I was working as a CNA. I'd been at that facility for a year, first coming there through Agency, and later being begged to be hired on -provided I kept my pay secret-. I was a diligent worker, knew my job well, and worked 16 hours a day Friday, Sat, and Sun, more when needed or when there was bad weather. I even stayed at my bosses house when we dubbed it unsafe for me to drive the hour home. I never missed a day and at one point averaged 150 hours a paycheck when I was still Agency. I averaged 120 hour paychecks during most of Covid. Never again.
CNAs are assigned hallways. Or in this building's case assigned building sections (Front, back, Dementia, and then later Covid-unit). I was supposed to be in the Dementia Unit, locked in, as I'm a Certified Dementia Care Practicioner, having taken a pretty expensive 12 hour long course, verses the mandated 1 to 2 hour course. First they let a lazy girl from Agency (I knew she was lazy, I'd worked with her in other facilities,) take the Dementia Hall, despite my reporting she wasn't suited to it, because she wanted the 'easy' assignment AKA neglect the residents because they wouldn't understand that they're being neglected and it's unsupervised back there. They wanted me originally to watch the newly made Covid unit. But we had a new hire/new CNA who was also shaping up to be a poor worker (runs rampent in nursing homes, please only put your loved ones there as a last resort) and she insisted she take the Covid unit.
After I was already containminated by clocking in early to let the poor gal (from agency) on the unit out for a break. I advised sending her to the back hall instead, as I agreed the front would be too much for her. Nope. She got the Covid unit and I got the front, exposing 40+ people to Covid because the gowns and PPE are a giant joke at that level. None of it was fitted/fit me right. So I ended up taking care of 40+ people by myself despite all office staff being nurses. The guy (agency) who ended up with the back (also lazy, refused to help me up front) asked me to lay one of his residents down for bed. After I'd been at work for going on 8 hours with no break. And we had a nurse who could help.
Earlier in the shift I'd informed the Dayshift nurse (agency) that I quit after this shift before she went home. I would had quit on the spot but I'd already been working and could have been charged with abandonment if I'd left. I also let our MDS coordinator know. I messaged the DoN that these working conditions were unsafe and unacceptable and I was resigning effective after that shift. I told the overnight nurse. She sympathathized. And was extremely frustrated when the CNA from the back asked me to lay the resident down. This jerk followed me to THE BATHROOM begging me to do this, despite a firm no, and even kept talking to me when I was trying to do my business for the first time since I got there. Keep in mind I am a female, which makes it even more inappropiate. The nurse gave me a twenty to get us some food, said she agreed with me that he or the other girls should do it, and sent me on break after that and then had me hide in the smoke shack when I got back with our food as everyone was in bed and okay at that point. I don't smoke but stayed out there anyway. I then went to the Covid Unit at 8 hours into my shift. It was actually fairly enjoyable for the most part, even had a chance to chill with one of our more violent mental illness residents who was there due to having Covid, but we were buddies after I advocated for her and stopped her from falling when she had a stroke and held her upright yelling for help for like 30 minutes along with another CNA (very hard, given that she was over 6ft tall and had to have weighed over 200lbs and I'm 5'3″). But I was still beyond livid. They changed the assignments multiple times, broke the promise of keeping me on the unit because I had worked so many hours due to the fact that “You can handle upfront by yourself.” I was not impressed. They knew they were mis treating me, despite the fact that I was probably the most qualified person there once office staff went home! I was the only non agency person there at that point. Cross-Containmintation issues aside.
I let the dayshift girl who relieved me -30 minutes later- know I quit. I let the dayshift nurse know I quit. It was sunday so office office staff wasn't in to leave a note with.
Everyone thought I was just speaking out of anger. I just went home and slept. And slept some more. And responded to the DoN asking if I had the day off and the schedule was wrong by saying I told everyone who could hear me that I quit. It wasn't my fault no one believed me. She begged me to reconsider. I told her she should had thought about that before putting everyone else above her only decent worker that shift. I just called up my agency I was still an employee of and they got me shifts so I had no delay in income.
2 months later the DoN messaged me pleading for me to come back. Even when I told her I was in a different state.
I've handled the whole building alone before with just a nurse before covid was in the building. I am was rockstar at my job. I would had accepted if we'd just gone with the original assignment sheets. Even if all the night occured the same and what the assignments ended up being was what was originally written. The straw was that everyone else's wants got put before me. I was even promised the day prior the Covid Unit since I had worked so many hours. I don't even want to know how they managed it without me.