Lazy stuck up nurses

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Feb 12, 2012

Whoa......let's back up the ponies there for a moment and look at things a little more calmly first. Generalizations never tell the whole story, and are rarely if ever helpful in situations like this.

I've been on both sides of the argument---worked as a CNA in a nursing home and a hospital before graduating from nursing school in 1997. I've run my tail off in both types of jobs, and I can tell you that the major difference is, the RN has all the responsibility. Anything that goes wrong on her floor, it's her butt in the sling, not yours. And if she is indeed found to be goofing off when the call lights and alarms aren't being answered, she is in deep Bandini. I've seen nurses fired for less.

Another thing that a lot of CNAs tend not to misunderstand is that sitting at a desk does NOT equal "doing nothing". You would not believe the amount of paperwork created each time a resident/patient falls or misses a dose of medication. And all of it is important. We have no choice but to complete these reports and make sure our documentation is in all four or five of the places it's supposed to be before we leave the building for the day. Sometimes we have so much going on that we don't eat, drink, pee, or take a five-minute breather during an 8- or 12- hour shift. That doesn't make us lazy or stuck up......we are simply busy.

That said, there undoubtedly are nurses who sit at the desk gossiping and eating bonbons while the aides run around like chickens with their heads cut off. But again, some of what you interpret as "doing nothing" is vitally necessary to prove to the state and federal agencies which oversee facilities that we're really doing our jobs. Sitting at the desk to chart may also be the only "break" your unit nurse takes all day.

Hope this sheds some light on this longstanding bone of contention between CNAs and nurses, and that I've given you some perspective from the "dark side". :)

UpstateNyDollCna · Feb 12, 2012

I'm sorry if it came off as me saying all nurses were this way. Just venting, I know both sides have good and bad. It is just frustrating and I really don't want to be miserable everyday at work and have a toxic work environment and while I'm at it there is a CNA who has been working there for a long time and is buddies with everyone from the nurses to the DON to the human resource woman and she constantly is in the break room texting. I don't know what to do, and I can't quit this job in such a rotten economy but I don't want to be miserable or confront anyone and be seen as difficult and be iced out by everyone. I'm in a lose- lose situation

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Feb 12, 2012

I hear ya. There's at least one of those in every workplace; in fact, one can work in almost any business in the land, and expect to find the same cast of characters. I call it SSDD---same (stuff), different department. :lol2:

DixieRedHead, ASN, RN · Feb 12, 2012

In a different set of circumstances, I too, found myself in a miserable job. I loved the job, but the personality thing was almost unbearable.

As ADON, I found myself close to retirement and the job market sucking.

So one day I realized I had three choices.

1. I could leave, and end up somewhere on 3rd shift pushing a cart. (I have never been able to work nights)

2. I could do this work and be miserable.

3. I could just do this work.

I don't like being miserable, so I chose not to.

Life is good.

karrie79 · Feb 13, 2012

I know where you are coming from. See this all the time. I work in a dietary and nothing tees me off more than to go to pick up the cart (cnas or nurses pick the trays up from the pt's room) and see one CNA running her tail off trying to help someone to the bathroom among other things while four nurses are sitting on their butts, leaned back in their chairs talking to each other, or reading a book....and the trays still needing to be picked up so that we (dietary) can get our job done. I always wonder why they can't take 5 minutes and help the CNA. And its not just this. I just hope when I DO become a nurse, that I will help CNAs as much as I can because they are a vital part of care!

MN-Nurse, ASN, RN · Feb 13, 2012

Sometimes people suck.

The majority of nurses on my unit are absolutely awesome, but there are a couple notable exceptions. I had to work with one notable exception all weekend.

She refuses to do a thing for any patients not on her list and seems to try to justify this by making sure you don't do anything for her patients. Today, she went on break and after handing her patients off to me, a bunch of stuff came up.

She returned and I told her this, that and the other thing happened and I took care of it. She flipped out, "WHAT? Why did you do that? Why didn't you tell them to wait for me to come back?!?!"

One of the items I handled was getting some PRN meds for a patent on ETOH withdrawal. She said, "I gave her that already!"

"Did you chart it?", I asked, because I sure as heck checked and charted what I had given.

"No!" still looking at me accusingly.

We have bedside barcoding, you are not supposed to give anything without scanning and charting it. Why this was my problem I had no idea. I just walked away from her.

She would sit and chart or walk away while her patients' call lights or IV pumps were going off or when they got up to go to the bathroom.

I then employed my super duper insidious secret weapon I use that absolutely drives bad caregivers nuts: I took care of patients. They HATE this! My first use of this weapon was at the LTC I had my first aide job at. It worked like a charm, as always.

I started answering her call lights and taking care of small issues on her patients - not meds or procedures or anything like that. (All of whom had been my patients the day before.) Stuff like emptying, (and charting) the urine hat collection for a lady who was on lasix and requested someone empty it because the dang thing was overflowing.

Each time she would start hollering, "No, no, NO! I'll do it, don't go in there! I'll do it I'll do it." I swear she was spending more energy chasing me around than she would just getting off her generous tush. This started driving her nuts, especially as her patients began pointing out "how nice that nurse I had yesterday" is. When she looked at me with her "Don't do that!" face, I would just say, "You know, I just can't stand listening to these call lights and IV pumps drone all day."

Of course, she never helped any of the patients on my list with a thing. I had two Rapid Response calls, where the other RN is supposed to come and check and see if you need anything and she never even poked her face in to check things out. (This was before I launched operation "Bother Crappy Nurse.")

As I stated much earlier in this overlong post, the vast majority of experienced nurses on my unit are wonderful. This one is an exception and hopefully she will retire soon.

Sometimes, people suck.

nguyency77, CNA · Feb 17, 2012

Some of the nurses I work with are actually good; I know they have lots of paperwork, meds to pass (especially on days the management refuses to give them a med tech), things to do. I work in a skilled unit, so pretty much every couple of hours, some confused patient will be ripping up and picking out the contents of their colostomy bags/G-tubes. Nurses have a lot to do.

Sometimes, though...

I either:

-End up stuck with a very nice, but apparently squeamish nurse.

-Have to work with nurses who think lunch is at 9 am and that lunch lasts two and a half hours.

Hahaha.

northernguy · Feb 17, 2012

One thing that has surprised me as a CNA are how nice and easy to work with most of the RNs have been. In LTC we did have some bossy ones, and in the hospital you do have some that make it clear THEY are in charge and they expect a lot out of you, but I was in the military for several years so that doesnt bother me at all. Ive had no real negative experiences with RNs, which hasnt always been the case with other aides.

Im also an EMT and was one before I worked as an aide, and Ive had the occasional not so pleasant encounter with some ER nurses, so I was ready for the worst when I became an aide, but Ive generally been impressed with the RNs and often greatful to them for teaching me a lot.

NurseFrustrated · Jan 23, 2013

Wow. In my job it is just the opposite. I'm an RN and the nurses run their butts off doing everything while the CNAs sit at the desk discussing their loves lives and texting while ignoring call bells. If you tell one of them to get up and do their job they get incredibly offended or huff and puff and roll their eyes. And this is if you can actually find one. Usually they go on 90 minute half hour breaks or go sleep in an empty room. You should come work where I work. You'd have it made. I'd kill to have a minute to sit down on my shift. I do well to even get a break. If I do, I usually end up working right through it.

becalee26 · Jan 29, 2013

I work on a rehab floor and too many of the nurses are the same you describe and it is really frusterating. All the CNA's are doing dinner with 5 call lights on and the nurses just sit there and gossip. I am so sick of listening to the gossip and what not going on at the nurses desk. Last night we were short staffed a CNA and it was so much worse. I almost wanted to quit.

fuzzywuzzy, CNA · Feb 1, 2013

She refuses to do a thing for any patients not on her list and seems to try to justify this by making sure you don't do anything for her patients.

I work with someone like this. She drives me up a wall. I swear, she makes things harder for herself by going out of her way to avoid helping other people, and if you do something for one of her patients she acts all awkward and states that you didn't need to do that. And heaven forbid she does do the tiniest thing for anyone else; she cannot rest until she lets them know, and it has to be within earshot of the nurse! Puh-lease! The nurses all know what a butthole she is, but it's still aggravating!