On the floor Red Zone

White lights, red flashing lights. Hollerin’ bout having to use the bedpan/urinal, but really they were just on it bout 10 minutes ago and they had forgotten. This is the start of a typical evening in a CNA’s shift. It first starts when you walk in the door; you look down the hall, 1 to 2 white lights are lit (if your lucky none will be lit). You answer them and reassure them that you’ll be back in after you drop your things. Once you receive a report from the other CNAs from the previous shift, you can now attend to the call lights that were on when you walked in the door and the ones that are on right now. Wow! What a start, at around 4 pm you can sit and start some charting (depends on how much cleanup you have to do). Also, check everyone’s rooms for briefs, “are they stocked?” If not you have to ask through the double doors with the sizes, oh and don’t forget the butt cream, oh and linens. You need washcloths, towels, fitted sheets, flat sheets, a couple of blankets, bed pads, and don’t forget hospital gowns; even though they have been in their gowns all day, they need to be switched. Ah yes, make sure to ask for cups with ice; eight to be exact. “Is that everything you need?” Oh wait, did they bring PPE gowns, and do you have enough gloves in your size, might I add. “Now I have everything,” “I’m sure of it.”

5 o’clock pm. Dinnertime, now you can’t bring the cart in the red zone you already have one in here so you have to transfer everyone’s tray, the tray of drinks as well. Oh, and everything is in Styrofoam. So be careful that you don’t bend the tray or accidentally dump it on the floor. Deliver dinner, give everyone lemonade (because that’s all the kitchen gave to them, well except one resident it’s a thicken cranberry). You have that occasional resident say “I’m not going to eat” and it’s not always because they aren’t hungry, sometimes they just simply don’t want to eat. Two feeds, alright between you and your nurse back here, should be smooth sailing. To a certain extent it is, you do have those who think they have to be changed right in the middle of dinner, you have to stop everything and attend to them right now! However, it’s not always the case. “Learn to prioritize your residents because you will never get anything done!” Anyway back to dinner, oh yes, a nurse feeds one resident and you feed the other. Alright so now you have to go through and get the percentage/ounces of each person’s meal and throw away their stuff and remember the residents who refused their meals while passing out the trays in the beginning. Okay done! You’ve collected all tickets, let’s go put them in the charting because remember you wouldn’t have charted this at 4 pm because this never happened till now. So anyways, you sit down at the computer put in your id/password. Now get to it, put in if they needed help eating, how much they ate/drink, and if they are getting a snack (which when you get to know your residents you will know who gets a snack and who will refuse their snack). At this point it’s around 6:15 pm, normally some CNAs don’t like getting residents changed so early, just because residents fall asleep early and then they don’t stay asleep during the night. But this does not matter due to the fact your nurse goes right behind you at 7:30-8:00 pm to pass nighttime meds and also do their vitals. But for the sake of saving time let’s just say you start your residents at 6:20 pm, so we get our cart with all the linen we asked for earlier. Start at one end and work your way to the other end, prioritize your lights as well, because you know they’re going to be on while changing. 8 o’clock pm, everyone is changed into pajamas/hospital gowns and their briefs are changed as well. Coldwater is delivered so only the night shift will have to change out the cups at 4 am. But you have three bags of garbage, 1 or 2 bags of linen, and a small bag of personals (you know because know changes these residents in “real” clothes just because they are in the red zone)! At 9 pm you need to put in the urinary outputs and if they had a bowel movement. Okay, done! Know you wait for the nightshift aide to come at 10 pm, so, in the meantime, you answer lights that come on because no one thinks it’s time to sleep (sometimes you’re lucky and everyone does go to sleep). This is the time to shoot the breeze with your nurse and talk about things that happened today (to better understand your residents). As your night comes to an end, you are grateful that it is over. However, tomorrow is a new day, oh wait, do you work tomorrow?