[skunkman44]

My wife is a brand new certified nursing assistant. She currently works in a nursing home. But she sees a big problem that is going to be a big problem really soon. She wants to get in the ground floor of the teaching and training but she or I know how to do it. She even has some high power MDs willing to help once she gets it going.

The normal care that a person gets in a nursing home would kill a person that has had bariatic surgery. The diet or the overall care. More and more they are going to come in for extended care and the food and the care is not there to support them.

I'm was in healthcare for over 20 years but not with the nursing or patients part. Admin and marketing. She is brand new and I don't know how to help her do it.

Can anyone help us?

[JudyKayTee]

My wife is a brand new certified nursing assistant. She currently works in a nursing home. But she sees a big problem that is going to be a big problem really soon. She wants to get in the ground floor of the teaching and training but she or I know how to do it. She even has some high power MDs willing to help once she gets it going.

The normal care that a person gets in a nursing home would kill a person that has had bariatic surgery. The diet or the overall care. More and more they are going to come in for extended care and the food and the care is not there to support them.

I'm was in healthcare for over 20 years but not with the nursing or patients part. Admin and marketing. She is brand new and I don't know how to help her do it.

Can anyone help us?

I don't know about Michigan but my cousin is an RN with a Masters Degree and she teaches CNAs, LPNs and RNs in NYS. She could not teach with the Masters Degree.

In Michigan what type of education do you need to be a CNA? Does it qualify her to teach?

Isn't bariatric surgery the same as gastro bypass? Or not?

[tickle]

Why would they not have dieticians on staff to assist in all the dietary needs of residents in you nursing homes?I don't understand. Is she a PSW, a certified personal support worker? Because with that designation it doesn't mean very much as far as clout goes. Teaching and training is a big deal in the healthcare field and she will need a lot more then 'cert. Nursing asst' after her name in order to do it.

I work in Ontario as a PSW for a healthcare provider and see a lot too; was pretty gung ho when I started until I settled down and realized that it isn't that easy to bypass normal procedures in nursing homes.

Bariatric surgery is weight loss surgery a very invasive procedure. I would hope that no one having that would be in a nursing home, but in a hospital unti they are ready to handle homecare.

She will need RNs or RPNs to assist her in the training and procedures. Your training may not be the same (where you are in the US I assume).

It is a viable idea but very costly and time consuming.

[JudyKayTee]

Bariatric surgery is weight loss surgery a very invasive procedure. I would hope that no one having that would be in a nursing home, but in a hospital unti they are ready to handle homecare.

OP has posted very recently that his wife weighs 300 pounds, that he gave up dating model-type women and is very comfortable with her (and she is very comfortable in her own skin) so it's possible that this is a personal interest of hers.

Doesn't explain why the patients are in a nursing home or the level of education needed to teach but it's a bit of insight.

[skunkman44]

Let me put this straight. She doesn't care if she is the teacher she just wants to address the need before the system has to play catch up to fill it. Education and procedures are paramount in the health care field for good reason. If I had the basic education in health care I would more CME credits than anyone in the state. I can talk about monoclonal antibodies but I have no idea what it means in human terms.

I just about starved to death the first years working in the health care business. The only thing that kept me going was, every once in a while I made a difference. Healthcare is a business that if it isn't personal to you, you are in the wrong business.

And my wife, she was very heavy and very healthy until she had an accident and messed up her knees and ankles. Her surgery was not elective it was mandatory.

Back to topic. How do we address this upcoming problem. We don't want to teach but educate. Correction: I might teach because I cook for her and I have some great recipes.

[tickle]

Skunkman, with all due respect you and she might have the best intentions but do you have the money to back you up. Sure you say, you have doctors to back you up but will they be there when the time comes to put the cards on the table.

What exactly do you want to do, start a new nursing home ?

You say if healthcare isn't personal to you, you are in the wrong business. Well, I am in the healthcare business and have been for many years working for Canadian Red Cross, I can't afford tomake it 'personal' because if I do that I lose site of what my mandate is and absolutely my scope of practice. Sure I 'like' my clients, I care for them, they run the gammut, I did my clinical in a nursing home so I know what end is up. I don't know what you have down there, but here we have physical therapists, dieticians, RNs and PSWs working in all the major long term care facilities and I really don't see what needs improving and my eyes are wide open.

So, get yourself a business plan, get everything down on paper, that is a start, pros on one side, cons on the other, but I don't exactly see what you mean by 'this upcoming problem'. Changes take years.

[JudyKayTee]

Let me put this straight. She doesn't care if she is the teacher she just wants to address the need before the system has to play catch up to fill it. Education and procedures are paramount in the health care field for good reason. If I had the basic education in health care I would more CME credits than anyone in the state. I can talk about monoclonal antibodies but I have no idea what it means in human terms.

I just about starved to death the first years working in the health care business. The only thing that kept me going was, every once in a while I made a difference. Healthcare is a business that if it isn't personal to you, you are in the wrong business.

And my wife, she was very heavy and very healthy until she had an accident and messed up her knees and ankles. Her surgery was not elective it was mandatory.

Back to topic. How do we address this upcoming problem. We don't want to teach but educate. Correction: I might teach because I cook for her and I have some great recipes.

Wow - this is going to sound harsh. I find it difficult to believe that anyone is going to take a 300 pound female seriously when it comes to good eating habits. I'm sorry, but I really do think that is how it is. Perhaps she's healthy now but everyone reads every day about the dangers of being overweight, the dangers of obesity.

I'll be very surprised if her Doctors aren't on her about her weight - she was in the hospital/nursing home because she "messed up" her knees and ankles or because she had bariatric surgery? I'm not really sure.

I thought bariatric surgery is/was dangerous and very much a last resort when obesity becomes more of a health risk than surgery. Maybe not.

All of that aside - what does she propose to do? Write cookbooks, visit people in nursing homes, become a dietician? I don't understand what the basic plan is - ?

[Fr_Chuck]

All nursing homes have to have a certified diet person to sign off on all of the meals, along with a doctors recommendation or orders for any specific diet needs.

I don't want to be rude but a CNA is about the entry level of anything, if she can not shut up and work and things that she is going to fix everything she most likely just needs to leave now before she is fired.

She will see wings that are short staffed, she will be knee deep in paper work and meeting the exact requirements of medicare, not a lot more, and not a bit less.