SO YOU WANT TO BECOME A NURSES AIDE

If this comes out right, this should
be 3 parts.
Today is about employment
Tomorrow part 2 will be about the job
and Friday will be part 3 and to me the
most important part. The who you have to
be, to do the job well.

So you want to become a Nurses Aide
part one -

Employment

Becoming a nurses aide is relatively easy.
You got to have the money and the time.
Unless you get it under the unemployment
program that they have from time to time.
And then the state will pay for it. It is pretty
expensive now. When I took the classes
thru NIC/Employment Office, it was about
$56. Now it is over $100. But they also get
to do more than we did. They go to hospitals,
different nursing homes, home health,
and even get to go see an autopsy, I have
heard.

We sat in a class room for 3 months twice
a week. From 9 to noon. With a mid time
break. We did all book work for the first
month and half. We had a mid-term test
on that. Then we did hands on, but still in
the class room. Meaning they had a bed
there, so we learn how to make it right and
how to make it with some one in it. We
learn to take blood pressures on each other.
Take temperatures and pulse. We learn to
lift from bed to chair and back. And how to
lift with two people lifting and a Hoyer lift.
That is a crane looking thing that is about
5 feet high. All this you get to learn in CNA
(Certified Nurses Aide) classes. When you
get done with CNA classes you will have
two test. One is a class room, paper test.
Then you will have a on hands test.
And now you become registered as well
as certified. They didn't start registering
until 1989, in Idaho.. We had to go thru
classes again, but this time it was shorter
as we were already Certified. So when I
passed my exams, I added an R. to my
name. RCNA. Because I was Registered,
Certified Nurses Aide. Of which the
running joke is we were glorified bed
pan handlers.

But the truth of the matter is, we were
a lot more. We had way more to do with
our resident/patient than the nurses did.
We dressed, groom, bathed, fed, and
did physical therapy with our residents.
The difference between a resident and a
patient was where they were at. If it was
a hospital, it is a patient. If it is a nursing
home like place, then they were residents.
And if it is someone's home, then it was
a client. Also they don't call them nursing
homes anymore. They are called Health
Care Centers. Also there is assisted living
quarters. Which is a place where some
one needs limited help. Usually they serve
meals and have some one do your laundry,
and help in the shower if you need it.

I worked in a Health Care Center. It was
a nursing home when I started. I worked
for 17+ years in the same building. Under
5 different Administrations, 7 different
Director of Nurses, and 5 different owners,
and the staff was a constant turn over.
Very few nurses made it to 10 years in one
place. Very few nurses aides made it to
15 years and rarely made it pass the 25 year
mark. You will see aides who range from
17 to 83 years of age. Yes, I said 83. When
I worked we had 3 different aides who
worked there over the age of 70. There
were at least 10, including myself who
work there over the age of 60. But 2/3
of the group range from 17 to 50.

The job itself, was hard work. If you
think you want to sit and talk to the
resident and help them write letters,
and visit with them, may I suggest
working home health. You have time
there. You have usually 4 hours to do
what you have for each client. In a
health center you have approximately
5 total minutes to totally dress, and
groom each resident. You usually have
20 residents to take care with another
aide. If you are lucky. I say if you are
lucky, because they have so many call-ins,
that it is not uncommon for you to work
alone. You might find some one who will
help you lift the two person lift residents.
But the rest of the time you are on your
own.

Some centers will tell you that this
rarely happens, but I will be honest with
you and tell you it happens often. If you
have steady partners, (a rotation of 3 of
you. you work 2 days with one, and 2 days
with the other... as your rotation is usually
4 days on and 2 days off) If you have good
partners, they will rarely call off. And
work can be pretty good. But if you have
those who will call for the dangest reasons,
or a younger one who parties and calls
every weekend, then work is rough. And
you could be on your own a lot. Also the
turn over gets rough. As they can have
any where from 2 to 10 quit within a
weeks time.

In the days I started, there
was people who were on call. They
were people who were trying to get a
steady job there, and could be called
at 5am to come in at 6am. Or for the
afternoon shift or the late shift. Now
there is so many who come and go,and
higher paying jobs else where, there
isn't a on call list like that. For a while
a on call list was the list of names of
all the aides who had the day off. And
that is why a lot of aides put caller Id
on their phones. An on call list now
consist of people who have been told
that they will have their names on a list,
if called you come in.. and you will
be paid extra for that. Maybe.

In the old days..(lol, that is what us
older ones say) we use to get paid for
anything over 8 hours. No matter
how many days you worked that
week. With a 4/2 rotation, there are
weeks where you work 4 days. Because
you would have the Sunday - Monday
off... and then have Saturday -Sunday
off. Or you would have Saturday - Sunday
off and then Friday-Saturday off. Then
some one in the powers that be, figured
out that they could save money if they
only paid overtime for over 40 hours.
So those who only worked 4 days that
week and were called in to cover for a
weekend day.. got straight time.
We were not happy. You see if you are
on a 4/2 rotation... you only get 9 weekends
off a year. That is 9 out of 52. So your
weekend were precious to you. So you
don't want to give them up for straight
time. (a lot of times you don't want to
give them up for overtime either).
It was especially madden when you
got called in for a weekend.

If you were TOLD you were on call,
you had to stay home until the shift
started. Then you could go do what
ever you wanted to plan. Us older ones,
thought some how that was not legal.
But no one really protested enough to
get it changed, I guess we all knew it
was on deaf ears. And about the time
they put that into service is when I retired.
Also like all service jobs, you don't automatically
get holidays off. If the rotation comes up, like a
lottery, you get it off. Otherwise, you have to
ask for it off 45 days before. And like Christmas
it is the first come first serve deal.

On top of all this you are required
to do what they call IN-SERVICES.
You had to have 24 hours of in-services
a year. In-services were like a class.
You were taught different things that
we were doing in our job. Some of it
was the same thing, or the same movie,
you had been watching for years.
There was one movie, where we older
ones were saying the words for the
actors, we had seen it so much. We
got chilled for that because it was
distracting for the new aides. But
they did finally retire the movie.
And you couldn't just show up for
any in-service... that you liked...
there was a list of required in-services.
CPR, fire fighting, evacuation and a
few others were mandatory. You got
paid for this in-service time. But most
of the time it was on your day off, and
you had to come in at 1 p.m. or 2 p.m.
At the end I was working, what we called,
the Noc shift. Which was from 10 pm
to 6 am. So getting up at noon to make
it in for an in-service was not our idea
of a wonderful thing. We did have one
In-service nurse who did have them at
6:30 am so we could go after work
like the day shift. But that only lasted
as long as she was there, and of course
with the nurses turn over being almost
as bad as the aides, that wasn't long.

We had the best of Administrators/owners
and we had the worse of them. We had
ones who would listen to us. Even if
they didn't agree they still gave the
time to vent. If it was something they
could fix they would try. There were
company picnic's and Christmas
parties away from the building.
And they had good by parties for
long time employees.

Then we had owners who didn't
care what the staff had done in
the past. They had their way. Some
of their ways were good. And some
of their ways were horrible. We had
some people who retired after 15 years
and 20 years, with not so much as
a good bye. If it wasn't for the fellow
employees, they would have nothing.

Well, that is how the employment went.
Next part two...the job itself.