Changing their diapers, dressing them, feeding them, preparing them for the day’s activities; it’s all in a day’s work. No, I’m not talking about children. I’m talking about patients. About two years ago I decided to become an STNA: State Tested Nursing Assistant. What could be more rewarding than caring for those who are unable to care for themselves? Through my experiences in nursing homes, home health care and rehabilitation centers, I now know that the job of an STNA never ends and isn’t always so rewarding.
I started my journey as a nurse’s aide in a nursing home. My day started by checking the roster to gauge how understaffed we would be for the day. On a good day, only two or three aides called off, meaning each aide present had 10-15 residents to care for. Good days didn’t happen too often. By the end of my first month working in the nursing home, I had waking, washing, and dressing ten residents in an hour down to a science. It was a well known fact that if one resident was late for breakfast, the whole day would be thrown off. (And if breakfast started later than 7:45am you would think the world was ending.) Little by little, the job got more demanding. Taking time out of your day to have a conversation with a lonely resident was unacceptable. After all, that meant taking time away from doing the nurses’ job and god forbid they had to miss a smoke break. If the nurse wasn’t precisely on time with medication, or the kitchen had gotten a meal order wrong, it all came down to a mistake made by the aide. Of course, any aide approached with a mistake was quick to pin the blame on a fellow aide. The cons to my job were quickly surmounting the pros. Surely this isn’t how every healthcare facility functioned.
My next stop on my STNA journey was home health care. What a relief it would be to care for one patient at a time. I must have overlooked the part in the job description that said I would be responsible for the client’s entire family as well. About one hour of my day was spent actually caring for my client. The rest was spent washing dishes from the previous night (although one would think it was from the previous week) and doing the laundry of the entire household (which was two more clients than I signed up for). Any spare time would be spent taking care of the neglected dog and doing other household chores. At the end of my shift the house would be spic and span. Magically all of the work would return the next day and I would start the process over again. The family was nice enough to divulge me in their family problems as well. After six months of being a maid, therapist, and babysitter, I was ready for a new scene.
Finally, I landed a job in a rehabilitation hospital. This would surely be a breath of fresh air. In orientation, I was told that my job was to encourage the patients to do what they can for themselves. I was merely there to assist. Ha! I had never seen so many seemingly helpless people in my life. Because they were in therapy much of the day, any “off-time” they had, they took full advantage of. It was amazing how quickly they could transform from an able-bodied patient to a feeble patient who lost all ability to walk, feed themselves, or even maintain continence. Suddenly their situation became my fault and I was there to answer to their every whim. After therapy, the only friends of the patient were anyone who could supply pain meds. Unfortunately, that wasn’t me. All the aides were good for was feeding, bathing, dressing and changing their briefs. It’s a wonder why nurse’s assistants were even there…
As of now, I am taking a break from the world of healthcare. I’ve had about all I can handle of thankless catering to ungrateful people. Don’t get me wrong, there were a handful of patients that appreciated my hard work, and to them I am forever appreciative. Perhaps when I am a nurse I will have a more rewarding experience. I am not sure if I will return to being a nurse’s slave, excuse me, aide; but I am glad to have had the experience. I have learned a lot about the medical field, and that was my intent to begin with. My objective in writing this is to send a message to anyone who ever ends up as a patient or a nurse. Take some to time to thank your aides. Although it may not be apparent, that they are the people who are keeping the healthcare facilities up and running. Just imagine how it would be without them. And to all of the working STNAs reading this: I applaud you for your hard work and dedication. If only the rest of the staff would do the same…
