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Is finding staff dreadful?
All week I’ve been stressing about my new hire. You might know the drill. Having to walk someone through every aspect of your care. It can be challenging, especially when they’ve never done this type of work before.
It’s not my first rodeo, so I psyche myself up even though I have reservations. She followed through with the application process, shadowed a few times, and even tried a few tasks hands-on while my other caregiver supervised. Maybe, just maybe, it’ll work out. Who cares if a 20-minute process takes an hour? It’s fine, she’ll catch on.
It’s the day of her first scheduled solo shift, I message her several hours prior confirming she’s comfortable starting that night. If she wasn’t ready, this would have been the perfect opportunity to bow out. Messaging me back she plans on coming, I am still apprehensive, but we’re almost through it.
Twenty minutes before her shift my watch pings. Dread fills me as I check. I have a message. It’s from her. She’s not coming, nooooooo!
After messaging her back wishing her the best, I do what any responsible adult in my situation would do. Call Mom. Mom to the rescue at 11pm on a Friday night. Yes, she’ll venture out in the dark to pick me up so I can crash at her house.
Even though things didn’t work out there are a few positives. At least she messaged for what it’s worth. At least the van started. At least it was drizzling and not snowing. If it was snowing, I’d be out of luck. It’s still frustrating.
Have you had similar experiences hiring staff? Any tips on de-stressing the process? I’m already dreading starting again.
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13 Replies
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It’s an incredibly frustrating process. I have a great team right now, but I’m not looking forward to when one has to leave next year. Just know that we feel you.
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Thanks Kev! Hope your staffing situation stays stable for as long as possible.
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Honestly, where are all the good ones hiding? I’m sorry you went through that. I think I speak on behalf of many of us here when I say we’ve had similar situations. It is so frustrating. My last potential hire ghosted me, but I was hesitant about her anyway. So I guess it worked out. Still, the stress of going back to the drawing board is real. Where do you typically find your potential hires?
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Yeah, it usually works out how it’s meant to. I had my doubts with this one from the get go. It’s still frustrating when it doesn’t work out. Do you usually find people through word of mouth?
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Yeah word of mouth. If possible I try to hire people that are recommended by others. Even if it’s a friend of a friend of a friend’s cousin– like far down the grapevine– I’ll still give it a shot because I can get some information on them. I tried running an ad in the newspaper once and it was a messy experience. Big waste of time too. What do you do?
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I should also note that I have third-shift nursing through an agency, and I have zero say in who they hire. I’ve definitely met a lot of… interesting… people.
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Things have gotten exponentially worse since the pandemic. I hate to stress You out more , but I just went through a two year nightmare to find an attendant. I am absolutely terrified of either of my attendants getting ill or calling out as one has been having health issues and the other has kids. I nearly had to file a lawsuit against the state when the state nurse wrote one up because she had to bring her kids once and nearly lost her help. The state is still acting like there has been no inflation and are barely paying minimum wage and they don’t cover travel cost nor the cost of all the ridiculous certifications they require. Any McDonald’s employee earns far more and they don’t have to provide care for someone nor do all the other things we require of our attendants. I must have gone through the entire embarrassing dressing bathroom routine with at least ten attendants who simply never showed the following day. When contacted, just about every single one said i lived too far away to cover gas. One brought an interpreter with him as he spoke no English at all. i ended up getting scalded in the shower because he didn’t understand ‘water too hot’. I don’t know what to tell you except things are incredibly bad.
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Sorry to hear you’re struggling too. What avenues do you go through to find staff? Hate when we have to bend the rules just to survive, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. We shouldn’t have to live in fear of losing the good ones either.
Wages are a huge problem. May I ask what the average rate is for your pca’s? Right now I can only offer $15.25/hr starting pay. Stinks because like you said fast food pays more and it doesn’t bode well for the ones who have been here a while and make practically the same. Thank goodness it bumps up to $19 in January. What am I supposed to do in the meantime when I need the staffing now?
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Sorry for taking so long to reply…i just noticed that i had messages waiting . I go through an agency …one of the few in my area. The good thing is they will pretty much hire anyone i send them , but they have not been great locating people on their own. i did manage to find a prior attendant who has been willing to come in thankfully , but had a whole other nightmare dealing with the state for reasons not want to get into .
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I think this is definitely a problem all over the country. In Ohio, I had to uproot and move to a larger metropolitan area to try to find better care. It’s been a bit better here but still such a struggle to find reliable care. Like you said, the going reimbursement rate is far less than fast food pay with ridiculously greater responsibility requirements (literally someone else’s life in their hands). Except for those rare individuals with a real heart for helping others, there’s no incentive for people to enter or remain in this line of work. I’ve thought of a solution, but I don’t know how to get it off the ground. Wealthy elites are often looking for places to put their money to get tax breaks. I wish a foundation was established where we could apply for grants to pay our caregivers an additional stipend on top of their Medicaid reimbursement. Does anyone know where to start with something like that?
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I like your train of thought but have no idea how to get something like that off the ground.
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This sounds like a great idea. I think maybe collecting interest and spreading the word would be a place to start. I’m not really sure though.
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Rochelle, you have a really great idea. We should get together and brainstorm some time.
I mean this sincerely because I have a connection in DC. My goal is to testify before congress by 2025 about how Medicaid reimbursements are way too low in home care. I’ve literally gone through 1,000 nurses in my 37 years of home care. I probably wouldn’t have gone through so many nurses if the pay was better.
You’re idea of applying for grants and adding a stipend on top of Medicaid reimbursements could be one of the proposals I bring up when I testify. Again, let’s talk about it more if you want to.😀
If anybody has any other ideas I can use please let me know. This is a problem that basically affects all of us here.
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