I once had to take care of 110 patients in one night. That’s how understaffed we are.
For nursing home CNA Juan Vicente, his work is more than a labor of love. It’s a calling that he takes immense pride in. However, like many nursing home workers in today’s world, Juan is faced with a major issue that is causing workers to leave the industry in droves: a severe understaffing crisis that has been made worse by COVID, poor wages and benefits, and an influx of seriously mentally ill patients that his facility is not equipped to care for.
Juan has been a CNA for 13 years, most of those working at his current nursing home facility: Montrose Springs Skilled Nursing and Healthcare Center. Being a CNA was never an easy job for Juan and his co-workers. It’s hard, demanding work done with dedication. But these days, Juan and his co-workers at Montrose are often forced to take on more than they can reasonably handle.
“I once had to take care of 110 patients in one night. That’s understaffed we are. I work night shifts,” says Juan. “Some nights, it can be quiet. On other nights, it can be busier than day shifts. It all depends. One night, a month or two ago, we were really, really understaffed. I mean, we’re usually understaffed anyway, but that night, it was like everybody was either sick or had signed up for a day shift. I ended up having to do the work of, like, seven or eight other CNAs. It was the most exhausting thing I’ve felt in my life. I did my best, but I’m only one person. I can’t be in five or six places at the same time.
“If the job of nursing home CNA looked better, more people would want to sign up, but it doesn’t, so why should anyone sign up to do a job that feels impossible, not to mention dangerous and discouraging?”
What initially drew Juan to nursing home work was getting to help people on a daily basis. Juan wanted to care for people. He takes pride in treating residents like they’re family, and residents appreciate his compassion and dedication.
With the recent influx of psych patients, CNAs like Juan have been getting pushed to their limit as healthcare professionals. They treat the psych patients with dignity and respect, but they need intensive psychiatric care — and that’s not offered in nursing homes.
“We’re used to our elderly residents memory problems and confusion,” says Juan. “That’s different. We’re talking serious mental illness here — many of them younger. For example, we have younger residents who try to leave the facility to ‘go to work.’ When we try to gently stop them, they either run, forcing us to chase them down, or they get violent and start trying to shove us out of their way. It scares a lot of the other residents, not to mention staff. I wouldn’t say I’m scared, but I’m definitely more cautious than I used to be, and I shouldn’t have to worry about getting attacked at work. These psych patients need to be in the proper setting getting proper treatment, not getting dumped into nursing homes.”
On top of dealing with these issues at work, Juan also has to deal with the same difficulties of life that everyone else does. Gas prices are going up. Grocery prices have skyrocketed. Even rents are going up. Juan has a wife and two kids; his family depends on him as much as his nursing home residents do. All this pressure is an immense weight on Juan’s shoulders, but he has to push through the pressure, in order to care for his residents and make sure that his kids have what they need.
That is why Juan and his co workers are striking: to help bring about a fair contract that addresses understaffing and the influx of psych patients. All of them work hard. All of them deserve a safe workplace. These are people who care for others on a daily basis. At the very least, they deserve to work with dignity.
