r/cna

I swear, my hospital must be cursed because I have had the weirdest, craziest days these past couple weeks. I had one patient today, the nurse and student nurse said that he claimed he was wheelchair bound. However, when I got his vitals around 6:30/7:00 am, he was tossing and turning and lifting his hips up in bed. And I was like…huh 🤨. I have other patients who are wheelchair bound, and they legit cannot ambulate without any help. I knew this guy was lying because he was on our unit months ago and this was a problem with him the last time.

In the morning, he had on an external catheter. But like I said, he was moving so much in bed, it peeled off, and he asked for it to be changed. I ended up changing his external 3 times before noon/lunch. He also asked to get on a bedpan midmorning. So I asked him if he was incontinent, if he knew when he had to go. And he said, “Oh yeah that’s not a problem”. He was definitely giving me attitude and I wasn’t having it, and I didn’t like how many supplies I was wasting on him. I then asked, “Why don’t you use a urinal?” , and he said, “NO. What if I want to take a nap?”. HUHHH?. So that was when I put the third external catheter on him, but I then went to his nurses to complain because I was irritated.

Sometime after lunch, occupational therapy went into his room and got him up to the chair. The two occupational therapists found me, and even told me that he’s pretty much independent. He also told them that he doesn’t even use a walker or a cane at home. After that, I didn’t really go into his room much. But his nurses did tell me that they got him to start using the urinal and told me to pass it on to the night shift aides, to NOT treat him like a total care. The nurse and student nurse even agreed that he was being lazy.

Sorry this was a little lengthy haha. I needed to rant a little. But has anyone else had a similar experience?

I can’t do this anymore and I don’t know what to do.

My facility is unsafe. I want a long term career in medicine in some way or another, I have just been working to make ends meet while I get my life together again. I start EMT classes in the fall and decided to work in a nonmedical job. I start uni in Spring and will be an EMT during that time if all goes well.

But I need to find something quick. I am scared. And they will make me pay for my CNA class. They only have one aide and one nurse in each hall from 11-7, two halls have 50 residents. Somehow it’s legal. People keep quitting because it’s too much and unsafe and I can’t blame them. But when I get there at 7 (I do double weekends) they leave before I can even round with them. This last Saturday, an admin member had to fill in and it was like not a SINGLE person was changed all night.

One hall has such mean and lazy people that aides refuse to work it. I tried so hard to be kind and respectful and work it, but since I’m newer (3 months in) and apparently not trained well according to a VERY long term Med Aide and still learning, I’m not as fast as everyone else. But when I assign an extra room, and I do assignments because both other aides are always late (3 for 50 residents 😭) they refuse to do ANYTHING to help, including with lifts. I had to ask one girl repeatedly to help me with a lift patient, would help me with both other lifts I had ready, then walked off. The other girl was watching her phone and wouldn’t look away until I started walking off with the lift. And then they complained to the nurse the next day about how long that patient was in her chair. The reason I know it was about extra rooms is because during evening assignments, I assigned the fourth person (who left midshift and I can’t blame him) and I an extra room and the person who didn’t have an extra room during dayshift an extra room, and she was pissed, asking why she had one. So I assigned myself the extra rooms and had EIGHTEEN PATIENTS. These girls were ignoring their patients anyway. Eventually I heard them still shittalking me so I went to the supervisor and said I need another hall next shift.

So many dumb things happen here. I find people not following safety precautions. Aides don’t care about their residents. Gross stuff everywhere. But when I can’t ask for aides to help with call lights when I have every one going off and they have zero? That’s a nightmare.

Not everyone there is bad, but I’m so scared to work there. I hate it. The residents hate it. They tell me about how much they hate it there. How small their rooms are, how they have no privacy, everything. I decided to not be as professional and to be honest, to let them feel how they want to. The LTC residents aren’t going to change their feelings because of something I say or do, if anything I won one over because I was honest. I’m so saddened by all of this. I really just need to get away from medical for a bit and refocus.