Cna Burnout
You arrive for your shift at a local nursing home where you work as a nurse's aide. You feel despondent and detached. You go through the day feeling both agitated and numb. Things that were once enjoyable are now tedious and annoying, and residents who used to put a smile on your face now seem to push your buttons. You hurry through the day in a daze, snapping out of it long enough to look at the clock and see how much longer you have before you can go home. If this sounds like you, don't feel guilty. You are suffering from something that affects nurses aides everywhere: burnout. Nursing aide burnout is an extremely common occurrence in the profession. Job burnout in most fields occur around the five year mark, however burnout among nurse's aides can happen in half of that time. There are severalreasonswhy burnout among CNAs occur so frequently.
The first reason has to do with the workload. Typically nursing home administrators purposely under staff their facilities, which leaves one or two CNAs to care for twenty four to thirty six residents at a time. That care involves dressing, feeding, grooming, and toileting. This workload generally keeps the aides jumping through hoops on a daily basis, and feeling like they are not able to do their jobs well. It is something that can wear a person down quick.
Another factor that can lead to burnout among CNAs is dealing with death. When aides work in facilities they tend to bond with certain residents. Unfortunately if one of those residents should die, that aide may experience a sense of loss that is equal to losing a parent or grandparent. The death of a loved one is hard enough, so imagine losing several loved ones over a period of time. There is only so much death that one person can handle before it leads to sever mental problems.
These are two of the main factors that can cause CNAs to burnout. While job burnout is inevitable, it is something that can have dire consequences when it happens to a nurse's aide. When CNAs burnout, the ones who suffer the most are the residents in their care. So how does one address this kind of burnout? There are several things an aide can do when they are at that point.
The first thing that you can do is make certain that you are well rested before you come to work. You know that you are going to be in for a long shift, so you might as well rejuvenate yourself as much as possible. It is best to make certain that you have had seven to eight hours of sleep before your shift starts. That way you will be able to remain alert and focused in order to deal with the grueling tasks ahead.
When you are off of work take the time to actually rest. If you have several days off in a row take at least one of those days to sleep and just relax. Get yourself a good book and curl up in the tub, or watch a comedy on television. The point is to do things that are relaxing and can take your mind off of your job. Put off those errands today and take that time for yourself. Also when you are off, do not go near the facility that you work at. While many CNAs develop friendships with residents and want to spend time with those residents when they are off, having to see the place where you work even if you don't have to be there can have a negative affect.
If you are at the end of your rope, then maybe it is time to move on and get a fresh start. It is rare that an aide will be working at the same facility for more than just a few years. You may want to consider working at another facility. While nursing will be nursing where ever you go, each facility does certain things differently. Sometimes it can be those little differences that make all of the difference in the world. If that is not enough, then you may want to consider finding a new career path altogether. You are not the first person to travel down that road, however you will want to stop and ask yourself what it is that you really want to do, then go do it.
Job burnout among CNAs is not an isolated thing. It will happen to everyone eventually. There are ways that you can cope with that burnout and hopefully continue on the path. If it comes down to choosing a new career there are plenty of resources that will help you on your endeavor. The two things that you want to do are identify burnout early on, then take the necessary steps to fix the problem before it can hurt someone.
