Work has been fairly humdrum lately. I still like passing the meds, and still don't like doing the caregiving as much. It's just so hard, and always such a time crunch. One of my favorite old ladies has been a real handful lately; her arthritis has gotten so bad she has a hard time walking but she just hates to let any of us physically help her up or down and will holler and swat us away. I had her on my assignment last night, when I was working as a caregiver, and I just kept telling her "Mama, I know you're used to doing things for yourself, but your arthritis has gotten too bad for that now. You need to let me help you, and I need you not to yell. I want to take care of you." She seemed relieved. She was cooperative. I love that crazy old nut.
The hardest part of my day is the 5pm med pass, because they're starting to sundown at that point. If I can stay focused and not get pulled away from my tasks, I can finish and get out of there at 5:30 like I'm supposed to. If I get interrupted a lot (by, say, a coworker yelling "Polly! Help in here!" because a resident suddenly decided the shower was a no-go and is attempting to RUN out of the room completely naked without her walker) I don't make it out the door before they finish their meal. And from 5:45-7pm pretty much all of them walk around going "Where am I? How do I get out of here? When am I going home?" and riling each other up. It's a stressful time of day. I often get the Ke$ha song "Blow" stuck in my head on those days. Speaking of which, have you seen the music video? It's AWESOME; so funny and so weird.
I feel your pain as far as being overwhelmed with much work expected from you. That is
ReplyDeletehow I'm feeling in my new CNA position. One day at a time and it will get better.