Things That Make Us Laugh

If you work in long term care there are always those residents that frustrate us to no end with either their words or behaviors. I want to tell a couple of stories about what these residents drive us to. My first story is one that one of my nurses told me. She said that she had had a couple of trying days with one particular resident over the previous week. The night before she said, I had a dream with you in it. My first thought was OMG. The nurse told me that in the dream I told her she could hit him with a broom as long as she used the bristle end not the handle. It was even funnier because the nurse saying this is such a sweet kind person that never raises her voice. I hope to share more stories on the post.

Another Typical Day as a Nursing Home Administrator

Today I decided to go into work a little later because I knew the doctor would be in the building (I am also the Director of Nursing, That's a whole other blog story)and I would have to stay late to put orders on the computer. I got there about 9:30. The parking lot was full. There were 2 people doing the resident satisfaction survey in the building (in the middle of all that was going on). The fire people were there testing the smoked detectors so they were setting them all off throughout the building. The doctor was there. Carpet people were there putting down carpet on one of the units and the dietician was there doing her visit. After about the 5th alarm going off I finally quit jumping a foot in the air. I was sitting in my office and a resident down the hall turned his TV up as loud as it would go. I went to the door and had to yell to be heard and asked him to turn his TV down and he began screaming at me that he would when that noise stopped. The satisfaction people are talking to residents that are very confused (because they have to ask everyone). One resident is telling them I don't want to talk to you. Another resident is over heard saying ( I can't wait till they hear what I told them). The nurse aide I hired or thought I hired failed to show up for her physical. Of course I need to fill 2 nurse aide positions. I worked for an hour putting new notebooks together for the nursing unit to make them look neater and more professional but couldn't get on the computer to make my labels until later just to find that someone had written on one with permanent maker instead of letting me label it. Finally, a resident tells me that he overheard someone calling him a liar that morning (of course before he was questioned about his satisfaction with the facility). Well I am not going to hold my breath that our satisfaction survey results will be very good. At least the day went quickly and I finally left at 6:30PM.

If You Couldn't Laugh You Would Cry

A long term care director of nursing job is 24 hours a day. I get calls at all hours in able to help direct my employees to make appropriate decisions and be aware of what is going on. Well my morning today was just one of those days that become a lasting memory. First of all I went in late because I had worked the last 2 evenings as the nurse because one of the nurses that had already had vacation was off again for a trip. I left home at 10 AM and on my way I get a text that a resident had fallen (no injuries fortunately)as I am driving I notice a policeman but thinking the speed limit was 45 and I'm doing 40 I'm OK. Well wrong the speed limit was 25 starting about 1/4 mile back. He follows me and pulls me over. Fortunately I only get a warning. When I get to work I am told that an employee that started Monday and called off the day before quit. I did not schedule an extra RN and the doctor is there. Great doctor but writes lots of orders. I get to stay until 6:30 to put them on the computer. Another nurse comes and tells me she is pregnant. The night before a resident threw a cup at me because I watched him take his medication and he didn't want me to. I can't wait to see what the rest of the week goes. Never a dull moment.

A difficult day

I have worked in the long term care business for a long time. I know you should never say that a day was the worst you ever had but I feel the need to describe a very difficult one. Most people don't have a clear understanding of the difficulties that a long term care manager has to deal with. My day started out by coming in the door and sitting down and an employee coming to the door and announcing that an employee quit with no notice and another did not show up for work. I tried to call the employee that did not show up and their voice mail was not set up on their phone. I then text them a message to call me. The employee text back and said she was moving and would not be back. I then met with a family that was bringing their loved one to our facility from a hospital that was not being very helpful to them. This took a considerable amount if time because I had to go over everything and took them on a tour. Next I had to start working on change over orders for the next month which started the next day. During this I was told that a family member would be there in 10 minutes that was upset with us and moving their loved one to another facility. That conversation took another 30 minutes. In those situations all you can do is explain what your facility did and say your sorry they feel that way. The only thing I wish could happen differently is that hospitals don't throw nursing homes under the bus. The doctor in the ER had told the family some things that I could not recover from. When families do not understand medical conditions it really makes a nursing home look bad. Ok I got to work at 9AM and it is now noon. Another family came in that were bringing a loved one in because of the treatment at another facility. While going over their care another person came in where we were meeting and began talking about their loved one that they wanted moved here. I told them that I would go do an on site visit as soon as possible and take them if I could. While finishing my conversation with the other family found out they had some medical issues I was not aware of and had to make arrangements for. After that I started putting their orders on and placed a call to our physician. When our physician called I was told that they didn't know when they could get in they were short staffed (OMG). I finished the orders on the resident and when I tried to print them off I could not find them in the computer. After about 20 minutes finally discovered that the name was entered wrong by the social worker. That being done I completed the assessment and charted and was able to leave just before 8PM.In between all of this I got several questions from the nurse, NA's and had to explain this all to my boss.