I'm a CNA, not a MAID.

Nursing Students CNA/MA

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I've been looking for jobs, and these places want CNA's to cook, do laundry, clean, and drive people places. Um.. maybe I got this wrong, but I dont remember learning any of these things during my CNA training. I REFUSE to clean your house, cook, or be your driver. If you want a cook, get a chef. If you want you house cleaned, get a housekeeper. If you want a driver.. well, you get where I'm going.. LOL.... just had to vent about that... i just get sick of people expecting CNA's to be servants.

What do you think?

Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

Good luck in your BSN program darkstar!

Specializes in Geriatrics/home health care.

Ugh I know! I am so tired of being a servant to ungreatful people. Don't get me wrong, I have had some good patients/clients but most just complain. The other day, at my LTC job (I have 2 jobs) one of the residents said that my job "can't be that hard". Really? Unless you have been a CNA or any other menial low-paid job for super hard work don't talk to me about what is easy and what isn't. I am even considering getting some other certification besides CNA and going from there because I am thinking I should take it easy before nursing school instead of wearing myself out before I even get there.

Specializes in DD, Mental Health, Geriatric.

I'm a nursing assistant-registered and I currently work in a privately owned, state monitored Adult Family Home for six residents. Right now, though, since we've had a death, there is only five residents. They are all elderly women with various stages of Dementia and other mental and physical health problems. I'm lucky in that all of them can walk with a walker and toilet themselves and dress themselves. I just need to do their meds and meal prep. As for the meals I do breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner for the five women Saturday and Sundays and go home Monday morning. I stay over Friday through Sunday. In addition to the above I follow a list of chores every day that must get done by 9pm each night that include vacuuming all carpeted areas, sweeping and mopping, dishes (there is a dishwasher thankfully!) cleaning the two bathroom including the toilets, emptying the trash cans in each resident's room and doing everyone's laundry and folding, hanging up, putting clothes, etc away. Once a week I have to change and wash everyone's bedding, take the old tin foil off the stove burners and put new on, and clean out the fridge and freezer and throw away all the week old food and scrub the fridge and freezer down with soapy water and a rag and once a month I have to clean the windows and glass doors inside and out, dust the kitchen cupboards with Murphy's oil and hot water inside and out. I have to remove all the dishes and everything for this particular job and my very least favorite of all my AFH household chores: Once a month I have to scrub out the oven with oven cleaner. In my opinion I am doing more housework than actually interaction with the residents. But, it's pretty much always been that way at every AFH I've ever worked at, including the one I learned on, owned and ran by my mother in my childhood home in 1995. Caregivers at AFHs and in private homes really are treated like glorified maids a lot of the time. But you know, if one of my residents needed me for something and I didn't have time to vacuum the house one day too bad so sad. My residents' needs come first and of course I keep their home spotless so if I miss a chore here and there it's not going to show as long as I don't make a habit of it, you know. But I have always just thought that housework was a normal part of being a caregiver.

Specializes in DD, Mental Health, Geriatric.

Oh and for reference, my salary is $9.50 an hour plus $25 each night I sleep over.

I take it that you haven't experienced any training about culture change in LTC? Doing things like cooking meals, taking residents to doctor's appointments, doing their laundry, all of that is a part of culture change and many facilities are going to this model in order to preserve as much of a home-like atmosphere as possible for their residents (Google Eden Alternative and you'll see what I mean).

Specializes in Post Anesthesia.

Many agencys in my area use what they call "Home Health Aids" or "Personal Care Assistances" essentialy untrained staff to provide for non-health related needs of the clients. These services aren't covered by most ins plans so the patient/family must foot the bill, but it frees up the CRNAs on staff to provide for the tasks they were trained for.

If you hire at a job that requires you to provide for these needs as part of your job-you get what you ask for. I would be sure you get a clear definition of your job description before you take on these duties. What if your car fails while you are transporting a patient- are you responsible for the cost of a taxi or rental? How about a wreck- does your car ins cover a vehicle used as a comercial transport? If your patient gets ill from food you prepared (do you buy it) are you covered by your employer? There are a lot of liability questions I'd want spelled out in the job you describe.

On the other side- I hear RNs whine all the time " I didn't go to school for 5 years to wipe butts and make beds, yadda, yadda, yadda.." Given a choice, most people wouldn't depend on others to provide for thier personal needs or errands, illness sometimes makes them depend on others, but seeing to the whole needs of the whole person is what makes Nursing a unique profession.

i am a LPN now goin on for my RN this fall...you can bet you A&& i will be wiping AS*S......

Specializes in ER, Med-surg.

I've pretty much done Home Healthcare since becoming a CNA with a little bit of staffing on the side. I don't mind cooking and cleaning, I just mind when the client expects me to cook like a chef or clean like a professional maid. If they want maid service, then they should hire a maid, not a CNA. If they want biscuits like their mother made them, then they should call their mother up. Before I got this new position I was only getting paid $9.00/hr to get on my hands and knees and scrub floors, now I'm lucky enough to get paid $10-$12/hr.

I truly don't mind cooking and cleaning what really gets me is doing makeup and curling hair. I couldn't curl hair if my life depended on it. I think that should be a skill taught in a CNA class since I've been expected to do it so often!

Specializes in DD, Mental Health, Geriatric.
I've pretty much done Home Healthcare since becoming a CNA with a little bit of staffing on the side. I don't mind cooking and cleaning, I just mind when the client expects me to cook like a chef or clean like a professional maid. If they want maid service, then they should hire a maid, not a CNA. If they want biscuits like their mother made them, then they should call their mother up. Before I got this new position I was only getting paid $9.00/hr to get on my hands and knees and scrub floors, now I'm lucky enough to get paid $10-$12/hr.

I truly don't mind cooking and cleaning what really gets me is doing makeup and curling hair. I couldn't curl hair if my life depended on it. I think that should be a skill taught in a CNA class since I've been expected to do it so often!

Lol! I hear ya on all that! Especially the cooking like "mom made" and curling hair! One resident where I work is constantly comparing all the caregivers' cooking with the food in the restaurant where she waited tables as a young woman and making snippy remarks about "the service" if her coffee cup isn't placed exactly on her right side and isn't filled up at once, etc.

I have to say though that I will take some new skills with me to new future jobs since coming to work in this AFH. One being learning to curl hair! You're right it should be taught in Fundamentals! Lol! The first time I tried I made a complete mess of one poor old lady's hair! Lol!

1) I live in florida and good paying jobs are hard to come by. Many want a CNA's to have 5+ years of exp and only pay him/her 8.00 p/h.

2) "Sometimes you just have to buck up if you want to stay employed/employable."

I agree to a certain extent.... but that mentalilty gives employers the green light to take advantage of future employees. at my job, we get paid 7.67 p/h. We are CNA's/Med techs/ Waitresses/Etc. Everyone complains about the low pay and lack of hours, but everyone keeps quite bc "a job is a job".

my coworker has been working at my job for 11 years (she does the same thing that i do) and STILL makes $8.00 per hour. true story! she has asked for a raises and never gets one, yet she never leaves bc "she really needs this job." its heartbreaking.

My question is....

at what time do you stop bucking up and start manning up? You can't accept sub par treatment for years and years. I've seen it and it makes workers bitter and difficult to deal with.

Wow someone needs the number to the states labor board. 11 years and no raise? unnacceptable.

Sad thing is I make $20 AS a maid and only $10 as a CNA.

I completely agree with you! People get the idea that since the CNA course is typically so sort that you can't possibly learn that many thing but it is most deffinatly a crash course of the basics of nursing. In my course I learned WAY more than I thought I would, not to mention I paid almost $1000 for the entire costs of the course and would hope to make more than $7.25, I work at Subway now and make more than that! I just passed my state exam yesterday and I think I only want to apply in facilities or hospitals. And on top of all of that, my mother works for an at home care group and she isn't certified and she makes $10 an hour and her boss told me when I became certified that she would offer me a job, but it is the same work and then some for the same pay! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! If I take the time and money to become certified and develop my skills I hope I would get paid more than just some average joe off the street with no training. We all went through the course to learn how to safely care for people who can't care for themselves, not to drive you to the grocery store, vaccum your living room, and cook dinner for you and your family. I even know a CNA who had to provide care for an elderly person and this person lived with their son, and this guy would take his wife out when my friend would go to work and she would have to babysit their kids too! A CNA is a trained professional, not a taxi/chef/maid/babysitter.

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