h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The People Who Work At Ladera: CNA's

The aides brought me food throughout yesterday. Potato skins from Chili's. Fries and a chicken sandwich from MacDonalds. Some glazed doughnuts from Krispy Kreme. A pristinely yellow banana. The "girls" even made a cake in the shape of a biggie fries, which I photographed and featured on FaceBook, also shown here:
http://www.lilatladera.com/h2g2/birthdaycake.jpg
Irony: the antibiotic I'm on has messed with my digestion this week, so I couldn't begin to consume all that I was given. I shared goodies and stuffed myself. I honor everybody's generosity, and this is my paean to them.

CNA's, Certified Nursing Assistants, are aides to the nurses who run their assigned part of the floor. There are both men and women in the job. They are the patient's main point of contact with the medical part of this facility. They clean and dress the residents, get them into their chairs, take them to the shower room or to the day room, or leave the resident ready for a therapist. They do "vitals," pass out meal trays, feed those who can't feed themselves, assist with toileting or clean and re-clothe the ones who can't get to the toilet or commode. They collect the meal trays and report on how the residents ate. They undress the residents and put them to bed.

They respond to the call buttons, which translate to a light over the door to the room, and fulfill patients' requests. Make the room colder/warmer. Get me another box of kleenex. I'm hungry, can I have a sandwich? Pick up the magazine/hairbrush/piece of sandwich I dropped on the floor. Fetch me my toothbrush and toothpaste. Fetch the nurse. Help me put on my makeup. You forgot to bring me a fresh pitcher of ice. Get me a Coke from the vending machine. You forgot the kleenex. I need my pain meds NOW. I meant diet coke, not regular. Where's the nurse, I asked you to fetch the nurse! It took you ten minutes to answer my light! I'm reporting you. You don't respect me, get out of my room. Get out, just get out.

I've heard all of that. To be sure, only a few residents act that way; the rest of us have other hobbies.

In the course of a working day, a CNA may operate a hoyer lift or a lesser device for those with some power of leg. They will look after up to 12 patients during daytime, cleaning up excrement and grooming those who can't grasp combs and toothbrushes well. They will pause to chat with you if you can talk. Singly or in pairs they will perform transfers from bed to chair (or vice versa) of bulky or uncooperative patients. They monitor their patients' physical condition and report all changes and anomalies to the nurse.

They may have small children in the care of family during the day. They may have second jobs as care provider for some elderly person living assisted at home. They have spouses or Significant Others and a few are raising the kids on their own. They have back aches and bad knees and stress headaches. They think about their residents after they go home. They refrain from punching out the rude and stupid patients. They don't make a whole lot of money. They mourn when one of the residents dies. The Hispanic ones (a majority) are teaching me Spanish. They shop at WalMart for me.

And one of the ways you can tell that Ladera is a good place to wind up is that a lot of the CNAs have worked here for years.

Oh, there have been shirkers, but they eventually shake out. I could name one. I didn't like it when she was assigned to my hall, and her colleagues didn't like her chronic lateness, her refusal to help one minute past clock-out time, her refusal or inability to follow set procedures, but I speak of her in past tense. She was released from Ladera's employ. Nobody's perfect, but we all know the difference between someone who strives and someone who strolls through the day. You can't stroll here.

[Amy P]

(My brother-in-law is a nursing assistant).

My bf's mother worked in an old people's home. It seems like she liked working there, but one day she helped someone up and they held onto her shoulder or something. Her shoulder was hurt and she couldn't work in that job anymore.

Deb

Tav, everybody seems to think it's a light job, just fluffing pillows and feeling foreheads, but it isn't! It's heavy work.

MVP

It's interesting - the picture painted of care assistants in nursing homes in the media in the UK (at least) isn't a very positive one. To someone who hasn't looked hard for stories you understand. It's nice to hear that this is not necessarily the case.

It's a horrible job here: no status, minimum wage, and long hours. There's no qualifications or certification needed to start. The ones who are good often go on to do their nursing training and become trained nurses. Two of my fellow geriatric registrars worked in care homes to fund their medical studies. I didn't and some times it shows, I'm not so good at helping people into bed.

Whilst there are all sorts of stories in the papers about poor care, a lot of people do seem to get good care. The carers at my Granny's Residential home are good, whilst she was admitted to hospital last year they all came to visit her on their time off. She knows all of their personal lives and loves to give them bad advice.

Corporate pays for its CNAs to train upward! They advance to fill slots as med techs (our medication dispensers), restorative therapists, medical records personnel and the like. Several are training to be nurses. A is applying to get her Masters degree in social sciences cos she wants to go into social services.

And at least the term certified carries some status. There is a scholarship programme that trains our CSW (untrained nursing staff) in hospitals to become trained nurses, but then of course they get a new job and move away from their old role.

Is it common for there to be a mixture of rehabilitative and residential patients in the same facility? I was wondering whether that's why we have and retain good people at Ladera.

CNAs (the good ones) sound almost like s