Certified Nurse Assistants (CNAs) are caregivers that work close to the elderly patients, also called residents. The CNAs are responsible for taking viral signs and helping the residents with activities of the daily living, such as: bathing, walking, eating, toileting, dressing and transferring. Taking care of patients that are not able to perform common tasks, like using the bathroom, can be difficult. For that reason, a great number of CNAs get injured in their work setting every year. In order to minimize the risk of work-related injured inside long-term care facilities, the facility should impose a non-lift policy and increase the use of lift machines, such as hoyers.
The National Nursing Home Survey (2004) and The National Nursing Assistant
…show more content…
Survey (2004) made a large evaluation in 582 nursing homes and on over 3,000 nursing assistant. The research shows that 60.2% of all CNAs reported a work-related injured. Also, 65.8% of the CNAs interviewed reported getting hurt more than once during the year that the organizations above conducted the inquest. With a view to find out the cause for such a high injury rate, the surveyors collected more information about the CNAs. For example: proper training, the use of assistive equipment, enough time to perform task, mandatory overtime and experience. Also, they collected data in the type of the work-related injured, which includes scratches, open wounds, back injuries, black eyes and other bruising, human bites and strained or pulled muscles. When it comes to proper training, the overall rating was really low. One third of the CNAs felt unprepared and unsecured to perform easy skills, such as transferring the patient from the bed to a wheel chair. Also, CNAs reported having a hard time dealing with patients that suffer from dementia and aggressive behavior issues. Proper training is important so the nursing assistant knows how to manage hard situations, use appropriate equipment and prevent injuries. When the surveyors asked about the training for the use of hoyers, 99% of the CNAs said that the facility offered proper training. The conclusion is that the CNA schools are not offering enough training inside the clinics. 13 years ago the students only have to do 16 hours of training inside the facility, while today they have to do at least 40 hour of clinical practice. But poor training is not the only cause of injuries in a nursing home.
Another research made 11 years after the prior research, shows that nearly 60% of all nurses and nursing assistants still suffer injuries in health care environment(“Nurses, assistants most injury prone in healthcare: CDC”, 2015). So what is the solution for this problem that affects more than 100,000 nurses and nursing assistants? Lifting patients is one of the main causes of injuries in the nursing homes. Over all injuries, 17% of them correspond to back injuries. But the use of lift machines itself doesn’t solve the problem. The prior research shows that 60.6% of the CNAs use lift machines, and those that don’t use it complain about the lack of time to do it. Therefore, the facility should decrease the ratio CNA to patient, in order to increase the time that the nursing assistants can spend on each resident. Also, a non-lift policy would prevent the CNAs from trying to lift patients in a quicker way that could potentially harm …show more content…
themselves. Overtime work also affects the risk of injuries. When CNAs work more than 12 hours they are tired and more prone to commit mistakes that could possibly harm themselves and the patients. “ After working for more than 12 hours It is hard to keep the proper body alignment and use the right body mechanics, consequently we feel back pain and soaring” (Shayne Monroe, personal communication, March 12, 2017), said a CNA that has more than 10 year working in that field. On the survey 88% of the CNAs reported that they worked overtime. All nursing homes are required to have CNAs at all time, but not every single facility have enough CNAs to fulfill the need. Because of that, the facilities should increase the CNAs’ salary and reward, in order to attract more people to that area of work, avoid overtime work and decrease the likelihood of injuries. Furthermore, experiences is an important factor when it comes to work related injuries.
Not only in the health care setting, but also in other areas, workers with less experience are more likely to commit mistakes and get injure. The research shows that 40% of all CNAs might be considered new workers. For those reasons, a high percentage doesn’t have experience. It might sound cliché, but practices makes perfect. Even though there is no such a thing as a perfect CNA, the more they work, the easier their job gets (Nurse Karla Garrison, personal communication, April 4, 2017). With regard to decrease those rates, the long term care facilities should keep their new CNAs instead of constantly switching workers. Also, the facilities should offer help for new nursing assistants so they will feel more confident about their jobs and consequently be less likely to commit errors and get injure.
The research shows that a great amount of CNAs get job related injuries. But the cause of those injuries is not the lack of the lift machines. Instead, it is the lack of time to perform care and lack of proper training. In order to improve safety in the health care setting, the facilities should hire more CNAs, increase their salary and provide help so the CNAs feel more prepared and confident. Being a nursing assistant is not an easy job. And performing care while you are suffering with from an injury is even
worse.
A Certified Nursing Assistant has a very demanding job. It drains a person's physical strength by lifting residents but, it can drain the worker of emotions as well because of the loss, pain, and abandonment surrounding many residents. I am a Certified Nursing Assistant and I believe the hardest part of my job is getting attached to a resident as they pass away. The death of a resident leaves preparing their body the Certified Nursing Assistant's responsibility so their families can say goodbye and the funeral director can take them to the funeral home. The whole process takes a minuscule amount of time, thirty minutes or less, once someone knows the process. However, the body needs respect and care even after death.Preparing a body is emotional for the worker and the family. Start by gathering the supplies to prepare the body. First,
Who is going to care for our aging population when they are unable to care for themselves? A Certified Nursing Assistant, also referred to as a CNA will. A CNA has many responsibilities in the healthcare field. CNAs are the primary caregivers to residents in long-term care facilities and hospitals. CNAs help residents perform activities of daily living. A few examples of activities of daily living are feeding, bathing, dressing and toileting. With all the responsibilities CNAs have, their job can be stressful. The night shift for CNAs requires getting patients ready for supper and put to bed. Some people may think this is simple, but it is not. On average a CNA is responsible for twelve residents while toileting every resident, assessing their needs, and watching for the other residents call lights, CNAs need to have every resident to supper by six o’clock. Once all residents are at the table for supper, CNAs must give each resident their trays and then feed them. Once they are done feeding the residents, CNAs start taking residents to bed. While giving bedtime care CNAs toilet the resident, wash the resident, brush their teeth, put pajamas on them, and transfer them into bed. While giving night time care CNAs need to listen for the alarms of fall risk residents, answer call lights, and be patient with the resident they are giving care to. CNAs need to give quality care
“Behind every great nurse there is a running CNA.” This statement is true, however only in the long-term care setting of nursing homes. Certified Nursing Assistants/Aides can be found in different settings, as well. Such as, hospice environments, and the homes of those seeking home healthcare. In each environment, CNA’s are important to the patients receiving their care.
The first step to understand your role as a CNA is to know the difference between a hospital setting and a nursing center. Hospitals provide emergency care, surgeries, and laboratory testing. They care for people of all types of ages and all scenarios. Hospital patients have three types of illness: acute, chronic, or terminal. Acute illness is a sudden illness from which someone is likely to recover. Chronic illness is an on-going illness which there is no known cure. Terminal illness is an illness or injury from which a patient is expected to expire. On the other hand, long term care centers are designed to meet the needs of people who no longer can care for themselves but do not need hospital care. These people are called residents upon their entrance. Care centers provide residents with the right medical, nursing, rehabilitative, recreational, and social services. Nursing centers meet the needs of all kinds of residents from alert, oriented, confused, short term, life long, mentally ill, terminally ill, to persons needing complete care. Besides the differences hospitals and nursing centers have similar standards. They must protect and promote patients or residents rights. Both require high quality care, and a clean and safe setting. The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act ...
The modern nurse has much to be thankful for because of some of the early pioneers of nursing, such as Florence Nightingale and Jensey Snow. However, the scope and influence of professional nursing, as well as the individual nurse, has seen more exponential growth and change in North America since the establishment of the first professional organization for nursing, the Nurses Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada, which in 1911 came to be known as the American Nurses Association.
...stants are on the forefront of basic resident care in long-term care centers (Sorrentuino & Remmert, 2012). They are essential to the day-to-day operations of these facilities because they aid the nursing staff in many aspect of resident care. Nursing assistants may be the first health team members to recognize the physical, emotion, and social, symptoms that may be common to residents experiencing serious or life-threatening illness. (Botonakis, 2012) Providing this crucial information to the supervising nurses is a very important to resident care. Emotional support and social interaction provided by the nursing assistant play an important role in the residents overall stay in a long-term-care center. It also adds to the residents quality of life. While not the most glamorous career field, the certified nursing assistant, is defiantly a necessary and important one.
To prevent elder abuse, Robinson, Saisan, and Segal recommend practicing stress reduction strategies when the aide begins to feel overwhelmed. Joining a support group is also suggested so support can be gained from people in the same situation. It is important for the overwhelmed healthcare provider to realize that there are others going through the same situation. Nerenberg suggest that employee screenings should be improved by include background checks and police reports (28). Also, it is necessary for there to be a feasible workload to ensure that the nursing aide can provide quality care for the residents. If the workload is not manageable, the aide will likely be forced to spend less time with each resident causing the care to not be sufficient or of great
Patient falls is one of the commonest events within the healthcare facilities that affect the safety of the patients. Preventing falls among patients requires various methods. Recognition, evaluation, and preventing of patient falls are great challenges for healthcare workers in providing a safe environment in any healthcare setting. Hospitals have come together to understand the contributing factors of falls, and to decrease their occurrence and resulting injuries or death. Risk of falls among patients is considered as a safety indicator in healthcare institutions due to this. Falls and related injuries have consistently been associated with the quality of nursing care and are included as a nursing-quality indicator monitored by the American Nurses Association, National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators and by the National Quality Forum. (NCBI)
The nature of the work is very similar for the C.N.A. and L.P.N. A C.N.A. work includes performing routine tasks under the supervision of nursing staff. They answer call bells, deliver messages, serve meals, make beds, and help patients eat, dress, and bathe. Aides also provide skin care to patients, take pulse, temperature, respiration, and blood pressure and help patients get in and out of bed and walk. They also escort patients to operating rooms, exam rooms, keep patient rooms neat, set up equipment, or store and move supplies. Aides observe patient’s physical, mental, and emotional condition and report any change to the R.N. Likewise the L.P.N. provides basic bedside care. They take vital signs such as temperature, blood pressure, restorations, and pulse. They also treat bedsores, prepare and give injections and enemas, apply dressings, apply ice packs and insert catheters. L.P.N.’s observe patients and report adverse reactions to medications or treatments to the R.N. or the doctor. They help patients with bathing, dressing, and personal hygiene, and care for their emotional needs.
Evidence shows that nurse to patient ratios impacts patient safety. The analysis titled "Nurse-to-Patient Ratios Must Increase to Improve Safety" was chosen for review as possible research material for my chosen health care topic of nurse to patient ratios (Duffin, 2012). The analysis is a concise glimpse of the problems that occur with high patient loads and those that suffer because of it. However, the analysis is just that, a glimpse. It is too short to provide any substantial new evidence or add to any existing research on this topic. This essay will evaluate the targeted audience or discourse community as well as the author's relevance or kairos in the writing of this brief analysis.
Patient’s safety will be compromised because increase of patient to nurse ratio will lead to mistakes in delivering quality care. In 2007, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) conducted a metanalysis and found that “shortage of registered nurses, in combination with increased workload, poses a potential threat to the quality of care… increases in registered nurse staffing was associated with a reduction in hospital-related mortality and failure to rescue as well as reduced length of stay.” Intense workload, stress, and dissatisfaction in one’s profession can lead to health problems. Researchers found that maintaining and improving a healthy work environment will facilitate safety, quality healthcare and promote a desirable professional avenue.
The rate of errors and situations are seen as chances for improvement. A great degree of preventable adversative events and medical faults happen. They cause injury to patients and their loved ones. Events are possibly able to occur in all types of settings. Innovations and strategies have been created to identify hazards to progress patient and staff safety. Nurses are dominant to providing an atmosphere and values of safety. As an outcome, nurses are becoming safety leaders in the healthcare environment(Utrich&Kear,
Safety is a primary concern in the health care environment, but there are still many preventable errors that occur. In fact, a study from ProPublica in 2013 found that between 210,000 and 440,000 patients each year suffer preventable harm in the hospital (Allen, 2013). Safety in the healthcare environment is not only keeping the patient safe, but also the employee. If a nurse does not follow procedure, they could bring harm to themselves, the patient, or both. Although it seems like such a simple topic with a simple solution, there are several components to what safety really entails. Health care professionals must always be cautious to prevent any mishaps to their patients, especially when using machines or lifting objects, as it has a higher
we support our clients right to make their own decisions and secure their healthcare rights. Also informing them about the “speakup “ campaign in cases where they are being cared for in an unsafe manner. “Doing for” involves the nurse’s responsibility to do for the patients, what they would normally do for themselves but cannot do it at that time due to limited ability; either because they are in pain or disabled in any way as a result of their present illness, accident, or similar situations that results to, or is related to, activity impairment(s). Doing this helps them physically and emotionally. Meanwhile, it is important to maintain their dignity while doing things for them because their limitations can elevate their risk of emotional and psychological problems.
Even with using the right way of lifting patients there is still a possibility of the nurses getting injured. “Lifting and moving patients manually still places pressure to the nurses spine, regardless the technique you use” (white). Many nurses are scared since the population is growing more and more each day which then means that there's going to be a lot more people to take care of in the hospitals and that puts many nurses in fear because if they are working in a hospital that does not believe in using lifting equipment then they are just going to end up hurting themselves very severely and might not be able to work as a nurse because of how bad they injure themselves. Patient handling for nurses is something that they do daily when they