Did you like being a CNA?

Nursing Students CNA/MA

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I started my 1st CNA job at a hospital on a busy floor. I have an avg. of 13 patients on my shift, ranges from (10-16). I find it very difficult to time manage. I don't dislike the work itself, however I feel overwhelmed with how much work must get done, from washing, turning patients, to moving them, charting, vitals, etc....There really is no time to do anything else. I feel i could possibly make a mistake or injure my back with how the staffing ratio's are done. If it was like 5-8 patients that would be a more appropriate level in my opinion. How do current CNA's manage to handle this type of stress. I have to give all CNA's credit.

I'm a PCT at a local hospital, I love my job working in mother/baby unit but it is a very high volume workload, 25 beds, three sets of vitals every four hours is very time consuming, on 12 hour shift I do vitals as well as pass out ice on all 25 rooms, vitals at 8am for mom only and at 12pm and 4 pm i do vitals on both mom and baby. Between that there are several babies I have to give a bath, beds to make, blood draws,to many duties to list, one 15 minute break, 30 minute lunch and for the rest of the day I'm on my feet. It's a very exhausting shift by clock out time. Hardest job physically I have ever worked, but I love working with moms and their newborns and I work with a wonderful staff of nurses.

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Specializes in ICU/ER, Maternal, Psych.

I also worked in the hospital as a CNA, loved it and hated it. Loved the hospital, hated being a CNA!

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Specializes in Transitional Nursing.

I love it. I had 8 patients on an acute rehab floor. It doesn't sound like a lot, but they were all max X2, and had to be showered/bathed, dressed and brought to the dining room 3x. I also got them all undressed and back into bed, since I worked 7a-7p.

Use proper body mechanics, ask for help if you have to, and learn to prioritize. You can get someone dressed while they are on the bedside commode, etc. There are lots of tricks, you just have to learn them and know when to take shortcuts. (That's awful to say, but sometimes we don't have a choice). For example, maybe beds get changed every mon, wed, fri. But your patient sleeps on top of the covers. Are you going to change their bed? I think not.

Put two pads on top of each other, or stash linen in closets to save time when accidents happen.

ALWAYS have EVERYTHING you need when you go into the room. ANTICIPATE what they are going to need. Offer the toilet when they ring for water, (actually, don't even let them ring for water....fill their pitchers as soon as you get there)

YOu get the idea! Good luck!

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Specializes in Transitional Nursing.
speaking from my immediate experience. not only was i supposed to do around 16 vitals, i had to do ADLs on every single patient(none of my 50 were independent) ... and i had to start at 4 am to get 8 people up every morning. how ridiculous is waking up someone at 4 but thats what i had to do to barely get done by time the next shift comes on.

if i had 13 residents to care for i would be quite happy. infact when i was working rehab i had around 13-15 during the day and it was quite fun and managable.

ADLs on 50 patients in 8 hours? That is 9.6 minutes per patient and you would have to start when you got to work. Never mind the time involved in getting 8 people out of bed and dressed.

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