‘Really taxing mentally and physically’: The travails of working in a nursing home

This story is part of a series by MinnPost reporter Matthew Blake on Minnesota s efforts to stabilize its nursing home workforce which has long struggled with high turnover Part one looks at the state s plan and the pushback to it from nursing home operators Wednesday s story will delve into nursing homes complicated financial situations and Thursday s story will explore the reemergence of workforce standards boards Next March Mary Voerding is due to celebrate her th year at Maplewood Rehabilitation Center a suburban Twin Cities nursing home where she has worked as a nurse care coordinator and now front desk receptionist Cracking jokes last month about how she could not wait to get photographed Voerding put visitors patients and management at ease Like multiple nursing home workers Voerding mentioned that she sees her job as a calling to help those in need Unlike several nursing facility employees Voerding has stuck around Thirty-six percent of all Minnesota nursing home workers quit or are fired within one year of starting according to statistics the nursing homes themselves document to the Minnesota Department of Human Services These self-reported turnover rates run the gamut between annual staff retention at Good Shepherd Lutheran Home in Rushford to at the Villas at Osseo in the Hennepin County city of its namesake But if the turnover numbers vary nursing home workers tell distressingly similar tales of stress and fatigue function use strict window addEventListener message function a if void a evidence datawrapper-height var e document querySelectorAll iframe for var t in a details datawrapper-height for var r i r e i i if r contentWindow a source var d a information datawrapper-height t px r style height d Related Federal cuts threaten local programs aimed at training certified nursing assistants Understaffed and overwhelmed Vikki Knigge a licensed practical nurse at the Shores of Worthington likes acting as a companion to residents I just want to make sure their day is special and make sure that I make them laugh and I listen to them and let them express what they need to express she commented She works between p m and a m each shift which allows her to take care of her granddaughter during the day But it also means that Knigge is used to sleeping just four hours a day window addEventListener message function a if void a evidence datawrapper-height var e document querySelectorAll iframe for var t in a information datawrapper-height for var r i r e i i if r contentWindow a source var d a evidence datawrapper-height t px r style height d That amount of sleep might be enough for a routinized job But Knigge reported that each shift is full of surprises including poignant connections or painful encounters Residents do get frustrated so they ll holler at you so you re dealing with that you re dealing with anger sometimes she reported Rachel Chouanard a trained medication aide at Parkview Care Center in the Twin Cities suburb of Buffalo has been at her job for eight years Chouanard attributes her extraordinary longevity to her interest in the nursing profession she is currently attending classes to become a registered nurse and belief that she is tangibly helping people It can be extremely rewarding she commented and nice to know patients count on her I enjoy the residents I take care of she mentioned Rachel Chounard a trained medication aide in her neighborhood on Wednesday Oct in Buffalo Minn She reported that her fulfilling work lead her to pursue nursing school Credit Ellen Schmidt MinnPost CatchLight Local Assessment for America Right now Chouanard is supposed to work with residents during her shift which starts at a m and ends at p m But colleagues a multitude of of whom are teenagers frequently call in sick So she often cares for residents in one day while hustling between Parkview s acute long-term care and memory care units I go wherever they need me and schedule me Chouanard announced It can be really taxing mentally and physically In addition to burnout nursing home workers say people leave the profession due to extraordinarily stagnant pay In Amy Oliver began work as a certified nursing assistant earning an hour Four years later her salary climbed to an hour She quit her job and went back to school A member of the White Earth Nation tribe Oliver declared that she needed to stay in senior care because elders in her civilization are placed on a pedestal At the moment Oliver works as a wellbeing care unit coordinator where she transcribes physician orders and schedules fitness appointments window addEventListener message function a if void a content datawrapper-height var e document querySelectorAll iframe for var t in a records datawrapper-height for var r i r e i i if r contentWindow a source var d a facts datawrapper-height t px r style height d But the job has determined her back at a nursing home Providence Place Senior Living in Minneapolis Oliver declared that she is fulfilling her mission to help her elders but is also reminded of the frustrations she had as a nursing assistant It is really hard to advocate for people when we are understaffed she revealed They don t make nursing home workers like they used to Nursing home operators interviewed are sympathetic to their workers plight But in addition to lamenting the years-long Minnesota labor shortage that has plagued direct care industries they cited cultural factors for why so plenty of workers quit Marc Halpert CEO of Monarch Healthcare Management the largest for-profit nursing home chain in Minnesota and the parent company of Maplewood Rehabilitation Center identified a shortcoming in the disproportionately young workforce that nursing homes draw from I m -years-old My kids don t have the same drive that I had at my age Halpert explained In my generation it was an expectation that you went to college and became a medical practitioner accountant or lawyer Now maybe I m doing evidence analytics from my bedroom Related Staff-strapped nursing homes look to new Americans for help Halpert noted that he has tried all sorts of options to retain employees including signing bonuses or a surprise check presented to someone who never calls in sick Nonetheless Monarch s preponderance contemporary cost document filed with the federal regime and analyzed by ProPublica detected that of the company s workers left before months on the job The way people have been raised has changed disclosed Sharlene Knutson administrator for McIntosh Senior Living a nursing home in McIntosh a town of in northwest Minnesota Knutson mentioned that high schoolers and modern high school graduates used to work five or six hourlong shifts at McIntosh until p m But currently entry-level workers in her area take more mindless jobs or drive minutes to work at DigiKey Electronics an automation products manufacturer in Thief River Falls It is very formidable to find assistants who believe in our mission stated Knutson who dryly added that workers are disinclined to care for residents differentiated by how long they can hold their bladder The post Really taxing mentally and physically The travails of working in a nursing home appeared first on MinnPost