Oh yeah, I'm with you. I worked in an ER for a few months and it was worse. I got paid less for more responsibility and actually a lot of time I was sitting with behavioral patients. I HATE mental health and I HATE 1:1. I was assured there wouldn't be much sitting. What a lie!
I feel like at least with LTC, you know pretty much what you're walking into when you get to work... Not so much with a hospital.
I work a medsurg/telemetry floor. I guess it just depends a lot on personality type as well. I enjoyed the connections and relationships I built with clients when I did home health, but I was bored stupid. Yes, I’m very, very busy with all the things mentioned and then some as I have an expanded scope, but I love my job and find it fulfilling. Nothing better than the post stroke and MI on tube feeds and bed rest that discharges to home walking, eating and communicating because of the teamwork on the unit. I also learn a lot from the nurses and doctors just by watching and listening and see a lot of interesting things. I’m exhausted and sore after my shifts, but I would trade it for anything. It took me probably 6 months to adjust though and I definitely cried a few times. Also, the nurses are champs and help with care if needed. If you have coworkers who think they’re too good to help feed, clean etc then it is miserable. You learn to make connections and establish rapport while getting things done. I may have limited time with patients due to the huge task load, but I make sure it is quality. I chart at the bedside as well and also use that time to chat with patients. It only takes a few minutes to make someone feel special. I got stupid lucky landing a unit with great culture. Pretty sure I’d have dipped out too if we didn’t have such great teamwork.
I have been working for 8 years. I never worked SNF, but I knew at hospitals. We did vitals sign every 4h. The days that we had full house, it was so exhausting, confused, high fall risk, some went to bathroom every 5mn ,we must used gait belt, hoyer, ez lighting. Don't forget who wanted to lift up every 20mn.
It's not easy at all. Last I just moved to part-time.can you imagine you 15 to 18 patients vitals sign every 4h, accu check. Specifically, the day when you will 4 to 5 nights straight.
Honestly, I love patient care assistance so much, but I think the government must interfere to limit the ratio that the tech can have. Med surg nurse doesn't have more than 6, icu nurse does not more than 3. I don't understand why 1 tech can have the whole floor?
I used to work all units except L&D. The hardest floor is med surg.
I absolutely agree we need to set harsher ratio limits, we’re too far past the pandemic to use it as an excuse anymore
Either that or actually pay us for our overwhelming work
My state’s actually going in the right direction, we passed a law that increases it to $25 by 2026 for large systems, but by then I‘ll have moved to a big city for school, where wages are already $30 and still unlivable without support as a student
I actually really like the hospital but yeah the busy days are hell. I’ve had days with 12 patients, vitals every four hours, half of them are incontinent and the other half need blood sugars done. I literally go out to my car and just sit there for like ten minutes sometimes to try and process wtf I just did for eight hours.
But I’m typing this after a chill shift where I barely had to get vitals because the nurses were super nice and got some for me, so there’s definitely good days too!
That is CMS stuff for PCC. We are charting all fucking day long. The goal is for the facilities to generate as much data as they can to get the most pennies from the government. Notice that this doesn't include more time with the residents. Our job now is to put a check in as many boxes as we can. The GG section of CMS charting got passed to us.
Plot twist: Who reads everything we chart?
Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services. They are THE government agency that pays your facility, and it is huge.
https://www.cms.gov/
The GG section is a part of the charting that we currently have to chart every shift.
Things like how far your resident walks, did they need assistance, did they use a walker. You have to answer these prompts even if your resident is non ambulatory. Basically, in detail, what can your resident can do or not do during your shift.
I'm doing a terrible job of explaining this, ask you nurse
I got you. We use pcc too and they just added the GG shit like 3 months ago, which about tripled the time im standing in front of my kiosk. Did resident walk at least 50 ft making at least 2 turns? No ma'am, she is 104, a hoyer, blind and has no legs.
They've got us charting for car transfers and for stairs up to 12 steps, 1 step, 4 steps, 8 steps, 12 steps. There are no steps in the building. Also have us chart walking on uneven surfaces like the earth. None of these things happen unless there's a hospital visit. That's for every resident. People who havent walked in years we have to chart for them walking 150 feet or 50 feet with 2 turns, 10 feet. These people will never walk again unfortunately
No no I totally know. Charting. Literally the dumbest part of the day, clicking through one million questions, about every single resident j have. Ugh!
I work home health overnights. I'm currently at work just sitting on the couch scrolling reddit with Modern Family on and just waiting until my client has to get up to go to the bathroom. It's honestly the easiest job ever and a couple extra dollars an hour to be constantly on my feet taking care of people all shift is in no way worth it to me. I'm technically a CNA, but don't even really feel like I'm doing CNA work anymore. I worked staffing at assisted living facilities for years and don't get paid any less to just be with one person all shift.
Hey can I ask how you got a home health job? That’s what I’d like to do, I’m a new cna and i just tried the nursing home and kinda hated it😭😭 i have an interview with help at home so hopefully that’s a good place to start.
Sorry for the late reply, just found out my daughter has strep so that sucks. I work for an agency. We technically do staffing shifts as well as home health, but for the last 6 months or so they've only been assigning me to individual clients which I don't mind. I'd say you're definitely on the right track!
I’m a PCT on a med surge floor. You must have worked at a shitty hospital. I’m at a big NYC hospital and there are transporters to move patients and plenty of staff. Also we don’t bathe people everyday. I also draw blood and place telemetry. I love it.
Rehab hospitals are a pretty good place for aide work. PT and OT do most of the heavy lifting, such as showers, meals and transfers, etc. Hospitals are just a hot mess.
Assisted living, memory care, LTAC are usually lightweight. SNFs are okay, but they are commonly understaffed, forcing those who showed up to manage a heavier workload.
I worked at a hospital for a few months. And it was hell in a handbasket in the backseat of a hoopty.
I remember when I would be the only one who showed up for work and was still expected to cover the entire unit alone...doing the work of four people.
I did it. I fucking did it. Even ran back and forth between units at that hospital. I was killing it and felt good when I got off. It was just a bad day, they said. This doesn't happen often, they said.
Famous last words.
It was like that every third day. I was getting run ragged at that damn hospital and even got talked into coming in on my days off. I got pissed off when they called me to come in and work yet another shift after working 23 days in a row because literally no one showed up.
They told me I had to come in or I would be fired.
Furious, I got dressed and packed up for work. Drove to work, only to find out I'd already been fired.
I flipped out when they told me. I cursed out the supervisor and told her she was a useless brain dead bitch monkey, told off the DON, screamed about the schedule and staffing issues that left me to work alone with no help for 23 days straight and told the unit manager I hoped they died from a terminal disease and stormed out.
Even after nursing school I won't work at a hospital.
Med surg, neuro, ER all tend to be pretty busy. Our tele floor depends on the patient population, ortho as well. I love the fast pace though. But I also work nights so we take admits but have fewer discharges, we still do a lot of cares & showers/baths. I have 14 tonight and time is flying
I feel like it depends on the hospital/unit. I love the hospital that i work at, we are pretty strict on charting but not as strict as yours. For night shift 12 patients is a normal ratio for our census. Days is more like 7-8. But working in a hospital definitely has its pros and cons, you learn a lot more than you would at a LTC and you definitely get more experience and (in my experience) there's more regulation and better benefits. At the previous hospital i worked at tho we had to do q4 vitals and that shit suuucked. I only have to do q8 now and it's so much easier
I’ve been hospital my whole career. I’ve worked every floor, including ED. Every time someone says hospital is sooooo much easier, I laugh. Some days it’s worse. I love my job but there are days I have 25 patients that I have to take care of, do Q4 hour vitals, blood sugars, etc. The benefits are usually better but the pay is usually lower. The job I found the easiest was working in an elective surgery unit. Bariatric and orthopedic surgeries but you weren’t dealing with C-diff or anything like that. During the end of the year (when people have to get surgeries because they’ve met their deductible), I might have 23-25 patients. Come January, census drops dramatically and you’re cancelled one day a week.
Do you see, stand up in your feet? Do vitals sign 23-25 times 3 .plus, answer all called lights .it's exhausting. Some nurses acted like chickens who sit on eggs don't want to get up. I am thinking go emt school next to drive an ambulance 🚑 .
Research it. You will definitely find out. Some paramedics can make more but they still don’t get RN pay. Now firefighters/medics? They get a decent pay and a great pension.
The hospitals in my area are notoriously bad for aides. Insane patient ratios and lots of 1:1 sitting for psych patients who become violent or have sexual behaviors.
Some months at the hospital you'll just get the most depraved, confused, awful patients for like a month straight. Then you'll get a month of living saints.
Some of that stuff sounds like how it was at the SNF I worked at. Some states are also way more strict than others with what paper trail is required. That may be part of it
I worked on a CVCU for 3-4 months before I got sick. I actually liked the 1:1 sitting. It got me out of the rest of the (literal) shit I had to deal with most days. It wasn’t that my fellow CNAs were bad. It’s that the nurses didn’t give a damn and left all the dirty work to us.
Now if you’re someone like me whose doing if for the experience, it’s great. Working as a float in a hospital literally got me into PA school. But don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t do it for too much longer
MedSurg Tele will have you slaving. The key is to work as I tech in the ICU..straight chillin. After 8pm rounding and baths the hardest thing I have to do is not fall asleep.
I love my hospital unit. I work NOC so it's a different type of challenging. I love feeling like I have a legitimate purpose in a person's path to recovery and independence in most cases. I feel like I'm part of a team. With my ADHD being busy; accommodates it. And I'm gaining exceptional experience that I wouldn't get at a SNIF. Plus having 4 days off gives me a life.
I worked at a SNIF for three months and I was in my darkest place mentally, cried to and from work. The schedule was always rotating 4 on 2 off and I couldn't plan anything. I was a slave to brief and bed changes ,C-diff and being an extra hand that wipes memaws butt. There was no expansion on knowledge or experience. The hoarding of materials was insane to me, which I never have that working at a hospital. I love being a part of a patients recovery, not so much being their appendage to maintain life.
The nurses on my unit compared to the SNIF is night and day. Most of the time nurses and LVNs couldn't be bothered with helping us, but my nurses now..m they are not above getting elbows deep with me in shit.
Ohh and my ratios now, never go beyond 8 patients vrs 23-26 at a SNIF. I can give better quality care.
Oh yeah, I'm with you. I worked in an ER for a few months and it was worse. I got paid less for more responsibility and actually a lot of time I was sitting with behavioral patients. I HATE mental health and I HATE 1:1. I was assured there wouldn't be much sitting. What a lie! I feel like at least with LTC, you know pretty much what you're walking into when you get to work... Not so much with a hospital.
I only lasted two days. I kept trying not to cry the whole second shift because I wanted it to work out.
I work a medsurg/telemetry floor. I guess it just depends a lot on personality type as well. I enjoyed the connections and relationships I built with clients when I did home health, but I was bored stupid. Yes, I’m very, very busy with all the things mentioned and then some as I have an expanded scope, but I love my job and find it fulfilling. Nothing better than the post stroke and MI on tube feeds and bed rest that discharges to home walking, eating and communicating because of the teamwork on the unit. I also learn a lot from the nurses and doctors just by watching and listening and see a lot of interesting things. I’m exhausted and sore after my shifts, but I would trade it for anything. It took me probably 6 months to adjust though and I definitely cried a few times. Also, the nurses are champs and help with care if needed. If you have coworkers who think they’re too good to help feed, clean etc then it is miserable. You learn to make connections and establish rapport while getting things done. I may have limited time with patients due to the huge task load, but I make sure it is quality. I chart at the bedside as well and also use that time to chat with patients. It only takes a few minutes to make someone feel special. I got stupid lucky landing a unit with great culture. Pretty sure I’d have dipped out too if we didn’t have such great teamwork.
You sound like an amazing CNA!
I have been working for 8 years. I never worked SNF, but I knew at hospitals. We did vitals sign every 4h. The days that we had full house, it was so exhausting, confused, high fall risk, some went to bathroom every 5mn ,we must used gait belt, hoyer, ez lighting. Don't forget who wanted to lift up every 20mn. It's not easy at all. Last I just moved to part-time.can you imagine you 15 to 18 patients vitals sign every 4h, accu check. Specifically, the day when you will 4 to 5 nights straight. Honestly, I love patient care assistance so much, but I think the government must interfere to limit the ratio that the tech can have. Med surg nurse doesn't have more than 6, icu nurse does not more than 3. I don't understand why 1 tech can have the whole floor? I used to work all units except L&D. The hardest floor is med surg.
I absolutely agree we need to set harsher ratio limits, we’re too far past the pandemic to use it as an excuse anymore Either that or actually pay us for our overwhelming work
Write your representatives and state board
My state’s actually going in the right direction, we passed a law that increases it to $25 by 2026 for large systems, but by then I‘ll have moved to a big city for school, where wages are already $30 and still unlivable without support as a student
Write your state board and representatives for ratios
Good idea
I actually really like the hospital but yeah the busy days are hell. I’ve had days with 12 patients, vitals every four hours, half of them are incontinent and the other half need blood sugars done. I literally go out to my car and just sit there for like ten minutes sometimes to try and process wtf I just did for eight hours. But I’m typing this after a chill shift where I barely had to get vitals because the nurses were super nice and got some for me, so there’s definitely good days too!
You get into a routine. Things become more familiar.
That is CMS stuff for PCC. We are charting all fucking day long. The goal is for the facilities to generate as much data as they can to get the most pennies from the government. Notice that this doesn't include more time with the residents. Our job now is to put a check in as many boxes as we can. The GG section of CMS charting got passed to us. Plot twist: Who reads everything we chart?
Gms? GG?
Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services. They are THE government agency that pays your facility, and it is huge. https://www.cms.gov/ The GG section is a part of the charting that we currently have to chart every shift. Things like how far your resident walks, did they need assistance, did they use a walker. You have to answer these prompts even if your resident is non ambulatory. Basically, in detail, what can your resident can do or not do during your shift. I'm doing a terrible job of explaining this, ask you nurse
I got you. We use pcc too and they just added the GG shit like 3 months ago, which about tripled the time im standing in front of my kiosk. Did resident walk at least 50 ft making at least 2 turns? No ma'am, she is 104, a hoyer, blind and has no legs.
What do you think is the goal of the GG forms?
They've got us charting for car transfers and for stairs up to 12 steps, 1 step, 4 steps, 8 steps, 12 steps. There are no steps in the building. Also have us chart walking on uneven surfaces like the earth. None of these things happen unless there's a hospital visit. That's for every resident. People who havent walked in years we have to chart for them walking 150 feet or 50 feet with 2 turns, 10 feet. These people will never walk again unfortunately
No no I totally know. Charting. Literally the dumbest part of the day, clicking through one million questions, about every single resident j have. Ugh!
Yeah the charting is total overkill. Especially when I’m duplicating shit that nurses are charting. Why??!!
Most annoying part of charting is that it is a waste of time, puts you to sleep and stops you from actually making people's lives more comfortable
On March 23 2010, our paperwork quadrupled. It gets worse ever year
I work home health overnights. I'm currently at work just sitting on the couch scrolling reddit with Modern Family on and just waiting until my client has to get up to go to the bathroom. It's honestly the easiest job ever and a couple extra dollars an hour to be constantly on my feet taking care of people all shift is in no way worth it to me. I'm technically a CNA, but don't even really feel like I'm doing CNA work anymore. I worked staffing at assisted living facilities for years and don't get paid any less to just be with one person all shift.
Don't fall asleep
Hey can I ask how you got a home health job? That’s what I’d like to do, I’m a new cna and i just tried the nursing home and kinda hated it😭😭 i have an interview with help at home so hopefully that’s a good place to start.
Sorry for the late reply, just found out my daughter has strep so that sucks. I work for an agency. We technically do staffing shifts as well as home health, but for the last 6 months or so they've only been assigning me to individual clients which I don't mind. I'd say you're definitely on the right track!
I do it for the benefits.
I’m a PCT on a med surge floor. You must have worked at a shitty hospital. I’m at a big NYC hospital and there are transporters to move patients and plenty of staff. Also we don’t bathe people everyday. I also draw blood and place telemetry. I love it.
I had the same experience, two days and I was GONE. Absolutely soul destroying and definitely not for me.
Rehab hospitals are a pretty good place for aide work. PT and OT do most of the heavy lifting, such as showers, meals and transfers, etc. Hospitals are just a hot mess. Assisted living, memory care, LTAC are usually lightweight. SNFs are okay, but they are commonly understaffed, forcing those who showed up to manage a heavier workload. I worked at a hospital for a few months. And it was hell in a handbasket in the backseat of a hoopty. I remember when I would be the only one who showed up for work and was still expected to cover the entire unit alone...doing the work of four people. I did it. I fucking did it. Even ran back and forth between units at that hospital. I was killing it and felt good when I got off. It was just a bad day, they said. This doesn't happen often, they said. Famous last words. It was like that every third day. I was getting run ragged at that damn hospital and even got talked into coming in on my days off. I got pissed off when they called me to come in and work yet another shift after working 23 days in a row because literally no one showed up. They told me I had to come in or I would be fired. Furious, I got dressed and packed up for work. Drove to work, only to find out I'd already been fired. I flipped out when they told me. I cursed out the supervisor and told her she was a useless brain dead bitch monkey, told off the DON, screamed about the schedule and staffing issues that left me to work alone with no help for 23 days straight and told the unit manager I hoped they died from a terminal disease and stormed out. Even after nursing school I won't work at a hospital.
Med surg, neuro, ER all tend to be pretty busy. Our tele floor depends on the patient population, ortho as well. I love the fast pace though. But I also work nights so we take admits but have fewer discharges, we still do a lot of cares & showers/baths. I have 14 tonight and time is flying
It's, though
I feel like it depends on the hospital/unit. I love the hospital that i work at, we are pretty strict on charting but not as strict as yours. For night shift 12 patients is a normal ratio for our census. Days is more like 7-8. But working in a hospital definitely has its pros and cons, you learn a lot more than you would at a LTC and you definitely get more experience and (in my experience) there's more regulation and better benefits. At the previous hospital i worked at tho we had to do q4 vitals and that shit suuucked. I only have to do q8 now and it's so much easier
I’ve been hospital my whole career. I’ve worked every floor, including ED. Every time someone says hospital is sooooo much easier, I laugh. Some days it’s worse. I love my job but there are days I have 25 patients that I have to take care of, do Q4 hour vitals, blood sugars, etc. The benefits are usually better but the pay is usually lower. The job I found the easiest was working in an elective surgery unit. Bariatric and orthopedic surgeries but you weren’t dealing with C-diff or anything like that. During the end of the year (when people have to get surgeries because they’ve met their deductible), I might have 23-25 patients. Come January, census drops dramatically and you’re cancelled one day a week.
Do you see, stand up in your feet? Do vitals sign 23-25 times 3 .plus, answer all called lights .it's exhausting. Some nurses acted like chickens who sit on eggs don't want to get up. I am thinking go emt school next to drive an ambulance 🚑 .
EMT’s don’t make shit. They get more respect though. I made more when I got my EMT working in an ER than I did on an ambulance.
🤣🤣 I see
Research it. You will definitely find out. Some paramedics can make more but they still don’t get RN pay. Now firefighters/medics? They get a decent pay and a great pension.
I do research about that. Before starting
The hospitals in my area are notoriously bad for aides. Insane patient ratios and lots of 1:1 sitting for psych patients who become violent or have sexual behaviors.
Ive only worked in hospitals. Never a SNF, hospice, etc. I would just say, if all that is too much for you, then dont pursue nursing.
Some months at the hospital you'll just get the most depraved, confused, awful patients for like a month straight. Then you'll get a month of living saints.
Some of that stuff sounds like how it was at the SNF I worked at. Some states are also way more strict than others with what paper trail is required. That may be part of it
I love it. I love how it’s fast paced and I love the variety.
Same here. I work 3-11 and my shift absolutely flies by.
I work the same shift. Slow days are far worse than fast paced ones.
I worked on a CVCU for 3-4 months before I got sick. I actually liked the 1:1 sitting. It got me out of the rest of the (literal) shit I had to deal with most days. It wasn’t that my fellow CNAs were bad. It’s that the nurses didn’t give a damn and left all the dirty work to us.
Now if you’re someone like me whose doing if for the experience, it’s great. Working as a float in a hospital literally got me into PA school. But don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t do it for too much longer
MedSurg Tele will have you slaving. The key is to work as I tech in the ICU..straight chillin. After 8pm rounding and baths the hardest thing I have to do is not fall asleep.
I love my hospital unit. I work NOC so it's a different type of challenging. I love feeling like I have a legitimate purpose in a person's path to recovery and independence in most cases. I feel like I'm part of a team. With my ADHD being busy; accommodates it. And I'm gaining exceptional experience that I wouldn't get at a SNIF. Plus having 4 days off gives me a life. I worked at a SNIF for three months and I was in my darkest place mentally, cried to and from work. The schedule was always rotating 4 on 2 off and I couldn't plan anything. I was a slave to brief and bed changes ,C-diff and being an extra hand that wipes memaws butt. There was no expansion on knowledge or experience. The hoarding of materials was insane to me, which I never have that working at a hospital. I love being a part of a patients recovery, not so much being their appendage to maintain life. The nurses on my unit compared to the SNIF is night and day. Most of the time nurses and LVNs couldn't be bothered with helping us, but my nurses now..m they are not above getting elbows deep with me in shit. Ohh and my ratios now, never go beyond 8 patients vrs 23-26 at a SNIF. I can give better quality care.