ANGRY

I am really teed off. Mjs is trying to fire us all and we are waiting for the union to see what they can and cannot do. Our contract states that we have an 8 1/2 hour day getting paid for 8. They want to take us to a 8 hour day paid for 7 1/2. That is against the contract. They are also trying to put us on a 4 on 2 off work day. That means that we are getting one weekend off every 6 weeks. I have put in my time and will not work weekend again unless I want to. They are also trying to take away the weekend bonus.

I know they are trying to run underbudget but that is not going to happen by doing this to the CNAs. They need to look at the nursres. The ones that work evening shift are there for hours after the shift ends saying that they are charting. What they do is the chat and tell jokes on the clock until 3 am. That is racking up big overtime money. So we are waiting to see what the union Lawyer says on this one.

We have to reapply to our jobs not even sure that we will have the same shift that we now have. And that wonderful paper is due in on the 30 of this month. We found out all about this on the 23 they gave us alot of notice. If we dont have this in on the 30th it is concidered a voulintary resignation.

What do you think about this.

This has my sister very angry. I do agree that if you expect a kid to do something they will do it.

"I would like to see it that if you don't have your HPV vaccine, you can't start high school," said Juan Carlos Felix of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, who leads the National Cervical Cancer Coalition's medical advisory panel."

Read the whole artical here. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/30/AR2005103000747.html

I understand about wanting to protect people from getting cancer but I would think that not having sex would be the way to go. Who knows what they long term effects are going to be. Sure they might have found a cure that works now, but what are the long term effects.

After Death and Double Shifts

At Mj's a patient recently died. She had no family who came down to see her and she died alone. When her obit was printed it was all about the company that she worked for. It was started for by the grandfater, then the father and now the son. She had worked for all of them, never taking a sick day, never taking a vacation. I find that sad that her job was her life.

I worked a double shift several miles from my home. The drive was the best part of the experance. I started out on one wing and worked all of them. The care at this place was not the best. One of the regular staff that I worked with did not do cath or peri care at all. The place smelled like an outhouse. I will go back if asked because the money is good, and I think the people there deserve good care. I managed to get someone to eat who normaly does not eat. I spent time with her so that she was not fed at the speed that military men eat.

I know there are worse places than MJ to work. At MJ my complant is not the care but how the staff is being treated. There is a great big diffrence in that.

Neglect

Working in long term care you have things that you must do that not only makes your job easier but it also makes the job of the person following you easier.

Right now we have a wing that is got a lot of full care people on it. These people cannot get out of bed for whatever reason. So they have catheters, and bedpans. Some are incontent. Now when you get to the end of the shift you are to have the catheters empty, the trash picked up, and things just generaly neat.

Last night was not the case. There were people not in bed but on top of them, soaked with poo and pee. This reflects on all shifs as neglect. It is not fun going into a room and a patient that should be clean and finding dryed poop on them. That is not good care.

Also when asked about someone that you should have taken care of for the past 8 hours if they can walk you should know the answer. Not say "I guess they can they have been charting that she does". Not good.

Happy F(*&ing Birthday

Today is my birthday and I have gotten flowers dielivered to me for the first time ever. I also got a Tshirt and a cd. But that is not what I want to talk about. In the mail today I recived 2 items from my work. One was a birthday card with a ticket for a free meal to be eaten on my shift only good through the month of June. Can anyone guess what is wrong with this? I work graveyard shift, the KITCHEN IS CLOSED!!! So I have a useless meal ticket.

The second was a Dear Employee letter stating that they are cutting our hours from a full 8 to 7 1/2. So they have cut my pay on my birthday. That acctualy does not come into effect until the 11th but still that sucks. They think that we are going to be able to give the same amount of care to each person. That is bull. That half hour overlap was to get and give report on the patients. How can we know who or what we have to deal with if we are no longer getting report. That is lack od communication and that is very dangerous.

Good news Bad News

I have been back to work, both at MJ and at hospital. I do have to say I like hospital much better than long term care. Why? Let me start a list.

Hospital Long Term Care (old age home)
faster pase stabilty
staffing meets patients needs Staffing meets state requirements
nurses help with patients Nurses do paperwork
responce time is faster to call light not enough people to answer call light
change is a constant things stay much the same.

Hmmmmmmm maybe I should work full time in hospital.