#cna life

[belovedgoofball]

Tonight I was taking care of one of my residents and I asked her if she felt better / felt like she was ready to get some good sleep tonight and she said, "I always feel better after you take care of me. Your hands are so positive!" And idk I think I just really needed to hear that today 🥰

[dsnachreiner]

[mentohol-blog]

If you want to improve your self-esteem, help an older adult with something related to technology. I’m not even joking. I just showed my best friend (early 90s) how to access church videos on YouTube because she was stressing out about missing them on TV in the morning, and she now thinks I’m the smartest individual to ever roam this mortal plane. Not lucky enough to have a nonagenarian BFF? Go find yourself one. Long term care facilities (LTCs) (assisted living facilities [ALFs] and nursing homes [SNFs]) are usually more than happy to accept volunteers.

A word of caution - don’t let the admin or whoever’s assigning you a role push you into something that feels unsafe, uncomfortable, or just not quite right. My first experience in this system was as a middle schooler. I volunteered at our local ALF, and they had me scrubbing toilets. Now, don’t misunderstand me here. That’s VERY important work. But that’s the important word. WORK. Sanitary/ homemaking staff are trained, skilled, workers. I was not. I wouldn’t have known what a Safety Data Sheet was if you smacked me over the head with it. They are trained and paid for their work.

The first concern is always safety, for yourself and the residents, so staying in your lane also extends to personal care tasks. If someone asks you to perform a personal care task (like toileting, dressing, or transferring) find someone like a nurse’s aid who is trained in these tasks and covered by liability insurance. Because you know what the CNAs, Nurses, Sanitary, Nutritionists, etc. who are getting paid for their work don’t have enough time for? True, unhurried, human connection.

This is where you come in. Go volunteer to just sit and talk with the residents. So many of them are so desperately lonely and isolated. But the workers have to, you know, keep them alive and healthy. And unfortunately the mental aspect of their health is often neglected. So go talk to them, listen them. Show them how to look up their favorite music on YouTube and feel like the smartest person on earth.

p.s. please be ethical. If you say your back is hurting you and a resident offers you a hydro, for goodness sake, don’t take it. If you mention that you have to buy new tires for your car and they pull out the fattest billfold you’ve seen in your life, peel off a couple crisp Benjamin, and tell you to go take care of it, do not take them. This seems like it goes without saying, right? Wrong. The amount of exploitation, financial and otherwise, I’ve seen and reported in LTCs is shocking. Sometimes you have to be creative in your rejections. I had to start saying I was allergic to precious metals because I had too many people trying to pass on their Great Aunt Lupe’s antique necklace to me.

In conclusion - go spend time with some elders. You’ll love it. They’ll love it. Just be you, know your role, and remember to be mindful of their propensity to proffer drugs and treasured valuables. Be prepared with some creative excuses to turn them down if necessary because they will many times continue to offer after you say no lmao

[burymeinariver]

Yall what is my luck? It's shit, that's what. (TW: death)

I've gone into nursing as my career choice. I am 18 years old. I began my college classes as a junior in high school, and earned my nursing aide certification in 2023. During that course, we had clinicals. The first day was a Sunday, and there was a resident at the facility we did clinicals in that we interacted with. We didn't have clinicals again until the Saturday after, and when we went in for clinicals again, that resident had died.

Cool, there's that.

I worked at a nursing home that was notoriously shitty, and I worked there from March 12, 2024- July 16, 2024 because the facility was permanently closed due to lack of funding, administrative issues, and state reports. None of my residents died while I was there, but it sucked to see them be transferred to other facilities knowing I would never see them again.

I started my medication aid certification class in March of 2025, and earned my CMA May 16, 2025, two days before my high school graduation. My clinicals were on a Monday and the following Saturday and Sunday. The first day of clinicals, they had a total evac fire drill.

Yay.

I worked at my town's middle school as a custodian from March 10 to July 3, 2025. There were two fire drills during that time. (The fire drills are considered bad to me because I have sensory issues and the alarms give me a migraine like no other).

Cool.

I got a different job at another nursing home. I started yesterday, July 9, 2025. It is my first day on the job. I was training with another person (as a CNA, I'll be trained for CMA later on), and we cared for a resident. While we were there changing the resident's brief, I noticed that her breathing sounded strange (which is not necessarily uncommon for those using oxygen concentrators) so my coworker repositioned the resident. Not long after, I re-entered the room to put the resident's roommate to bed.

Less than ten minutes later, the resident that was on oxygen died. It was my first day. I've never experienced a death. Did it affect me? Not really, I didn't know the resident at all. Even seeing a corpse of someone I had just seen living less than 15 minutes before didn't bother me.

Don't get me wrong, it sucks that she died, but I have sort of a morbid curiosity when it comes to death. I'm not close to anyone in my family really save for my brother (20 years old), and while there have been deaths in my extended family, I've never had contact with them or been close enough to them to really... Feel anything when they died?

I feel like I'm phrasing it wrong when I say seeing a corpse is cool. It ain't really cool, but it is definitely an interesting experience. I didn't like knowing that she was dead, but it was also my first time seeing a dead body (I swear I'm not a serial killer), and while usually that's traumatizing for most people, it wasn't for me. It might be the general emotional detachment I have going on, or something else.

Anyways, yeah. First day at my new job and someone died less than halfway through my shift. Joy. Also, I'm going to add that there was an inservice that I was REQUIRED to be present for, and when we had that inservice, the charge nurse tried putting me on the floor BY MYSELF. On my first day. On the hall that I hadn't worked on yet. While I was in the REQUIRED inservice.

I have my second shift today. We'll see if anything else wild happens while I'm there.

[what-i-like-is-what-i-like]

Workers that always do all the shit and always go above and beyond deserve the world because wether they realize it or not they get abused the most when co-workers say “so and so is in tomorrow and can finish it they are good”

Even though the shift prior is fully staffed and able to complete it…

[manicmadhattor]

I can't be a CNA (certified nursing assistant) anymore because of my past that I'm trying so hard every day to leave behind me, ain't that the bee's knees as well as the cat's pajamas y'all? 🙃💔😭

I'm inconsolable. I got a job offer which seemed very promising - nursing director said she wanted me on the team, great pay, her son's in recovery like me - aaannnddd the fucking background check fucked me majorly.

So much for trying to rebuild my life.

I pretty much am only talking to myself here, but if anyone has advice, I'd be grateful. Thanks.

[brimstoneandstardust]

Fuck I work some really god awful stupid people 😓🤯🤯🤯 like some of the shit that comes out of these peoples mouths…you’re supposed to be health care workers??? Why are you so stupid???

[sunust]

Lil update: my oldest is 9 and my youngest is 6 already 🥲 I’m working at a healthfood store which is nice bc I get to use this really expensive juicer to make myself juices and I get discounts and free organic food, and I’m currently going to CNA school. The kids are with my ex during the week until I’m done with school so I get to be the fun parent on the weekends until July. Also I get to cry all week bc I miss them 🥲

I deleted all social media off my phone except tumblr so I’m not distracted when I need to study. Also I like when it seems like I fell off the face of the earth digitally.