Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that stuff.

I'm taking the rest of the year off. See you on the other side.

Overheard

"Gay? I'm not gay. If I was gay, I'd be all over you."

"You've been whoring around on me, haven't you."

"From now on, I'll let her walk out with her underwear hanging out for everyone to see."

Mind you, these are all from the mouths of sixty to eighty year old women. Wow.

When not to come to work

When you have a fever over 100 degrees.
When you are vomiting.
When you have diarrhea that's not controlled by Immodium.

At least that's what I've always thought.

So, let's talk about ringworm, then. It's contagious and we do a lot of handling of resident's, so should you work while you have it?

"Ringworm is contagious (spread to others) through direct contact with an infected person or animal. It can also be spread indirectly through contact with the clothes, combs, or brushes of others who have it. Once treatment has begun and the circular rash begins to shrink, the rash won't be contagious. Until then, however, a person with ringworm can spread it to others."
http://life.familyeducation.com/infections/medical-treatment/40545.html

I vote that you stay home until it starts to shrink. And make sure you take all your medication if you're taking an oral anti-fungal like Diflucan.

Agitation

The myriad of things that can cause a resident to become agitated boggles my mind. It can be something as simple as asking them if they're ready to go to dinner. Of course, we don't know what's going on inside their heads at that moment, so maybe just the interruption is enough to tip them over the edge.

There's only one proper response to a resident's agitation. "I'm sorry." Sometimes it calms them, sometimes it doesn't but there isn't any other real option. Step two is reporting any behaviors to the charge nurse. Making snotty comments back or being physically rough with the resident are not acceptable actions.

The hardest thing in the world is to control your reactions when people are rude or mean. I know I don't always succeed. Still, striving for the highest ideals will get you closer than lowering yourself to the other person's level.

A Nursing Assistant, but not "Just" a Nursing Assistant

The other day I referred to someone as "just" a CNA. I refer to myself as "just" a CNA a lot. Why do we demean ourselves like that? We're not "just" anything. We're waitresses and maids; we're movers (usually of people, but sometimes of furniture, too); we're bartenders and hairdressers (both for their physical and psychological functions); we're shower attendants and cheerleaders.

I think we allow ourselves to feel like "just" CNA's because that's what people perceive us as. "Are you a Nurse?" "No, I'm just a CNA." It's only lack of education that separates us from the Nurses. As with most jobs, our lack of education is more than made up for by our wealth of experience. We have a more complete physical and psychological profile of our resident's than their nurses and doctors could possibly have. The more education you have, the fewer puzzle pieces of the resident you have. As CNA's we get to work with the majority of the pieces.

I've been asked several times if I want to be an LPN. "Nope." In a long term care facility, it's the CNA's that get to do the hands-on work that I enjoy. The nurses are relegated to finger-sticks, breathing treatments, wound treatments and loads and loads of paperwork. They may be a "Nurse", but I'm doing the true nursing work. Maybe they're "just" nurses, after all.

O/T I've been remiss

...in updating this blog. Mostly because nothing new is happening. Life is moving along over the usual hills and gullies. I'm just holding on as best I can.

Today is my last day off before Christi gets here on the tenth. I'm trying to clean up the house (as much as you can when you have a home full of men and dogs). I also want to hit the grocery store. They're having a "ten pound meat sale" and I'd like to load up my deep freeze. When you have a relatively full freezer, grocery shopping on a weekly basis is much cheaper. Plus, you have something to fall back on during those weeks when cash is tight.

Brad's catching the "staff infection" that they've been passing around at work. Hopefully we can load him up with Vitamin C so he gets better quicker.

Patrick's been playing Rock Band 2 endlessly. He's making noises about wanting to buy a real drum kit and take lessons. I'll believe it when I see the kit set up in the middle of the already crowded living room. He'll probably try to put one of the love seats outside to accommodate it.

Our Christmas Party for work is the tenth. I'm looking forward to that. It's always fun to see your coworkers in a somewhat social situation.

And that's that. I've been thinking through some work related posts that I'd like to write, but none of them are coming together just now.