Patient falling
I feel awful. I won’t explain too much to avoid revealing a lot of information, but a patient fell in the shower. I was right there, and the CNA I was training with had stepped out for a moment. During that time, the patient was trying to readjust herself, and when I said, “Wait,” she grabbed onto the bar and suddenly tried standing up. She slipped and fell.
She was fine afterward, but I still feel awful because I was right there, and I have no idea what I could’ve done to prevent it. I stayed about two feet away during the shower because she was pretty independent, and we didn’t want to hover over her while she showered. I was watching her the entire time and wasn’t distracted at all.
I keep replaying the situation over and over in my head, but I honestly don’t know what I could have done differently. The CNA and the resident had talked about potentially standing up during the shower since it was her first shower at that facility, but I didn’t expect her to suddenly try standing up while I was alone with her — especially since the shower floors are so slippery there. Even with shoes on, I have to hold on for dear life just to keep myself from slipping.
I just feel so awful. I’m not even on my own yet. This is my first CNA job, and I wasn’t even trying to transfer anyone. This happened while I was there, and now everyone that was there just seems annoyed with me. But I honestly don’t know what I could’ve done to prevent it.
When I worked my next shift, it honestly seemed like the whole situation was already over. No one spoke to me about it. Even in the moment, no one really said anything other than asking what had happened, but they seemed really mad at me. Other than that, most people don’t even seem to know it happened besides the people who were there that shift. Things still felt tense with them when I worked my next shift, though, because honestly the whole situation just feels like, “How the hell did this even happen?”
I just don’t know what to do now. I really want to debrief the situation with someone because this was my biggest fear, and it happened so early on. I’ve even thought about looking into re-education courses or something. I don’t know — I just want to do whatever I can to prevent something like this from ever happening again
I was finally starting to feel like “maybe I can do this” and this just shattered me so much. I don’t feel like a safe CNA anymore and I’m just so scared now