It is rarely the doing of the unskilled worker, to be sent into situations they are ill-equipped for. Rarely. Hard to imagine an employer who would do the sending though. The Nurse Leader says:
"All of my workers are fully trained."
That's what she thinks.
Some of these very well-intentioned people have a Grade 10 education backed up by on the job training to be cooks and housekeepers. When Governments took charge of such services, they mandated these in-place work forces be upgraded to the minimal Nurses Aide standard.
Sounds good, yes?
NO!
Who did the upgrading?
Why the Supervisors of the time. Who of course had no vested interest in seeing their employees upgraded rather than having to rehire and retrain.
Working alongside of these upgraded people is like playing roulette. You never know what you are going to get. Some of them are truly fabulous Nurse's Aides and some of them wouldn't know a bottle of french dressing from a bandage. The ones with the low skills tend to be older, in their 50s and 60s and you CANT TELL THEM ANYTHING because they know everything. Seniority etc....
I do not work alongside those people anymore. I know who is who now and I can insist on proper support in appropriate situations. What brought this to mind was a very capable and well-trained worker telling me about a *senior employee* who puts on her gloves to do bowel care and leaves those gloves on for unseemly periods of time.
*ugh*
Number 1: What is a HealthCare Worker in the field doing Bowel care for anyway?
It is a Licensed Practical Nursing function. I wouldn't let _anyone_ touch me internally who didn't have their LPN at least. Think about those gloves.
Think about being contaminated by a person who knows it all whilst infecting you with whatever....
UGH
rant au jour
Things I cannot change.
