Equus wrote:One summer I worked as maintenance man at a nursing home. Every two days I had to clean the grease trap of the septic system. Yeccch. And occasionally had to clean up after a regurgitative, execretory or bloody mishap; and sanitize rooms after a death.
Equus - Oh my gosh that what's
I do for a living!!! Well, besides cleaning grease traps. I'm an nurse's aide in a skilled nursing facility. I work the night shift and this is how a usual night goes.
2200 - Arrive. Get report from evening aide. Fill about 2-15 pages of paperwork (vitals, Intake and Outake forms). Then I fill my linen cart with washclothes, incontinent briefs (a nice way to say adult diapers), incontinent pads, sheets etc. Then I wash three wheelchair in the shower room.
2330 - Go out for a cigg.
2400 - Start first rounds. Out of about roughly 16 residents (the politically correct way of saying patients, since they live there), about half are incontient of urine/bowel movements or both. So I check on the incontinent residents every two hours, and if they're wet or soiled, clean their bottoms. And some of these people are 200-300 pounds compared to my... well, much lesser weight. And then I empty catheters for those who have them, deal with agitated, combative, confused, or rude residents. And of course make sure they're still breathing. And if they (sadly) pass away during the night (which they often do) I have to clean them up, changed their gown, brush their hair, clean out their mouth, wash their face, close their close (if applicable), and put a rolled up towel under their chin (the tend to be wide open). This is a very tough job and I'm shocked
the pay doesn't relfect that. I've been kicked, punched, pinched, called nasty names (slut, bitch, asshole, jackass, chink..).
I do this every two hours, and at 0400-0500 I get up two grumpy, sleepy, tired, agitated residents whose limbs are stiff as a board due to DJM or arthritis or etc.
Sometimes they wail all night, or throw up, or are on their call light every 15 minutes. Just cause it's night shift doesn't mean it's slow!!
