nursing assistant

licensed practical nurse

resident assistant

registered nurse

Western Home Communities

I have worked here going on 8 years. As a Med Aide at Madrid Home Communities, I can honestly say the team I work with is fantastic, but my overall experience has been difficult due to poor management. The staff genuinely cares about the residents, and I’m proud of the work we do to provide quality care. However, the issues with the management are significant.

Communication from upper management is almost nonexistent. Policies and new admissions are introduced with little notice, and there's no effort made to assist when we are short-staffed. As a result, we often feel overworked and undervalued. Long-term employees are rarely recognized, and raises are non-existent, even when they are clearly deserved.

There is an overwhelming sense of favoritism, with management hiring anyone they can find, often sacrificing the quality of care for short-term staffing. They fire employees who speak up or refuse to blindly follow management’s demands. The environment is toxic, and staff morale is very low.

Moreover, the assistance we receive from Cedar Falls staff is minimal at best, with many coming across as rude and unhelpful, showing a lack of respect for those of us on the front lines. It's disheartening to see how the work culture has deteriorated since the company was taken over by Western Home Communities.

I truly miss the days when Madrid Home was privately owned. The care for residents was better, and the staff felt appreciated and supported. Now, it’s become a stressful and toxic place to work, and I find myself dreading each shift. The only thing that keeps me here is the strong bond I have with my long-term residents, who I adore and care deeply about.

For this job I worked in the dining center serving the residents breakfast, lunch and dinner. As a server I had to make sure the dining room was ready for the meal, serving the residents, and cleaning everything up after the meal.

This job taught me a lot about customer service. I had to make the residents feel at home and that everyone was one big family. Western Home prides themselves on making all their residents feel as if the employees are their family. We as employees were told that we had to always be patient and kind and to make every resident feel comfortable. It taught me to be patient, helpful and caring. It also helped me with my memory. This is because I wanted to be sure I knew all my residents likes and dislikes. This way they knew I cared about them and their needs.

The hardest part about this job was the communication among the RAs and the dinning room employees. The RAs helped us during dinner but sometimes did not fallow all the rules exactly because they did not know about them. It made it difficult because no one explained everything to them and it was hard to do that while we were already serving.

The most enjoyable part was working with the residents. I loved getting to know each of them and talking to them. I also liked putting a smile on their faces. It made the job very enjoyable and fun.

The job in and of itself was simple. Not the greatest, mind you, but it goes to help out wonderful people. And that's what keeps you going. The best part of my experience was the team in the kitchen. Everyone there is tightly-knit, and I honestly don't believe I'll ever find better coworkers anywhere else.

What I can't say the same for, is the nursing department. While most have been decent to deal with, several of the CNAs tend to be held at shockingly low standards for employee conduct. Yelling at residents, dehumanizing them, gossiping and belittling other staff. Some of these people are legitimately horrible, and in my opinion, should never have been allowed to take care of such vulnerable residents. 

As for the COVID response, I was glad that management stepped things up and provided masks and testing for all employees. Weekly required tests during intense months was certainly smart. However, one fatal shortcoming was lack of proper mask-wearing enforcement. So much went wrong, it is hard to list it all, in the preventative measures that were taking place. It was an intensely stressful situation that I couldn't take for too long.

Nice facility for the residents, but staffing is always a problem.  Constantly losing employees due to the management team being lazy, rude, and disrespectful to their employees.  They keep their employees in a constant state of chaos due to changing policies and procedures constantly.  They are always dumping more work on the CNA's and nurses and are not willing to help out when needed.  Most of the management team doesn't even really know the residents and what it takes to care for them.  Nothing is based on acuity but rather on the number of residents so some cottages with lower numbers and higher acuity are severely shorted on the amount of staff management will give them.  Also, CNA's are expected to clean, do laundry, and even sometimes cook for little pay. It is impossible to do all these things and provide residents with the care they truly deserve although the employees do their best.  When the floor staff is having trouble meeting everyone's needs, it is always their fault and they are constantly gaslighted. Toxic environment.

Fun but high stress job due to lack of employees. not good scheduling.
Enjoyed working with patients. Most staff were enjoyable. Typical day consisted of caring for residents and assisting them in normal daily chores and physical care. Helped in their eating and personal cares. 
I was familiar in helping with elderly as helped care for my Grandpa whom had dementia and need use of easy stand. Hardest part was shortage of staff which tend put heavy stress on few there to deal with all responsibilities especially during crisis. Patients were appreciative and kind,,,of course some ornery too. there was a lack of praise for jobs done and I feel like many that we need to get praised for jobs done. That tends to go a long way.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The residents are worth staying for, the management and leaders are terrible with their leadership.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The leadership are very condescending, narcissistic and only want whats best for themselves and their growth 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Negative environment, depends on who you are working with but the overall morale is negative 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I felt like i was walking on egg shells, anticipating what i was going to be told what i has done wrong this time

Working at western home is not terrible. I have worked in different  building within the company and each building is different along with the staff. If possible ask to do a job shadow in the building they are offering the position. It will be helpful. Management is not terrible but they do tend to favor staff that have been there longer. And some aides can be clique-y and not nice to new staff. You have to stand your ground and speak up for yourself or else you can get burnt out very quickly. Some of the nurses rend to depend on certain aides more than others. The residents do get combative at times and that can be hard to deal with on some days. But overall, you have to be there for the residents over anything else. 

Constantly short staffed so much so that they allow a complete circus with no discipline for fear someone (even totally worthless employees) will quit.  Never enough help- people just don't show up so you are left to work the job of whoever didn't come.  Not a good place to work if you have standards and a work ethic because you see how it effects the residents there, and you also just end up having to complete the jobs of others ' to help them out' per management's direction.  They claim you can advance, but I have yet to ever see anyone get a position they applied for.  Sadly, I would not recommend Western Home.  

I think western home is way too laid back. There’s no restraints so people are falling frequently. The call- ins are unbelievably insane. A coworker has called in probably twice every week for the past month, and even no called no showed once, and still has her job. Some of the cnas are very lazy and can be rude. Incontinent residents are supposed to be changed every two hours, but here, they’re only changed right before they go to bed. And a majority of the time they’re understaffed with cnas. Western home needs more consequences for call- ins and needs to get rid of the lazy cnas that are only here to collect a pay check.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The Therapy department.  Great co workers.
The rooms, hallways and dining room are spacious

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I'm in the therapy department, so they want 85% productivity ( but every place does). It's difficult at times d/t different floors and buildings you have to do. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
I think really good. Most workers are nice and positive 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Come in at 8am and review the caseload I have and the get going. Sometimes people aren't ready, though and I have to wait

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Nursing assistant 5 salaries reported	$22.63 per hour
Licensed practical nurse 1 salary reported	$35.00 per hour
Resident assistant 2 salaries reported	$16.76 per hour
Registered nurse 7 salaries reported	$40.82 per hour
Pt 10 salaries reported	$13.08 per hour

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