My Job = HELL

If you've read my earlier post, you know I'm not too fond of my job. Well, it's technically a love/hate relationship. I've been a CNA for, maybe, 3 years now and I've had my current job in homecare for exactly a year. The agency I work for has been pretty lame since the beginning but I deal with it because... I need money & no one will hire me anywhere else! Ugh.
So, to the story.
I'm coming to the end of my lease in my apartment, so I've been taking on any shift that comes my way. That basically means I work hectic, crazy hours with clients who have a plethora of issues that I may be unfamiliar with (I have my usual clients & then there are clients I care for when one of my coworkers calls in sick/vacation time/etc).
During the week, I put in numerous hours with an elderly woman in a nursing home - that was strike one. As a homecare worker, you are given a care plan that explicitly details what you have to do for them & what they need to do (like certain medications for example) but you give your client a choice outside of that. The idea is to help them feel independent although... they pretty much aren't. The woman I was working with was awesome, but on my last day of working with her, she told me that she wanted to wear normal underwear instead of the adult diaper & her socks were hurting her. I looked at her care plan, I didn't see any red flags. I spoke to some other CNA's - I was basically ignored because I don't work in the facility. So I said, "Sure, why the hell not?" Apparently, that was the wrong choice. A caregiver at the facility completely bypassed me & called straight to my office saying that I didn't follow the "guidelines" for this woman. The only grace they gave me was not saying my name. My office sent out an email about it 5mins later. I wanted to point out how it's not in the care plan, nor does it describe any physical problems outside of her need for a hearing aid at all time but I decided to take my loss in silence.
I got a day or so off, then I was supposed to work last night - 11pm to 7am. This sounded simple enough. I read the care plan but this client would probably sleep through my entire stay there. Cake, right? WRONG - strike two. The address proved that this person wasn't far from my own home: awesome! I left 10mins early anyway because I like to get thorough report. As I'm driving to the location, the closer I get; the more rural & vacant the area appears. There was a point where I had to pull over because my GPS stopped working & I lost all signal on my phone. I actually started to panic a little. To me, empty wooded areas with long, narrow streets are the beginning of horror stories. Not exactly the way I pictured my demise. I found a housing complex & assumed it would be in there - nope. So I called for help... and got none. So I called to in home caregiver - she is a fast talking African woman, who speaks broken English AND, to top it off, she explains to me that she didn't drive to this house - she got a ride. I call my office again & they ask me why didn't do a daylight run. Well, excuse me - not everyone has that luxury! I only make enough money to get by, I can't afford to drive out of my way to find a house I may not ever visit. Why wasn't I informed that this house was in the middle of the fucking woods with no street lights, no towers for signal, probably with some private entrance, coming through long, narrow, winding roads? How unbelievably disrespectful with no regard for the amount of panic & disorientation I felt. I was on the verge of tears. I thought I would never find my way out to get home. I burned so much gas, driving around for an hour to locate and leave a place, supposedly, 15mins from my house.
I think it may be time for me to just quit. It's a sign.
- Carmen