registered nurse case manager

nursing assistant

director of nursing

registered nurse - home health

infection preventionist

Athena Health Care Systems

Athena Health care does not care for there workers.Our ratio of CNA to resident is horrible which translates to less care to our residents.The last raise we received was back in January 2016 and yet they have no issue with increasing the cost of our medical/dental insurance every year.The stress level that we receive to take care of our residents is overwhelming.The department heads will never admit we are short staff, meanwhile they stop doing their job to help us  feed our residents at lunch time because we do not have enough staff.Some of our residents do not get fully up,dressed and out of bed until 11:30/11:45 am just in time for lunch.Its not just the lack of not having a raise in over two and a half years,we need more staff.If you work there you have:                                                                        been there forever and hate change,live close by,or using the position for experience to find a better job or your a department head /upper management that is paid a decent wage.One of the few times we are fully staffed or over staffed is when the State of Connecticut is doing there yearly survey then you see ALL managers on the floor helping and asking "how can I help?" and  they schedule extra CNA's. If you look at the CNA staffing levels sheet in the front lobby its deceitful the management is including anyone who is a licensed CNA including office people who  position is not a CNA they have other positions in the building yet it looks like our staffing levels are great to anyone looking at that sheet of paper.Some of my coworkers are suggesting we get a union 1199 in the building to help remedy our issues.A union did not help some of my friends at Blair Manor as they closed that facility yet if they do reach out to Union 1199 I will side with my coworkers and not the many broken promises of management.

Where it concerns a recent  experience at Northbridge Health Care Center, Bridgeport CT , I feel it's important to share my observations regarding the staff and management. Unfortunately, the staff at this facility displayed a troubling level of unprofessionalism. Many interactions felt dismissive, and it seemed that a significant number of staff members lacked the necessary training and skills to provide adequate care. One of the most alarming aspects was the apparent lack of effective management, little to no accountability  and very disorganized operations.  Integrity appeared to be lacking in several instances. There were moments when staff did not follow proper protocols, which not only jeopardized the well-being of residents but also contributed to an environment of distrust. This is particularly troubling in a setting that should prioritize safety and care. Empathy and compassion are crucial in a nursing home environment, yet many staff members seemed indifferent to the emotional and physical needs of residents. Left me feeling that the atmosphere was rigidly cold and unwelcoming.  Placing the very little grad A staff they did have in Jeopardy of their own licensing.  It Caused the low percentage of caring employees to make the hard decision to leave their place of employment for fear of the deteriorating aspects that were happening within.  The combination of unprofessional conducts, inadequate management raises serious concerns for anyone thinking to have a loved one placed there.  I can’t recommend this nursing home at this time I was and am deeply disappointed.

It was a war zone with the laundry. Washers would break then you would go to the laundromat which was the last resort. Piles of dirty laundry more than one pick up throughout the day. After you fold laundry, you do a pass out which linen doesn’t last in the closets. Overall, it was interesting to learn about health stuff and covid stuff and the medical field is hard but interesting to learn. CNA work isn’t easy especially when you do things using a tablet. I watched CNA’s using the tablets. I asked them questions about CNA stuff. They help people. I don’t like helping addicts because that is a war zone there. I don’t like war zones.  It’s not easy remembering what happens throughout the day. Housekeeping was easy but you had some residents who didn’t want their rooms cleaned. Laundry is fast pace folding. Personal laundry is hard to do trying to figure out the names on the clothes because the labeled would be worn out or fall off of the clothes. With one washer working, linen came first. Then personals. They should do away with laundry doing personal clothes and leave it up to CNA’s or the residents who can do laundry, do their own laundry. That place needs small washers and dryers so they can do their laundry. That place needs to be renovated badly or close it down if they can’t upgrade the building. 

I transferred to a new building within the company and was told I would keep the same benefits. Well no one involved talked about what my benefits were betweem each other and I went from salary to hourly benefits a week after I arrived at the new building. That meant less vacation time, less personal time, less sick time and less holiday pay, and I had to start punching in which made my schedule less flexible. I took the job based on the understanding that I would keep my benefits. They had an offer letter on file but never actually gave it to me to sign. Imagine if you took a job on the premise that you'd have certain benefits, and then a week after you get there, they say "oops you actually don't have these benefits because we made a mistake, but we won't give them back to you because we don't care". I went to 3 different people from HR, pretty much got ignored. I left for a better place with better benefits, a non profit company that actually cares about its employees and the people who live in their home. Athena is losing so many people because of how they treat their employees. They made the cnas do every documentation which took like 2 hours because somehow they thought documenting on computer and on paper would improve care. It is obvious this results in less direct care because you're doing more paper work. At a time during the pandemic where short staffing was at its peak. Very disconnected corporate world. 

The challenges that are a contributing factor for this facility to be unable to retain its staff comes first from Corporate (whom seem to not care) and then by management (who does not know what else to do). The daily workload for nurses and CNA plus the long list of task given by nursing management on morning reports are almost impossible to comply. To this add the many call outs and mostly short staff, poor pay, no increase in raise, and lack of commitment from management to its employees. As an employee you end your shift feeling unaccomplished, defeated, burn out and with no sense of belonging to a team. This facility has lost many great and contributing employees that would come in each day to make a difference in the residents lives. Now due to this they have recruited to nurse agency, which resolves temporary the lack of staff but not the problem to retain and hire core staff including nursing management positions (ADNS, MDS, Infection Control, Supervisors, etc.). The core nursing staff that is left will not last either. In this field continuity of care is vital to the well-being of the residents, and with nursing agencies this important feature is lost and important issues leak to the cracks, important issues get missed, and that's when you don't comply with regulations. My advise would be to invest in great deal with reconstruction of management. There are still a great 👍 group of people working here.

The facility itself is very clean. The staff are friendly and work hard. Especially the CNA's. The pay is decent and the benefits are good. A lot of the residents are very nice.

They have plenty of inservices and staff development programs. If you are unsure how to do something, you can be trained for it.

Some of the pros are that both CNA's and Nurses are forced to work short staffed. The nurses get time and a half for working two units, but the CNA's do not. I think that is very unfair. They used to have really good bonuses if you worked overtime, but when they changed over Administration, that and the yearly Christmas Party disappeared.

They have unfairly fired nurses and cna's who were paid a lot. They will make paperwork and documentation disappear and will threaten the jobs of peers if they side with those fired or terminated. They also will fire you, if you talk about or try to get the facility unionized. 

If not for the unprofessional antics of the administration department and the higher ups in the Athena Corporation, Litchfield Woods would be a great place to work for. They used to care about the staff a lot more, than they do now. It is a "For Profit" company, so money seems to be the biggest motivation there.

I never have a typical work day, every day is different and you need to just go with the flow. What I plan to do any given day always changes depending upon the needs of the facility and staff. I do Staff Education to all departments and am responsible for keeping track of every employees education.  Any new medical equipment or policies is part of my job to train the appropriate staff. There is a total of 300 employees to keep track of.
I have learned a lot regarding state regulations and rules. Also the companies policies in hiring, terminating and disciplining employees.
Managing & disciplining staff is part of my responsibilities along with the DNS & ADNS.
 All new employees go through multiple days of orientation with me which I maintain all their records. Organizing outside vendors for seminars , CPR Classes and IV Training are all part of my responsibilities.
I'd say one of the hardest parts of the job is all the interruptions during the day. Staff have a tendency to come to me with many different types of issues because I trained them, not realizing I also have things to do for the Administrator and DNS.
The most enjoyable part of my job is when someone "gets it" when teaching and you see the change on their face when it hits them that they understand also when I get to spend time with the residents.

When i first arrived at work i would find the nurse who had my patients on the last shift and get a report on the patients from her/him, to make sure my patients were baseline and no one was violently ill. Next i would go see all my patient and introduce my self because i was a float nurse. As i  introduced my self i took blood sugars on the diabetic patients. Then i would administer insulin to the patients who needed it. After insulins i would hand out my first round of medications to the patients, then document anything new i noticed on the patients such as skin tears or bruises. I would repeat this two more times because i had meds to give at 3 PM, 7 PM and 10 PM. In between my second and third round of medication pass i would implement wound and breathing treatments, such as nebulizers and changing wound dressings.If I had enough extra time i would go to the lunch room and have my dinner. After all my patients were taken care of and all my documentation was finished i would wait for the next nurse to come in and give him/her report.Management was always there if i needed someone to call for help or ask a question to.

Busy and stress free most of the time. Working with long term and short term patients is amazing. You do have a heavy assignment although the staff is right behind you to help. The administrator is amazing she jumps right in to help as well as all of the other departments when times are busy. i.e. Breakfast , lunch and dinner tray pass out. transferring patients to PT, OT. Helping bring patients to rooms and helping use the ladies or mens room. Transporting during recreation activities. I learned a great deal of partnership at Shady Knoll. Not one person will ever turn away from you for help. I worked many different jobs, Clerical, Nursing , and Recreation.
Management as I stated earlier is amazing and loving and very helpful. The co-workers were always team players to the fullest. Once again hardest part of the job is loosing a patient or not seeing them come back from a hospital visit. Most enjoyable part is spending time with patients who have no family left to visit and putting a smile on the faces who seem sad or disconnected. i.e.. Spending time doing their nails or hair, watching a sport or reading a book with one.

The company as a whole is more numbers driven. They do not care about actual patient care or the morale of employees. They want you to just bill your patients with no regards for ethical and clinical input. Patient's and employee concerns are never listened to and are mostly swept under the rug. I worked here for a couple of years and can honestly say the ethics of this company is very questionable. They will accept patients that they cannot care for (nursing staff are not trained to care for) and will not care if patients actually get better. Staff members that are incompetent are put in high places and are never held accountable for wrongful actions.
You will be expected to be on call over the weekends and when you are off to support the lack of staffing. You are told to support the staff and be part of a team and in the same breath be insulted and demeaned. You will be undervalued! There was a recent memo where corporate management told every rehab department that they are overpaid and will not be included in a company wide raise. 
Micromanaging is a huge problem from corporate. They will nitpick any and every tiny detail about your job that are minute in the grand scale of things.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse case manager 2 salaries reported	$101,000 per year
Nursing assistant 7 salaries reported	$19.64 per hour
Director of nursing 1 salary reported	$104,000 per year
Registered nurse - home health 79 salaries reported	$83,791 per year
Infection preventionist 48 salaries reported	$49.95 per hour

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