First off, look up to your right. You’ll see a sidebar topic titled: POPULAR CONTENT. The list of articles speak for themselves.

We have many articles full of advice for CNA’s:

Getting Paid. For every minute you work.

Tips & Timesavers for CNA’s

What Not To Wear to Work

Lifts & Transfers: Doing It Right

7 Habits of Highly Effective CNA’s

7 Habits of Highly INeffective CNA’s

And there’s many more HERE.

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We also have an extensive archive of educational articles, that can be used for in services and other trainings. CNA’s are, of course, welcome to read these articles for their own benefit.

The Nursing Process and The CNA

Observation Skills for CNA’s

Legal Issues for CNA’s

CNA’s & Respect

LTC Survey Scope & Severity Scales

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Would you like to connect with other CNA’s? Join the NursingAssistant Yahoo Group- it’s free and you can read the emails or messages on the web.

Need to contact us?

The article she linked to implores management to take action to become more employee-friendly. There are some issues that management might not be able to change. Health insurance for staff is a BIG issue. Affordable and practical insurance is needed.

SEIU’s Andy Stern is calling on US to help him advocate for this important need. He will be testifying before Congress and will be sharing worker stories about health insurance, the lack of or inability to afford.

When I think about what’s wrong with health care, I think of Jacqueline.

It’s one thing to talk about our broken health care system, but Jacqueline lives it every day. For 19 years, she’s worked as a nursing home CNA in Wisconsin. Short staffing in her unit means skipped treatments and longer waits for her patients. And a lack of equipment and supplies puts the strain on the entire facility when things get busy.

Unbelievably, while Jacqueline spends her life providing care for her patients, she can’t afford it for herself or her family. The coverage her employer offers costs too much on her salary.

This has to stop. Congress needs to hear how this crisis is affecting real people. Share your story: http://action.seiu.org/page/s/memberstories

Next week, I’m going to Capitol Hill for a Senate roundtable on fixing health care. It’s one of three roundtables that Senator Max Baucus is holding to hammer out the final details of a health reform bill.

If you’ve got a story to tell, now is the time to do it. Do you have health insurance? If not, why not? Does your employer offer it? Is it too expensive for you to afford? Have you held back on seeing a doctor or other health care needs due to costs? Let Andy know.

The changes, which go into effect on June 17, 2009, are intended to support efforts underway to transform nursing homes into “homey” environments through both environmental changes and resident-centered caregiving. Whereas in the past, these changes were sometimes stymied by fear that regulators would cite organizations for deficiencies, CMS is now making it clear that the OBRA regulations should be interpreted to support personal choice in the full range of daily activities, including waking, bathing, dining, and sleeping. The new guidance also calls for visitors to have 24-hour access to residents, regardless of familial relationship.

The new interpretive guidelines call on nursing homes to begin or to continue de-institutionalizing their physical environments. Suggestions include: reducing noise such as overhead paging and alarm bells, eliminating nursing stations, taking down institutional signage, and refraining from serving meals on institutional trays.

Get ready for the complaining. Eliminating nursing stations!?! But how can they expect us to do our work…But we can’t…and so on.

Pony up folks. Culture change is much needed process and we’ll all be better off with it. Allowing the residents to control their environment and choices is really a human right. Safety, and all those other excuses we tend to use, are just that: EXCUSES. We don’t want to give up our “power”. It’s not about us. It is about our customers- the residents.

Some Culture Change Sites of Interest:
Pioneer Network

Check out the PN’s vast selection of resource links HERE.

On average, a certified nursing assistant in Illinois makes less than a dog walker.

Really.

I ran across an ad offering $8.50 an hour to work as a certified nursing assistant at a suburban location.

Nationally, the annual median salary for the job, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is $10.67 an hour, and certified nursing assistants (CNAs) who work in community care facilities for the elderly are the lowest paid.

After about 20 years or more on the job, these workers earn about $12 to $15 an hour, according to the Nursing Assistant Central Web page.

But with only one year of experience, a dog walker in this state can earn $11 an hour. In New York, the amount jumps to $20.35.

We know this is the truth.

I suspect it only takes a love of animals, a tolerance for poo and a good pair of walking shoes to become a dog walker.

I’m not saying most CNAs are not compassionate, caring individuals.

But after welfare reform, many of the people who ended up in this field did so because they desperately needed a job.

Was that a swipe or what? I agree that many in this work are in it just for the fast money…not that there’s much to earn, but it’s a quick way to gain semi meaningful employment.

The rest of this article attempts to link the death of an nursing home resident with the uncaring, low paid CNA work and, interestingly, a societal lack of respect for the elderly. We care so little about our old people, that we allow low paid reformed welfare recipients to provide care…I think there is some truth to this. However, even the lowly CNA must always be held accountable for his or her actions! We cannot let them off simply because of the career they have chosen.

What say you?

First off, look up to your right. You’ll see a sidebar topic titled: POPULAR CONTENT. The list of articles speak for themselves.

We have a new SITE MAP now. Check it out when you have time.

We have many articles full of advice for CNA’s:

Getting Paid. For every minute you work.

Tips & Timesavers for CNA’s

What Not To Wear to Work

Lifts & Transfers: Doing It Right

7 Habits of Highly Effective CNA’s

7 Habits of Highly INeffective CNA’s

And there’s many more HERE.

———————–

We also have an extensive archive of educational articles, that can be used for in services and other trainings. CNA’s are, of course, welcome to read these articles for their own benefit.

The Nursing Process and The CNA

Observation Skills for CNA’s

Legal Issues for CNA’s

CNA’s & Respect

LTC Survey Scope & Severity Scales

—————-
Would you like to connect with other CNA’s? Join the NursingAssistant Yahoo Group- it’s free and you can read the emails or messages on the web.

After a three month blogging vacation, we are back. I want to thank all the readers who emailed Patti and me, asking what is up, where we’re at, why no new posts….we’ve been busy with new jobs, new shifts, a family emergency and of course, the holidays. It’s hard to believe 2008 is almost over.

With that, 2009 promises to be an exciting AND scary year.

We are in the midst of a terrible economy, although CNA’s probably have the most secure jobs in America right now. We don’t earn enough money, though, to pay for the things we need- and it’s hitting many of us very hard. The cost of food alone eats up a big chunk of our pithy paychecks. Gasoline prices have dropped dramatically, yet we can’t afford to make car payments on our income. We’re lucky if we qualify for a loan!

State governments are slashing budgets left and right- and nursing homes are feeling the brunt of this. There isn’t going to be money for raises, or new equipment, or much else. In my area, we’re seeing entire nursing units close down due to lack of adequate funding- and with this comes actual lay offs of nurses and aides.

We have a new President, who many of us are looking forward to working with. Obama has an opportunity to really make a difference in the work CNA’s do- and for the residents, patients, clients we care for. Wages, health insurance and working conditions should improve under Obama’s watch. Let’s all hope!

One of the areas Obama has promised to move on, and quickly, is the Employee Free Choice Act. This is the legislation that, if passed, will make it much easier for workers to unionize. I have made a 180 degree turn on unions: WE NEED THEM now. Because we get screwed over too often. After reading endless articles about all these bail outs, and how the money is being wasted on retreats and jet planes and the like, it’s time to stand up and get what we deserve. In the long run, unions probably aren’t going to help us in our big picture goals. But for right now, these next few years, we need a voice.

The nursing home industry will see major changes in the next several years as well. Hospitals and other agencies will be changing too- in a big way. A national health care initiative will force the changes and we might not like all parts of it. But it will better than what we have right now.

We are about to witness history- although it’s wise not to place much faith in political leadership, somehow I believe this time is different.

What are your hopes for the next few years?

Over the course of a 48-week trial, researchers at Vanderbilt University assessed the unintentional weight loss of 76 nursing home residents. During the first 24 weeks, half of the group received additional attention during mealtime while the other half served as a control group. For the second 24 weeks, the groups switched roles. Researchers noticed that 52% of residents maintained their weight when they were part of the extra attention group. That compares with 28% of residents in the control group.

During the study, “extra attention” constituted one-on-one sessions of 42 minutes per resident per meal and 14 minutes per resident per snack. Researchers suggest that groups of three or four residents per staff member during mealtimes are more practical and just as effective as one-on-one care.

They could have gotten a group of CNA’s together and reached the same conclusion. Time. Everything takes time. Something the current staffing standards of nursing homes cannot provide. A CNA can be assigned to sit a table with a group of residents for each meal. The aide can eat her own meal and converse with and supervise at the same time. It doesn’t have to be a CNA. It can be an administrator, a DON, an activity aide, even a housekeeper. Anyone can sit down and enjoy the company of residents. It takes some thinking outside the old dusty box.

Highlights:

Our enhanced bathing program, “SPA-Venture,” is centered on creating a spa-like atmosphere in what were our “institutional” shower rooms. Bathing is a very private experience that can be physically and emotionally cold, sterile, and institutional. We adapted the physical environment to enable the member to maintain as much independence and dignity as possible. A team of QOL aides, supervised by the restorative nurse, provides support for the functioning and maintenance of this program. Each room is equipped with a heated walk-in safety tub, heated towel racks, hair dryers, curling irons, spa robes, and slippers. Aromatherapy is provided to promote relaxation while soft music is playing. As you enter the spas, the first things you notice are the serene murals painted on the walls. You feel as though you are entering into a relaxing, comforting experience where you have no worries. It brings the bathing experience as close to homelike as possible.

And:

Our enhanced dining/hydration program, “Dining by Design,” offers our members a choice of when to eat, where to eat, and what to eat, while improving nutrition/hydration. This change provides a sense of control and improves self-esteem. This program is only partially complete, but you will see later in this article the impact we have already made with the changes that have occurred. Currently, we have developed three dining areas.

(there’s a lot more on this- go read about the different dining programs.)

Finally:

Our personal comfort program, “Comfort Zones,” focuses on decreasing behaviors, decreasing pharmacological intervention, decreasing pain without narcotic use, improving quality of sleep, and promoting socialization. Our vision here is to couple our current medication regimens with a program designed to promote well-being. The Comfort Zones were designed with three things in mind: relaxation, fun, and pampering. The Comfort Zones are further broken down into three areas: (1) Two Quiet Zones promote relaxation and well-being with the use of a waterfall wall, low-level lighting, gentle touch meassage, aroma/auditory therapy, soft plush recliners, and rocker gliders. We have recently planted a butterfly garden in front of the window of one of the Quiet Zone areas and this has attracted many more members to come relax and let their worries flutter away. (2) In the Fun Zone there are board games, checkers, puzzles, card games, a large-screen TV with DVD player, and many movies (of course you can always bring your favorite), and a Wii system for the adventurous type. (3) The Pamper Zone is designed to make everyone feel special. We encourage all to come down for a hot shave, a hand paraffin treatment, a manicure, a pedicure, and a hand or foot bubble spa treatment. You leave feeling great.

Sounds great! And the CNA’s are a important part of this transition. Called Quality of Life aides, they provide better care, more personalized and appropriate care, than typically expected.

The article offers much more detail as well as outcomes, and the process to go from average to superlative- the aches and pains of it all. A great and inspirational roadmap.

The goal of this web portal is to bring together the many online resources and links and information to one central place. The work of CNA’s is important and valuable. We believe the more informed CNA’s are, the better quality work they will produce. This site is for nursing assistants and those who care about our work/practice. We have a web audience that includes aides, nurses, doctors, DON’s, Administrators, families and advocates for the elderly.

Links to many resources are located in the sidebars. Check them out; we believe you will find most of these valuable.

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Being A CNA
Applying For Reciprocity

…and more.

Educational Articles:

Legal Issues for CNA’s
Observation Skills for CNA’s
The Nursing Process and The CNA

…and more.

Advice For CNA’s:

Tips & Timesavers for CNA’s
Being Part of The Team is Important
Why Being Negative Can Really Hurt You

…and more.

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