I guess I'm just lucky.

Over at Nursingassistants.net, there's been a lot of negative news lately: lack of funding, mistreatment of residents, lack of nursing home reform.

Granted, I've only been doing this for six months, so I'm not suffering from burnout. My facility is pretty nice compared to some that I've been to while growing up. I don't think of myself as working in an "institution" because I don't think it looks or feels like one. Since I've started there, there's been enough turn over that some of the CNA's who weren't doing a good job, weren't being kind, or weren't showing up for work have weeded themselves out. I'm hoping that the new folks coming in aren't more of the same, but I guess we'll have to wait and see on that.

My point is this: I became a CNA because I wanted to, because the one thing I've always been good at is helping people, and because my life path led me here, thank goodness.

Some days suck. Some days I can't do as good a job as I want to do because we're short-handed or the shift before was short and I'm playing clean-up. Still, all in all, I feel proud to be a CNA. I like my facility, my residents, and most of the staff. I know that on most days, my resident's are as well or better off when I leave than when I arrived.

Maybe I'm just lucky. If that's the case, I hope my luck continues on for the next 15 years or so.