No Barking

Yesterday at the SNF where I work we had what turned into an hour-long meeting with the licensed nurses on the Medicare side of the building. We have a Green side and a Pink side, so I could just call it the Green side. Anyway, we got into a review of the new policy for managing people's hearing aides so they don't get lost, which involves locking the HA's in the med room and signing them in and out, and only licensed nurses putting them in or taking them out of ears. Then the CNA's were getting reprimanded by the med nurses because often a resident will take out their hearing aides and hand them to the CNA, who hands them to the med nurses. So the really literal minded med nurses were yelling at the CNA's for doing the right thing, saying only LN's could handle the HA's.

At this juncture I spoke up and said, "I don't think it's ever appropriate under any circumstances for anybody to be barked at. I hear a lot of complaints from my CNA's about nurses barking at them, and it doesn't make me feel very good that they are treated this way."

So after this interminable meeting, one of the CNA's came up to me in the hallway, and said, "Thank you! We know what you did. I'm glad someone stood up for us. I didn't think that would ever happen." Apparently the CNA supervisor, who was present at the meeting, talked to the aides to see which nurses were acting this way, and one or two of the nurses were pulled aside and spoken to. I'll probably be Public Enemy Number One with those nurses, but that doesn't really concern me. It's about time I put my foot down.