I have just worked one of the worst shifts in my career as a Registered Nurse. I work for a large nursing agency and work in a wide variety of aged care facilities across the southern area of Adelaide. I am an experienced RN, I  have a certificate in Gerontology and a Masters Degree. I am getting so  sick and tired of seeing aged care facilities cutting staffing to  the bare minimum and in so doing risking the health of the residents they are supposed to  be caring for.

I was rostered  for an evening shift 1530 to  2200.  I was appalled to  discover that for eighty residents in hostel care there was only one carer and myself for the shift, in fact the carer worked 1630 to 2130. The hostel is spread between buildings. How on earth are two people supposed to care for this many residents?

I found I had to  administer medications and treatments to  a large percentage of these eighty  residents, the remaining few being deemed able to  self medicate. I started my first round at 1600, three separate areas upstairs, three medication trolleys, three lots of medication charts. I then continued downstairs, four separate areas, three medication trolleys, a basket to  take to  the "cottages" four lots of medication charts.

I noticed that some residents required their medications crushed and highlighted on their medication chart was "choking risk." There was no one in any of the dining rooms to supervise the meal  only the kitchen staff. One may ask  if a resident can choke on medications wouldn't it be fair to assume that eating would pose a greater risk ?

The food looked appalling dried up  fish fingers and a mound of vegetables in some sort of dressing that passed for salad,The place was unbearably hot no air conditioning to speak of, just a few residents having their own window mounted units. My question is how the hell do these places get accredited?  I was running all evening in a vain attempt to  get the medications out as near as possible to  the correct time. It was impossible, the best part of eighty residents all ordered medications at the same time. By the time I had finished the tea time medication round, it was time to start the supper round, speaking of which the residents didn't get any.
I am so  angry! how dare these aged care providers staff their facilities so  poorly and what's more get away with it. Ill bet you  though that all the documentation is up to  speed and looks really good, they have a new computer system to help, installed and up  and running a week ago! When are we going to  stop  justifying all the public service fat cat jobs, the ones that keep  changing funding tools and rewriting chapters in the manual and put the money where it is needed in the aged care facilities.
Two people cant provide good care for almost eighty residents, all I could do was administer medication, that's all I did. I didn't have a meal break and left thirty minutes late feeling that I had done a terrible job. I'm writing this at 0154, as I cant sleep thinking about it.