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In Tennessee, the CNA position, which is the person who does all of the direct patient care in nursing homes, is a minimum wage job. In the nursing home where my mom now resides, there is one LPN for each wing of the facility to do meds and usually an RN in th building in the daytime. My Mom's facility is a small place with only two wings. While things are not perfect, I have to say that the staff has been on top of her changing needs. As an RN, I wouldn't have a nursing home job. The staff there are overworked, underpaid and often under appreciated. I have an excellent relationship with the administrator of the facility. They are constantly hiring and training and hiring and training. The folks who do the best work are often the folks who have aspirations of doing more than minimum wage work and eventually move on. Others are worn down by difficult working situations. Prior to being in a nursing home, my mother was in a wonderful assisted living facility. There, she had her own furniture, meals in a lovely dining room, the help she needed, and activities and outings planned constantly. On admission, I commented to the administrator that it might take a little time to adjust to their schedule and he said, "Oh no, it might take us little while to adjust to hers." I was impressed as that's how it was. There are good nursing facilities and poor ones, check them out, be present frequently if you have a loved one in one and remember that you can solve more problems with honey than vinegar. You can always pull out the vinegar later. Susan cocg Elizabeth ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn