Have You Hugged a CNA/Nurse Today?

Mother has been in a nursing home for almost a year now and has been blessed with some amazing caregivers / CNA. These gals work non stop and really seem to care for their patients. Recently I was surprised to learn that in the state of Alabama there are no legal restrictions on the number of residents a Certified Nursing Assistant can be assigned per shift!?! A brief list of tasks these CNA's perform daily would look something like this:

1. Assist residents in/out of bed. This would include responsibity for being sure the bed linens are ok.
2. Assist with bathing needs of residents.
3. Assist many residents with putting on clean clothes for the day.
4. Deliver meal trays.
5. Assist with feeding residents meals.
6. Pick up meal trays.
7. Deliver fresh water and snacks.
8. Transport wheelchair-bound residents to/from group activities/dining hall.
9. Toilet/Offer to toilet each resident an average once every two hours (= 4 times per shift).
10. Charting patient info.

They have a huge and often thankless job, and I would just like to go on record in support of CNA's and a limit to the number of residents they can be assigned per shift. After all, they shoulder the main responsibility and care for some pretty precious people!