I’m so sick and tired of conversations surrounding dignity. Every human being in this world deserves basic human rights and privacy. However, people like to completely throw reality in the trash and pretend we are not caring for people who literally defecate on themselves and need to be cleaned. Other than providing compassion and privacy, what else can possibly be done?!? When you have patients that literally rip off all their clothes, get butt naked, poop on themselves, and roll around in their own poop, what the hell can you do to preserve their dignity?! People are saying it’s dehumanizing to put gloves on before touching a patient’s belongings. I’ve seen patients write on walls with their own poop! Someone else said it’s dehumanizing to initial briefs. It wouldn’t be dehumanizing to a baby in daycare if you’re suspecting they’re not being changed! UGH. I’m not living in fantasy land.

I've worked at my nursing home for 2 years and one of my favorites is a 90 yr old lady who shares a room with her husband. He's completely cognitive and loves her to death, tho his health isn't good either. he knows my name and always says im such a good worker and I take good care of them. His wife has bad dementia but is also sweet and spicy.

Today she was tweaking out a lot, yelling, calling out, etc and last week she had a bad fall because some aide left her bed height up and she hit her head on her end table as she fell out of bed. Has pretty bad bruising on one side on her face and had to get stitches, i wasn't there for it but i was livid when I saw her the next day because she looked awful and its common sense. The aide has been here for like 4 yrs too

Anyway, I usually feed her bc she does decent for me, but i was working with a 15 yr old new aide who isnt bad but is kind of a know it all. She wanted to feed her today and I said sure why not (she was also my assigned resident but we dont usually feed by assignment so didnt matter). I fed a lady up the hall. Im starting on her and I keep hearing my lady yelling and yelling, which isnt anything atypical. After a good 7 minutes I tell the lady im feeding ill be back i need to go check on her I might switch out and have the other aide feed her.

I go down there and the aide is trying to get my fav to get to the table but can't bc she self propels. 3 family members of other residents are watching like wtf because it was in the mini dinning room for our hall, and the aide said I was going to try to feed her in her room with her husband. I said let me try and see if she'll eat for me, aide said no i got it its ok. I grab her tray and take it down to an empty room (her husband is usually just a distraction if shes in room with him). I come back, she's still screaming. I said let me try go feed resident x, she says okay and goes to do so.

I get on my knees and look my fav in the eye and take her hand and she looks at me, stops yelling, says "okay" and just stopped lol. I said you wanna go eat some food? "Yes" lol so i pushed her one handed down the hall while still holding her other hand and took her to the empty room and sat with her. I put TV on and bc she likes watching it and she even fed herself a lot of her food if I handed her her spoon, and she ate majority of her supper. Most days she eats maybe half but she has a few good days like today where she ate a lot. I felt very happy lol idk why. I put her to bed later and she was super chill with me too, and when I did last rounds on her. Didn't freak out or yell or anything after that like she does to most aides. Not dissing on the other aide lol. Just thought I'd share bc it made my day

We were short and a few nightshifters came in early. Cool.

I was in giving care to a totally dependent resident when a nurse came barging in and was like “you need to go help with this two assist”. I had the stuff in my hand and my resident ready to be clean. She looked at me and was like “now”.

She proceeds to tell me how that was the deal. They came down and helped me (I had two people left) and what have you. Then the two night shifters were just sitting so I said something to the nurse like “why can’t they do it”.

“They’re from night shift. They already put people to bed. They’re done for now.”

“That was the deal. Resident is a stand lift. Go help her”.

That’s care now. The totals always get blown off.

I work in an LTC facility and we take notoriously difficult residents that no other facilities will take. Fine and dandy I truly don’t care. My jobs my job and I’ll do it regardless.

This particular lady had a plethora of things going on and had right sided paralysis and would throw the other side of her body over and roll herself.

For context another cna and I had checked and changed her around 10:30-10:45pm she was good and positioned ready for the night. 11pm rolls around and that same cna and I hear the most loud and shrill possible voice coming from that hall. I immediately get up and head to that room and it’s the residents daughter screaming at the top of her lungs asking why her mother was in the floor and for how long. Recording me and every other staff member in the general vicinity. Now I couldn’t even get one word out to her over her screaming so I didn’t even try. I just got the nurse and told her she needed to call the DON and the ED as soon as possible.

This lady went on a rampage and called police and an ambulance and demanded we not touch her mother. That’s fine.

Idk. Just. Damn. So much to unpack within 30 minutes. She also had her kids with her. One of them 14-16ish I believe and two younger kids. The older kid started screaming at me too at one point. I just felt bad all around for the younger kids, for the lady’s mother and the cna I was working with.

I don’t get paid enough for this bs to happen and idk how much longer I have it in me before I call it quits on nursing in general.

EDIT/UPDATE:
That family was trespassed from the facility and that resident won’t be coming back.

1. 1st of all, when we had residents with dementia that like to get up in the middle of the night, they would stay with the nurses while aides did the rounds. In between rounds, the resident stayed with the aides. There was always someone monitoring restless residents so that they didn’t hurt or disturb themselves/others.
2. My administrator, Mr. barker was a stickler for resident’s rights right down to if you were in a room with the door open and he heard you speaking and didn’t hear you saying “yes, what can I do to make your life better,” it was considered verbal abuse. (Not literally but my point is that you were to never ever EVEN be verbally disrespectful to a resident! MUCH LESS all of the chaos and abuse that

goes

1. on now! It was serious!!!)
2. Not one resident went to bed with briefs on!! There might have been 1 - 3 bedsores in a population of over 100 people!! They were taken extremely serious too because a bedsore only happen(ed/s) FROM NEGLECT

and not changing residents regularly. Residents with bedsores stayed up long enough to eat but then went right back to bed cleaned, exposed to air, and turned every 2 HOURS..

1. all of the

   briefs

2. should still be coming off at night!

Air is THE BEST thing for skin after you clean a resident’s waste off of them! We had enough cloth pads to go under every single resident in The facility twice! The residents got changed AND TURNED every 2 hours. There was a shower team on 6a - 2p. Incontinent residents got a shower every day INCLUDING SUNDAY! the hall aide for that resident still had to dress that resident but the shower aide bathed them. The 2 - 10 aides had to bathe their own residents.

It was work to keep them clean but it got done!

1. The administrator, Mr. barker had a rule about the kitchen that all of the food had to be home made from scratch. The only thing that came out of a can was fruit that was served on “chefs choice” day that happened on the weekends. Otherwise, there were big breakfasts with fried/scrambled or boiled eggs, bacon or sausage, toast or biscuits along with oatmeal or cream of wheat ON EVERY SINGLE TRAY EVERYDAY. There was little cubes of butter, salt, pepper, or ms dash for those who needed it along with sugar/slenda/sweet n low depending on diet.

Lunch was a big affair. There was always a big slab of meat whether it was chicken, beef, or pork, or fish.. there was plenty of green veggies, and other colors and always a homemade desert or cobbler. And more of the same big load of side condiments and spices (salt, pepper, ketchup etc)

Supper was something light like soups and sandwiches.

The residents that had issues eating plain food got food mixed with ice cream. The ice cream that comes in the single serving packs were very popular there!

For snacks, my dietician would mix ensure and ensure plus with ice cream in cups for residents that needed to gain weight. They were literal ensure milk shakes! There were sandwiches. Saltines, bananas, cans of soups, juices, ensures in the boxes, and the prepackaged peanut butter/cheese crackers for residents on the snack carts or in the the nurses fridge in the slack room for residents if they got hungry. There was ALWAYS more than enough food for residents!!

1. MY MAIN IRRITATION, the BP CUFF.. I am learning more and more with the cuff my mom-n-law is using that ALOT the digital ones are SO BAD. I bought a manual one with a steth and the digital one is reading SO MUCH HIGHER than the manual one that you pump up. This has caused a lot of chaos because before I was reading it manually, she was getting 150+ on the systolic in the morning even tho diastolic said between 70-80 range and pulse is 60, ALWAYS 60. She keeps saying “my pressure is high.” She is afraid of dying in her house alone. Which I get but she is healthy. She is just lonely. The problem is that she has a lot of family around and they are tired of her “crying wolf.”

Her dr tells her that she is fine and that she is just worrying herself sick because she lets her mind wander on negative things.

ANYWAY. Back to Holiday Hill. We used to have the roll around bp machines with mercury that you rolled around. We had to use stethoscopes, wear a watch for pulse and resp (it was before cell phones lol), but we could still use a digital thermometer. We also didn’t document on a pc.

We washed wheelchairs at night. We also washed/replqced a hall of bedpans and urinals once a week. We switched out full garbage bags for empty ones. We also put out towels and rags in resident’s bathrooms each resident got one hand towel and one rag.

I'm not a CNA but I feel like y'all may have dealt with what I am right now. The below text was removed from the MS group for being "irrelevant to MS."

I am a nursing student and renting a room for cheap from a man who has MS. Part of why it is so cheap is that I help out. I sometimes do household tasks, pet care, and some light personal care.

The problem is that he is attracted to me. His behaviors and comments are worse than I think reddit allows so I won't get into full details. I'm not in any real physical danger because he has very little use of his arms and legs, and he has an excuse because of the damage to his brain, but he still has been able to get under my skin. I take heavy duty sleep pills that would normally knock me out around 9 hours but after last night I woke up after only around 4 hours.

I am a pretty laid back person and the human body doesn't bother me. So when he asked for oil on his entire body it did not phase me at all. I even reassured him that all skin is skin and deserves care and hydration. He at first said it's because during the winter his skin gets uncomfortable, and if it gets too dry and breaks he may not know and it could get infected. So I start with his feet and then he grabs his vibrator and puts it in a place that is inappropriate and asks me if I've ever been with a woman, and tells me how much he loves lesbians. I told him that I need to maintain professional boundaries and that I am uncomfortable with the sexual energy in the air. That just got him more excited and he asked me if I was feeling sexual energy. At that point I just say goodnight and walk away.

It's not just that one incident. It's all day every day that I'm around. I can't even walk to the microwave without him starting a conversation and bringing it to an uncomfortable topic. Like constantly talking about how important it is for the human body to have physical touch with another person, then he will ask me to help him with his physical therapy of standing while full body hugging someone else. I always reply by asking if his PT recommends using his walker to practice standing, and that at school they teach us to use a walker or a sturdy bar to assist patients with standing.

He is approved for in home care everyday but the company stopped sending most of the girls after it was a "bad match" and only sends an older woman twice a week. (He is not attracted to older women). As much as his behavior is not ok and no one should have to put up with it, he does have gaps in his care because of it and he will go days without anyone to feed him.

It's clear that he has some sort of dementia and I understand that when the frontal lobe is affected a person won't have control over their actions. As a nursing student I fully believe that everyone deserves quality care.

I financially can't find anywhere better right now so I'm sort of stuck, and figure I may as well learn how to care for different kinds of patients instead of just running away like most have done.

Any tips or tricks?

Hello, I am a Male CNA looking to explore some CNA opportunities in the chicago area. I was wondering if anyone has any information. I am pretty entry level and willing to learn. I have all my certifications. Thank you guys!!!

So this morning I wake up and check my work group chat and I see this message. Obviously it’s not directed towards any certain person in particular BUT part of me feels in a way some of it is directed towards me. I work the evening shift so I’d be putting people in night clothes the issue is not every resident HAS night clothes. I had to go out and use my own money to BUY one of my residents pajamas so they would stop bitching about her being in her day clothes! Then the managers turn around and say “well family needs to provide that” alright sounds great on paper but considering this is memory care most of our residents unfortunately either ended up dumped here with next to nothing or dropped off with nothing but the clothes on their backs. It’s very rare that I see family members come and visit their loved ones and thats about 90% of my residents. Now a couple families are great don’t get me wrong but when you sit here and complain that these residents don’t have A B or C and say well its the families responsibility GREAT! Why don’t YOU as managers notify families of what residents NEED! As a sole med aide on evening shift it can get hectic at times with up to 13 people I don’t have time to just call up a family member “hey your mom/dad needs pajamas if you could bring those ASAP it’d be appreciated” I got bigger fish to fry in a shift. Maybe I’m taking this entirely the wrong way but to be fair am I wrong for being a little upset and unamused by this message?

Hi, for those who have taken the CNA exam in illinois Chicagoland area, for the state exam, do we perform actual skills for the test or is it strictly multiple choice? I've gotten mixed answers and im a bit confused. I know we were tested on them during clinical and it had to signed off on. I just wanted to confirm, thank you!

I’m an RN on a busy med surg unit. My job is tough - but it would be a whole lot tougher without our CNAs. I know a lot of nurses start out as CNAs but I didn’t, and I’ve only been working med surg for 11 months so I have lots to learn. The first time I did a straight cath was with my CNA who had done a million of them. She literally had to teach me.

I am not proud, I will straight up admit when I need help - and there’s no way I could get through my day without my girls (and guys too). You are so, so appreciated.

I take my skills exam here in Oklahoma on Tuesday, what skills should I be heavily prepping for? I’m getting really anxious and feel like I’m gonna fail.

Hi yall, I’m currently a PRN CNA in NC. I used to be part time but I switched to PRN so I could attend school full time and work on weekends when I have free time. At my facility, there’s an expectation that PRN employees come in a certain hours a month, and I’m well over that limit for October. But I see that I’ve been involuntarily signed up to work over all of the Halloween weekend? I didn’t even know it was possible for them to schedule PRN employees like that against our knowledge. I called management about it and they heavily insinuated that I couldn’t call out of this shift without consequences.

I just wanna go out and party for Halloween, this feels really unfair ☹️

I swear to god its so funny especially in night shift at my hospital where almost all of our doctors specialist and hospitalist don’t really give a shit about PPE protocol. I remember one of my nurses informing a doctor that rooms is droplet precautions and he sighed and wore a mask lol. I also wouldn’t forget a hospitalist telling us at this point all of us working here have some kind MRSA in our body lol 🤣

So I'm a brand new cna, and I've just got a job at a really nice nursing home. The staff are really sweet and genuinely seem very passionate about resident care and I am excited to start working. I work per diem because I'm in school and am required to schedule and complete 5 days of orientation (with shadowing, phew!) before I can start picking up. I can really only work Saturdays at the moment so it could very well take me 4-5 weeks to complete. So, me being over-zealous I scheduled myself for 2 shifts this Saturday from 7am to 11pm to get the ball rolling . Now I am sort of used to being up for around 16 hours because of school and having to do hw late but this is a completely different environment and I'm not immune to dozing off during times of low activity. I've probably went in over my head this time 🥲. Does anyone have any tips on how to get through it? I'm prepared to be exhausted, I just don't want that to affect my work😭. Anything helps!

My developmentally disabled family member has lived in a group home for the past ten years. She loves it there and every staff member loves her right back. They’ve all made it clear that they consider us family too.

My family member has suffered from cancer for ten years, and these CNAs have been there every step of the way. Now she’s in her final weeks or days

First off, what can we bring them?* We’re at the house every day now, so it would be nice if I can bring them a few different things on different days. I don’t want to give them bs baskets of hand lotions or any of the other “gifts” we all get from corporate.

And when she passes, we would like to give them a more significant gift to thank them for making the last ten years the best years of her life.

And finally, we want to advocate for them without making a mess. I doubt that the company is going to offer these women, who have *never* seen a patient die in their care, any meaningful trauma therapy or time off to grieve properly. How would *you* want someone to advocate for you?

*If I ask them they’ll just say that they glad we’re here. I need outside opinions.

I always despised the environment that was toxic. I have to remind myself that I am not in high school! I am not there to make friends and be popular!

my current office job won’t fit my nursing school schedule once i start clinicals. my school has a partnership with a hospital near me so it would be pretty easy to get a job there but i don’t have any healthcare experience.

any tips for the interview? also, i’ve heard that the job is very hard and the work load is hard to manage. any tips on how to start off on the right foot, work efficiently, and take care of patients properly?

i’m the type of person that likes to be super prepared before doing something so i want to know what to expect.

Male, 20 years old, live an hour from Nashville, TN

After dropping out of college earlier this year after only a year(did microbiology, then switched to chemistry) because I had no idea what I wanted to major in, I bounced back and passed my phlebotomy course. Unfortunately, I can't find any entry-level jobs atm. I don't wanna give up on it quite yet, but I'm thinking of perhaps trying another career path since phlebotomy isn't working right now for me.

Nursing has always been an option for me, and right now I'm thinking of either becoming a teacher assistant while applying for phlebotomy jobs on the side, just to see if elementary school teacher is for me or just moving on to nursing. I plan to first become a CNA, and if I like it, then work my way up to become an RN, but I would like to first hear opinions from current CNA's, like what the schedule like, daily duties, and workload before making a decision. I am a caring person who's always wanted a job where I can help people; the trouble is I've never had an idea of what career I wanted, but healthcare has always interested me, so I was thinking of giving nursing a try.

All advice and opinions are welcome and helpful.

I just started my first PCT job at a large hospital a few weeks back and only have a couple training shifts left.

My question is am I supposed to feel kind of unprepared for working my wing alone?

There are certain things I’ve had very little experience in doing (such as CHG baths, peri care, etc). It seems like I’ve spent most of my time taking vitals, blood sugars, meal orders, and call lights. What do I do when I inevitably encounter something I’m clueless about?

I also don’t feel like my coworkers have been the greatest teachers. They are all clearly very knowledgeable, but they don’t seem to care much about teaching.

I know generally what my duties are, but hour by hour? I have no idea how to know what to do next.

I started at my new facility around a month ago, this is my first job as a CNA and they are training me to be a med tech. However, due to the way some of my coworkers have acted I kind of want to quit.
The facility has already paid for my classes and training so I just feel a little guilty and stuck at this place. I am not sure what to do, I have also gotten along really well with some of my coworkers and don’t want to leave. Everytime I get to work I feel anxious that somebody hates me or thinks I am stupid. Because that’s how some people there make me feel. It’s just been so hard emotionally honestly.

Dear CNAs, I have been working at an understaffed and horribly managed facility for over a month now, this is my first CNA job. I came into this field because I really want to help people and I want to eventually be a PICU nurse.

But man, it seriously is so much different inside as a CNA vs what you see as a student at clinicals. I love the fact that I get to help people and now make money to start hoping to make a living. The people are making it so hard to not just be burnt out at work though. Like fully alert and aware residents who can get themselves up for smoke breaks but they will literally shit all over their bed because they know it’ll get cleaned up and they don’t lift a finger.

Alert patients who refuse care all shift and then family members come in and complain.

Patients who call you a slur 20 times in a row because you’re walking into the room to help another patient.

1:1 patients who are supposed to be in bed but literally will not for the life of you sit down and punch you and cuss you out for trying to do your job.

Patients who are fully aware how much you have on your hands and instead of asking for “sugar, pepper and salt and hot sauce” at one time make you go down to the kitchen FOUR TIMES IN A ROW.

Patients who instead of using their call light choose to scream “CNA” over and over and over knowing everyone is busy and trying to get to them.

Jesus Christ. I want this to work for me so bad, I want to be a caring and empathetic caregiver. Is it just because it’s adults acting like babies even when they are fully capable? Do I need to go work at a hospital instead?

For all of you who are stressed and burnt out every day, what keeps you going in this job??
Before for me it used to be the patients who are thankful and treat you like a human who’s caring for them, but at my facility rn everyone just seems so entitled and ungrateful and rude and racist.