#Cna horror s full#
I worked for an agency that placed me in facilities all across the county so that I would be able to work full time and still be available for my children. Over the years, as my children were born, my experience as a CNA broadened. It wasn’t until the early 90’s that CNA training programs began to appear in facilities as part of the hiring process. Despite the changes in policy, funds were not available for training programs. In 1987 it became mandatory to become certified if a person wanted to work in nursing homes thanks to the Omnibus Reconciliation Act, and had it not been for the fact that I was in nursing school at the time, I would have been “grandfathered” and would not have received any training. Nobody was toileted, there were no “activities” and everyone ate pureed food – mashed potatoes, green stuff and brown stuff. We restrained everybody when they were sitting in their wheelchairs and then lined them up along the halls and around the Nurse’s station. We used green cloth “diapers” with snaps on each side and elastic leg bands. I remember the first time I walked into a room after someone had died and being very afraid to touch him when I was told I had to clean him up before they took him away. I remember the first time I had to give someone a whirlpool and how I had no idea what to do when the person on the bath chair became increasingly combative. I remember the first time I shaved the very wrinkled face of a man and the way my hand shook each time I passed the cheap plastic razor down his cheek.
#Cna horror s skin#
I remember my first skin tear and the amount of blood that was everywhere. No small feat for a 116 pound teenage girl who was running on fear alone at that point! After several minutes of screaming for help I realized nobody was coming, the adrenaline kicked in and I picked her up off the floor and put her into bed. I remember her name and I remember the panic as I screamed for help. I remember the first time a patient fell because of my lack of training.
#Cna horror s how to#
I had never seen a man naked and suddenly I was changing men that looked my grandfather, I was shaving them, I was feeding them, I was washing their privates!!! I had no idea how to wash a man’s penis, never mind a catheter tube! Not even a smidgen of training and I was responsible for this sort of care? Haldol was the physician’s drug of choice that year and every single resident on the unit was snowed, which made transferring extremely difficult, especially since it was only me and one other nurse’s aide, and she was on the other end of the hall. There were several Hoyer transfers and 90% of my assignment were sitting in chairs, tied up in some sort of restraint, whether it was a pelvic, waist or vest restraint.
Whirlpools? I didn’t even know what that meant! I had 20 residents to put to bed that night on a total care unit. I was given an assignment and was told to forget whirlpools for the night because there had been a few call-outs. The first thing that I noticed when I walked onto the unit was the strong smell of urine that hung heavily in the hot summer air. It was mid-July, a particularly hot summer day when I walked off the elevator that first day, and the air conditioners in the entire building were not working. My first nursing assistant position was on the dementia unit of a long-term care facility and my training consisted of a 2 hour orientation, a tour of the facility and instructions on appropriate uniform attire. She was my mentor and she taught me how to take care of people the way that they deserved to be cared for. I would watch her when we worked together and the love that she had for her patients, the compassion and the empathy that emanated from her was beautiful in so many ways, and I knew that I wanted to be just like her. She had worked there as a nurse’s aide for years while my siblings and I were younger, and when we were old enough to help out around the house, she worked full time nights and put herself through nursing school during the day. I was 17 years old and a junior in high school when I got my first job as a laundry aide in the same nursing home my mother worked at. I have been working in long term care facilities and health care centers since 1983.