SHIFT CHANGE

I was sitting in the nurse’s station at one of the nursing homes charting an exam I just did on one of my patients. This particular nursing station is set at the center of two hallways that go off in the shape of a V. As I was charting my exam, assessment, and plan an elderly woman pushing a walker came up to the desk. There was nobody else in the station but me. She stopped at the desk.

“I am sorry I messed the floor,” she said as she started to push her walker up the other hallway. I was curious what she meant by this so I stood up and looked behind me up the opposite hallway. I saw one of the CNA’s standing about halfway down with her arms extended and her facial expression saying, “What the…?” I looked down at her feet and saw three piles of diarrhea about five inches from each other leading towards the nurse’s station. The little old lady proceeded down the hallway and into her room. I looked at her right lower leg and noticed she also had messed up her leg and would need to be cleaned up. “She also has some on her leg,” I told the CNA who was still standing in front of the first pile with a perplexed look on her face. She started to walk towards me.

“Who was it?” she asked me. I pointed down the opposite hallway.

“She went into that room,” I told her. She faced down the hallway and then proceeded to go get something to clean up the diarrhea. I looked at my watch to see what time it was. It was almost 1400 and the end of the CNA’s shift. Two CNA’s proceeded to scrub the carpet where the three piles were located. They had a displeased look on their faces but I was sure they had done this before considering the population they took care of.

After several minutes the carpet was cleaned with the remnants of three wet stains. The second shift was coming in to work their shift. I was still charting at the desk in the nurse’s station. The CNA’s coming on sat in the corner to get report from the CNA’s going home. They had something to talk about and told them about the three wet stains on the carpet and to avoid them. I was done charting and walked around the stains to the other nurse’s station. The little old lady. Well I bet she felt much better. The CNA. A crappy end to a long shift (excuse the pun).