Has anybody whos done private duty and/or home health been monitored the entire shift, every shift?
I took a PRN private duty assignment for a young adult pt who requires a lot of care. The pt lives with mom and grandma in an apt. They are always home, and the pts room is the living room and i can't tell if the grandma also lives in the living room, but she is there sitting by me every shift. She doesn't speak to me except if its to criticize how I did something. She also gets upset by random things, like for example, the apt is very cluttered and there is no table counter space anywhere and only one dining chair I can sit in the whole shift. I briefly placed a pill organizer on a chair that I hadn't ever sat in, and she got mad I did that, it was either the chair or a random stack of boxes or ontop of my open lap top which im sure wouldve also been a problem. I understand why that was an issue but I had to set it down somewhere quickly to go tend to the pt. I switched my shifts from 12 hrs to 8 hrs which did make a big difference, but its still hard because of the constant monitoring and I feel like I have no autonomy because I get criticized. There is a lot of down time and I feel weird doing anything like getting on my lap top because shes right there. I thought maybe she was there in the room the whole time for the first shift because they didn't know me yet, but no its every shift the entire shift. It makes me feel untrusted, and they have other rules which makes me feel unwelcome. I haven't ever had a pts family like this. They also have a hard time retaining nurses but I was told it was for another reason, but I think its because of the grandma and unwelcoming environment.