Stories. Oh my the stories I could tell you. Someone once asked me if anything happened at work that day. Something eventful happens at work everyday. Here are some of my favorites...
I went to answer someones call light, walked in the room to the guy standing by his bed peeing on the side of his dresser. I was so grateful that his room was one of the only two in the hall with linoleum floors instead of carpet; it made it a whole lot easier to clean up.
This one Saturday was a real mess. We were already short staffed, and then one person didn't show up. So there are like a billion call lights going off and so the ADON (assistant director of nursing, one of the bosses) came over and worked as a CNA so we would be less short handed. And he's trying to help us get caught up while also being ADON and dealing with a slight crisis: the REAL game parking. Normally people can pay and park at my work since it is so close to the stadium, but there was a mix up with this, so people started parking anywhere and everywhere. They blocked this one lady in who is high on the chain of command and so she called the DON and they started getting the police to ticket the cars and tow them away. So then all the employees are trying to hurry to their cars to put on a sticky note to tell them that they work there. Basically it was mayhem.
One particularly bad Saturday (Saturdays must be the go crazy at work day because like half my stories are from Saturdays), I walked into another person's room because a fall alarm was going off, to find him standing there peeing on the floor. And then he walked in it, and almost fell. I went from cleaning up that to helping a person get on the toilet, and while I was waiting for them to call to get off, I answered a light. This resident had to go to the bathroom and, well, let's just say I had to change their entire bedding. I was almost done with this when there was another lady yelling because she had to use the bathroom and so the nurse came in and finished cleaning up while I took the other lady to the bathroom. Meanwhile, a different nurse had to help me take that first person off the toilet because I was too busy. This all happened within about 10 minutes.
One day, just as I got onto my shift, I was helping get his one resident dressed into a gown and when I pulled back the blankets there was a pool of BM. Literally. That was fun.
Then, I was training a new hire and we were changing this one resident, and when I rolled her she started to have a BM. AFTER I pulled away her brief. And she had no pink pad under her (thanks day shift), only her favorite blanket, so I ended up catching it in my hand. I WAS WEARING GLOVES, DON'T WORRY!
My name is still up for debate on pronunciation at work. I've been called Kristen, Kursten, Kristine, Kristina, Krista, Crystal, Huston, Sicily, Sicil, Little Red, Little Kreesten (emphasise the ee sound), Little'in, shorty, short **** (which is randomly what some of my favorite residents call me, and they all tell me they mean it in a loving way...?), and midget. EDIT: I've also been called Kristy, Ristine (not Kristine but Ristine), and Red. My favorite was when one resident said "Huston, like Texas? Where were you born?" (I usually just go along with whatever they call me since it's easier than correcting them every time) and I replied, "Sandy, Utah." Them: "Well that's weird."
Just the other day I was in changing a resident with another aid, and we finished and went to go out of the room only to find that the door handle didn't work. We were locked in the room. Thank goodness for the radios we have to wear at work, because the nurse came and rescued us. The door was so stuck she had to use her shoulder to push it open.
Also, I've been peed on, pooped on, had them grab at and slap my butt, almost gotten kissed, and more. Oh, the joys of working in a nursing home. Just kidding, I really do like it.
