Another CNA Shares the Dangers of Nursing Home Understaffing

Some of the problems in this world are never meant to end. We can manage to end dispute between two parties or countries. But what is impossible to conquer is the personal greed. This unconquerable dilemma I came to know only after joining as a nursing assistant in a local nursing home. When I joined the CNA training program, I had many dreams in my eyes about helping aged people in a nursing home. With that dreams, I earned my CNA license from a local community college. Very soon the vision I had in my mind turned ugly when I got a job as a nursing aide in nursing assistant. With lots of pain in my heart, I am sharing the dangers of nursing home understaffing with like-minded people so that they can think twice before actually taking up a nursing assistant’s job in nursing homes. I work in a 7 to 3 shift. Six CNAs in each shift is the calculation of our employer. Given the number of patients we have to take care of, it is simply impossible to cater our service effectively. Since patients in our nursing home are all aged and critically ill, you can understand the importance of personal attention. Just imagine how difficult it is to take care of bedridden, paralyzed and permanently disabled patients. To lift a totally bedridden patient, it takes two people since lifting them manually is not easy and there is always a risk of accidents in the process. The time it takes to lift and carry the patients is not less than ten minutes. Moreover, it needs great strength and agility to do the work. Since there is already a shortage of nursing staff, we are forced to handle the job singlehandedly. In case, there is any accident in the process and the patient’s family files a suit against us, the management is always ready to throw the blame on us. It happened with two of our ex-colleagues who had lost their job, and they have to compensate the injury inflicted to patients by shedding their provident fund, gratuity and other benefits. In one case, one of the colleagues even had to take a loan to make good for the injury. Though there are enough trained individuals to handle the job, the employer is simply not ready to appoint them on the pretext of cost cut. I feel, very soon I will be stepping in my colleagues’ shoes since the chance of accidents in the job is extremely high due to the apathy from employer’s side. Therefore, if you are planning to become a nursing aide, you should read this first and then decide whether you can be in this profession or not. Now I want to transfer my CNA license to another state where I can work with peace and enjoy my job ( for more context click here ).