Defining short staffing

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The day I arrived at this facility I wondered which color uniform the nurse aides wore. I saw lots of people at the nurses station, but most of them looked like nursing supervisors and managers.

After watching discreetly, I decided the aides wore the royal blue uniforms. I was so surprised that they were standing at the nurses station. I would've thought they'd be running up and down the hall checking on residents.

I also saw no carts on the hallway and no cooler cart carrying ice. I thought that was strange too. I wondered if they pass snacks here, and also if they ever passed ice.

It took me a while, until the following Labor Day weekend, to find out. On that weekend one older aide passed ice quite slowly on both hallways, only once during a twelve hour shift. To me that was surprising. Although, these residents can drink pop from the dining room. But I bet if they drink too much, too early in the month, they probably suck ice all run out sooner. I've noticed that at different times in the month, the pop dispenser is out of some flavors.

That first day, I saw call lights on for quite a while – particularly my roommate's. But I thought because she has older (eighty-one) maybe they thought she had some dementia and put her call light on for unnecessary things. But she was in bed pretty much all the time when I came. Consequently, in my first few days here when I was riding up and down the halls getting used to the place, I came back once an hour to check on her. I didn't mind doing it and I think it made her feel better. That way if her call light was on, I could find out what she wanted and go to the nurses station and tell them.

There is just such a disconnect when an aide goes into her room. I just seems like that aide loses concern for the other forty-three residents or forty-four who may have their call lights on and need something.

Some of the aides said that I don't care much about the other residents. They said that because I have a routine that I'd like them to follow. But, I think that could be a better accusation for them.

They close every door when they go into a room. Private rooms have no privacy curtains. So, in those rooms, the door provides privacy and needs to be closed. But there are curtains in the semi private rooms, and perhaps those doors could remain open.

Can no one but me see there's not enough staff? Staffing three aides for forty-five residents, means each aide is responsible for at least fifteen people. That's a lot of residents to care for.

It's unbelievable, that I came from a facility with a better care environment than that – at least on dayshift on the weekdays.