:zzzzz and 3. all the other CNA's call off :madface:and your the only one there and 4. no one is answering the phone to work extra:madface::madface:5. the census is 65!:angthts:...and the DON (director of nothing) says no to registry calls. then the 7-3 shift comes in and says "why does it smell here and why do you look so tired" so you tel them and they say tuff stuff , then when you get home the phone rings and its the admin asking what you did all night!

OH... MY... GOSH...

I hope you are job hunting! This sounds like a VERY unsafe place to work!

[annacnatorn]

i left very soon after to do school nursing then went to home health then hospice, now..im on disability with a torn rotator cuff (right shoulder) just had surgery a month ago, not doing well with pt..sucks.

[Jen{NAR}]

You know it's going to be a long night when you get out of report and the first thing you have to do is answer a call light..and then you get out of that call light and have to answer a new call light then...after that one another one goes off and another and a another until it is 3 o'clock and you haven't even started passing towels and water yet -_-;;

[Ev1987]

A co-worker calls out and you have one and a half pages of vitals to do, yet the same resident buzzes the call light every five minutes to ask if you can adjust their pillow.