I am considering not being a CNA anymore...

Nursing Students CNA/MA

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I am just fed up with it. I have begun to dread going to work (my stomach is in knots). I believe that I work hard and provide the best care to my residents but it seems like it is never enough. I went into work last night and I had to give myself a pep talk just to make it through...sad.

I am tired of working with manipulative and mean co-workers. I am sick of asking for assistance with a heavy resident and being told by another CNA that everyone else handles that patient alone. I am sick of hearing "harrumphh!" and the sighing when I ask about a resident that I am not familiar with. I am sick of the bullying and the yelling. I am sick of DON's who have no regard for family emergencies and who make those who ask for FMLA feel like crud. I am over it.

I am really disheartened and saddened but I have lost my drive. There has to better working conditions out there. I do not intend to quit until I find something else. When my instructor told us that the classroom environment was world's away from the real life one, I thought she was pulling our leg. I thought that I would be the one to make a small difference with a good attitude and yada yada yada. I was wrong.

I feel so bad for you, i totally understand what you mean though. I work in a place that is dog eat dog. Only some nurses help the aids and some of them just run the aids. Also some of the other aids just talk about each other all the time. I thought I was going to work in a place to help people, and all it has done is changed me. I am unchanged by death, my negotiating skills went out the door. The sad thing is they made me like this. Sometime I get a glimse of hope, to be whom I once was before, and at that very moment it is ripped away from me... I know this does not help, I just wanted you to know that you are not the only one.... the sad thing is we have one of the hardest jobs there is and get no respect.........

Oh dear. :crying2: Oh dear! Yes I understand, boy do I ever. One my fellow classmates in our CNA class recently quit the LTC facility where I work. Actually, she got herself fired (too many no-show no-calls) because she just couldn't take it any longer. She didn't like what her job did to her either. The last straw was when a very sweet dear little lady passed away and she didn't even cry. That was it for her, she didn't want to end up getting more hardened. I respect her somehow.

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Oh dear. :crying2: Oh dear! Yes I understand, boy do I ever. One my fellow classmates in our CNA class recently quit the LTC facility where I work. Actually, she got herself fired (too many no-show no-calls) because she just couldn't take it any longer. She didn't like what her job did to her either. The last straw was when a very sweet dear little lady passed away and she didn't even cry. That was it for her, she didn't want to end up getting more hardened. I respect her somehow.

Not crying doesn't make you a bad CNA. If every staff member broke down and sobbed for hours every time a resident died, nothing would ever get done. Sometimes it shows more inner strength NOT to cry. Don't confuse lack of outer emotion with lack of inner emotion altogether.

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Not crying doesn't make you a bad CNA. If every staff member broke down and sobbed for hours every time a resident died, nothing would ever get done. Sometimes it shows more inner strength NOT to cry. Don't confuse lack of outer emotion with lack of inner emotion altogether.

I agree, CoffeemateCNA, but it was only one of many things that drove this girl to quit. I don't think she really lost her heart or her sense of compassion, but the total environment was such a discouragement that she felt suppressed as a person and really wanted to get out of that mode. Not everyone can see heartbreaking things continually, work like a slave in a LTC facility, and still keep their composure day after day.

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i has been really hard lately over a month and a half we lost 15 long term patients, i had to take time off, just to pull myself back together. I just wished people new how hard it really was. When you walk into work and you have 15 300 lb babies to care for, i work on a dementia unit, i feel like sometimes everyone is saying mommy mommy mommy and i can't do it all at once. Don't get me wrong I love my unit, but it can be so draining at times.

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Specializes in CNA.
It's because the CNA's bear the biggest brunt of cost containment by being paid the lowest wage LTCs can legally get away with, even though the quality of care the residents get is mostly due to them. They try to get the most work out of the fewest people possible. I was not told that my starting wage would be barely above minimum when I accepted my position, otherwise I would've told them no thanks. Later when I got a raise after being certified, I was still being paid less than some of the other CNA's one of which was a personal friend of the DON. I was also lied to about how much my raise would be. Apparently where I work there's no standard or system to what CNA's are paid, it's based on personal politics and not how much your work is really worth.

That is very sad.... Just think how much more care and comfort we could give to our Residents if the ratio was much, much less.

As a person who has an elderly mother still living on her own, thank goodness, when/if that day comes, I'd gladly pay more to know that she is well taken care of with a smaller ratio of Resident to staff.

I guess that wouldn't last long though, once Medicaid kicks in.

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That is very sad.... Just think how much more care and comfort we could give to our Residents if the ratio was much, much less.

As a person who has an elderly mother still living on her own, thank goodness, when/if that day comes, I'd gladly pay more to know that she is well taken care of with a smaller ratio of Resident to staff.

I guess that wouldn't last long though, once Medicaid kicks in.

You got that right. I was sent home from a shift recently.....our census was down by about 10 people and the DON was really upset. Apparently if the number of nursing hours per resident goes up too high the corporate office chews her butt because they don't make as much money. Never mind that the residents will get better care and not have to either wait in line to use the toilet or be rushed through cares.....as long as this non-profit facility makes a huge profit the corporate office is happy.

Sometimes I really resent feeling like I'm nothing but a 'cash cow'. Everything I chart, every care I provide makes the facility money, yet none of the aides are allowed to benefit from it. As far as the residents, the only good purpose dementia serves is to make them unaware that they are living in a senior citizen warehouse. In most LTC facilities, money talks -- yet the people who are being served by them have no voice. :mad: :twocents: :down:

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Its a shame that bein a CNA has become so child like I work in a hospital and I cant begin to tell you hw I hate coming to work cause its just a cut throat & run and tell the nurse manager type job my co workers feel that speaking to you in any type of way is ok maybe for somebody who dont knw what their doin but let me set the record straight Im 45 and I been doin CNA work for 24 years I know the ins and the outs of nursing I can run circles around most of the nurses...as the years went on I noticed that my passion for something I have enjoyed for so many years is the one thing I cant no longer stomach from my co workers to everybody in the hospital I work with.....Im tryin to find something thats less stress and much more appreciative but I guess that went out with the horse and buggy......Gd luck to me Im n nd of a way better job cause bein a CNA is not where my heart is anymore....

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I'm so burned out being a nac in ltc myself. One of my residents last night wanted me to hold her hand and I had to tell her I was too busy. It made me sick to have to do that. I became a nac to help people. There is just too muchto do and not enough time.

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I am sorry to hear about your work enviroment. Have you tried applying somewhere else?

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Specializes in Nursing Home.

You have to realize that your not there for the co workers, your there for the residents care needs. I know where your at im also a floor CNA at a nursing home. If you dont like the way the nurse sighs when you ask her to look at something in the chart, grab the chart yourself, as CNAs we have the right to the residents medical charts that we are assigned to. If the nurse sighs at you, well thats for her to work out personally, if she cant handle the stress of being a nurse then she needs to consider surrendering her license and become a CNA rather than avoiding her responsiblities to take all residents C/Os and s/s seriously! For me they can sigh and huf and puf endlessly as long as the residents complaint is resolved i have no problem with it. If other CNAs are to busy to help you pick up heavy residents cause there on a smoke break, report this. Your going to be hated by the staff, but loved by families and residents. And residents are all that count in LTC. The staff might complain about you and plot agaist you, but as long as your backed by the resident council president, your not going anywhere :)

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