I'm here, I'm here. I am not sure how long it has been but I know it has been a while.
So what's the scoop in my Geriatric Nurse world?
Well, I am now the ADON at the Nursing Home. I applied to the job of Staffing Coordinator, but Corporate changed my job title to ADON.
I applied for the job because I have a passion for making things better for the Nurses and CNA's in the Nursing Home world. I want them to have time off, to not be denied for their earned Vacations. To make this, life in the hardest Nursing job it the world better. To make the staff WANT to stay. To keep enough staff that they have time to fall in love with our elderly patients so when times do get tough they can't bring themselves to leave because their hearts won't let them.
BUT, it is not working. I can't get to the point I have enough staff to make it work. I hire a couple and a couple or more leave. Of coarse some have left because they didn't have a choice and Im sure some have left because even with my good intentions, I am sure I have done something to make someone mad. My major problem is the way other supervisors talk to some of the staff. There is Nurse's that have forgotten just what it is like being a CNA in a nursing home. Or the Supervisors that forget what it is like to be a Nurse in a Nursing Home. New policies, new procedures, it is just such an overwhelming job. Inadequate training and no compassion for the night shift for said inadequate training.
I have never understood why there can be only ONE mandatory meeting for and training. I really want to schedule some at 2AM and that is all. See how many people show up in the middle of the night, because at 2pm, that is exactly what you are asking the Night shift to do.
I have goals for staffing, but I just feel like I am never going to be able to make it happen.
I do have to say, that I have hired some really great staff members lately and it gives me hope. This would include my own daughter. Let me tell ya, this is an odd experience of apprehension and joy. I knew what would come with the "well she is the bosses daughter". But, the joy I feel when the patients come up to me and tell me how much they like her and that she is doing a good job....well, swell my heart. I am having some trouble when I here the other CNA's are putting her through the "normal" treat her like an outsider, new nurse's aid crap. Not understanding that someone new to this job is going to take a while before they are decent at it, never the less good.
Oh well, I am going to keep trying to make it better.
WHY.....?
I am a Geriatric Nurse. I didn't really "choose" this field of nursing. I am starting to think it has chosen me. I have done several types of nursing over my past 20(+) years in medical services, but I keep coming back to my old folks. It's always good to know yourself and through the years I have figured out that there hasn't been many other fields of nursing that I have a passion for, or that I enjoy doing so well. There is just something about helping someone that has been through "it". They have weathered all the storms that I am going through. They have made it through the trials that life brings all of us and most are still smiling. They are crippled up and can hardly walk or can't walk at all, and yet, most don't even complain. It is my pleasure to serve them, to help them when they can't even ask for help.
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