[NancyNurse08]

Originally Posted by sunnydaydream

As a CNA I have no problem doing anything that the nurse asks me to do, but sometimes the nurse doesn't realize that I'm not just walking down the hall, but I'm on a mission to do something....

That happened to me all the time as a CNA. Likewise, it happens to me as a nurse. It seems to me that when a CNA sees me in front of a computer screen, they do not realize that this is the first time in my entire shift that I have had a chance to look up a critical lab on a patient, or that I am preparing for a med pass that I'm already an hour behind on.

The respect needs to go both ways. I can count on one finger the number of times I've been thanked for my help, yet I am always answering call lights and emptying urinals and fetching snacks and warm blankets. It seems that I am expected to do backflips of gratitude any time a CNA lifts a finger to assist me, but they do not see all the work that I am doing.

We are all on the same team, but have different perspectives on what our roles are. There are some aides that expect the nurses to stop what they're doing to help pass meal trays. They don't understand that we may be busy calculating insulin dosages and passing medications that need to be given with meals, or that this is the first window of opportunity we've had all shift to chart our assessments and that if we don't do it while we have the opportunity, we'll either be working straight through without a break, or staying late to chart. Nurses want to get out on time and go home to our loved ones just as much as the aides do. As human beings, we must take in nutrients in order to sustain life.

I'll admit, when I was a CNA, I had absolutely no clue how much the nurses really were juggling. It's downright embarrassing to think about it.

I wish I knew what the solution was. As an aide, when I tried to broach the subject, the nurses didn't want to hear it. As a nurse, if I make mention of it, the hackles go up. I'm all for open communication, but that's difficult to do when people are defensive right from the start.

I think it needs to come from the top down. We need more aides. Because we are overworking our aides, we are overworking our nurses, and everyone is demoralized. With more aides on the floor to share the workload, the nurses can provide better care as well....and maybe even take our breaks and get out on time!

[NancyNurse08]

Originally Posted by chadash

Lately, I have been wondering about the use of nursing assistants in the hospital setting. Do you think it would benefit patients to have total care from a RN who has a lighter patient load?

Maybe. But it's never gonna happen. It costs less to hire NAs than it does to hire nurses.

[jackson145]

Just try to remember how very little a tech makes when you wish they were doing more. It's very hard to make minimum wage and have a $30/hr nurse say "My job would be so much easier if you'd jump in and help me". Yeah, I bet you'd like that. Truth is, I have specific duties and so do the nurses. It takes my whole shift to complete my work and they certainly don't jump in and help me. That would be beneath them.

[NancyNurse08]

That's all well and good, but I am an LPN at the bottom of the pay scale, and many of the CNAs who have been there a while, at the top of their pay scale, make more than I do. Basically, I'm earning less than many CNAs to do an RN's job.

Edited to add: I'd also like to add that when I am an RN making thirty bucks an hour, I will not be made to feel guilty! I have worked my behind off to get that degree, and have gone into debt for the rest of my life to finance it. I worked full time as a CNA while in my first year of a full time nursing program. I have sacrificed many hours of sleep, time with my loved ones, and potentially, my health (knock on wood) to get where I am now.

Becoming an RN is the hardest thing I have ever done, second to raising two children on substandard wages. I will have EARNED every single penny, and guilt does not have a place in determining whether or not I expect a CNA to do their job.

[Toquay]

As with any job there are the good and caring and the slackers that just want to get to end of shift with minimal effort. This goes for nurses and techs/cnas. The stress on the nurse is we are ultimately responsible for all patient care and the tech/cna is there to assist. If the vitals are not done or recorded, EKG not obtained, or the I & O not documented it falls on the nurse to answer why.

I think today with our increased patient loads we depend and count on having a good tech to help us out. I also think alot of techs/cnas don't realize are that the tasks we ask them to do have been done by the nurse many times, it not exclusive to them. I have heard techs in my unit talk amongst themselves and complain that nurses don't know what it is like to transfer x amt patients a day, do x amt of splints, or countless other tasks. Yes we do know, we have done them and most nusres would not ask anyone to do anything they themselves would not do if they had the time.

Nurses are very aware that techs/cnas loads are heavy at times. When one is busy just say "I am helping (insert nurses name), is it ok for (insert task) to wait?" On my unit we have techs that come back to the desk after done with a task and we have several that just vanish (break room, outside, chatting away from line of sight with each other or other dept people, on a computer away from the hub googling, etc). I feel bad for the ones that return to the desk as everyone bombards them with things they need help with. I often see the hard working techs/cnas upset that the others are slacking.

We need to work as a team for "the patient", it's not about the nurse, the doctor, or the tech/cna. We also need to recognize the deadbeat workers and get rid of them. Sometimes just having a warm body is not enough, we need people who will do their jobs. We are all in this together so be a team player.

Toq

[Tweety]

Originally Posted by NancyNurse08

The ones that are in nursing school, I just smile and remind myself, "You'll see when you're a nurse!!!!".

We had two long term techs, meaning they were techs for about four years before finally going to school and becoming nurses. Both were hard core techs giving us a hard time. When off orientation both came to me and apologized for giving us a hard time "I had not idea!" with a deer in the headlights look.

[Tweety]

Originally Posted by jackson145

Just try to remember how very little a tech makes when you wish they were doing more. It's very hard to make minimum wage and have a $30/hr nurse say "My job would be so much easier if you'd jump in and help me". Yeah, I bet you'd like that. Truth is, I have specific duties and so do the nurses. It takes my whole shift to complete my work and they certainly don't jump in and help me. That would be beneath them.

I don't care how little a tech makes, they have a job description and they've accepted the pay and the job. If they don't want to perform at the job description level regardless of the pay, then don't take the job. I don't care if I make $100/hour if it's your job to help me, then I expect you to do your job. How much I make is inconsequential to you doing your job.

However, there are lazy nurses out there that will sit on their butts and when a patient needs a bedpan will look 20 minutes for the tech to do it. So trust me, I know what you're saying.

Nurses and techs should work as a team.

[SharonH, RN]

As a nursing student, I worked as a tech my last year of college. The majority of the nurses were mean and incredibly lazy. I used to walk in the door and before I could get my coat off(literally),I was besieged with a list of tasks, most of which could have been accomplished prior to my arrival. My shifts were filled with grunt work, running errands, performing hygienic care and basically being at the beck and call of anywhere from 2-7nurses. If I found myself with more than a 30-second break, some nurse made it her business to find something for me to do because God forbid that an aide should not have something to do for even a minute. Worse than that, they were patronizing and insulting often referring to me as "my aide" as though I belonged to them. Furthermore no one seemed to appreciate the work I did, I was basically invisible to the physicians and other disciplines.......that is until something didn't get done.


A few of them treated me differently after finding out that I was actually a nursing student but most of them could care less. A few of them treated me worse upon learning that I was a BSN nursing student. I can't imagine what it must have been like for career aides and because of their treatment, the backbreaking labor and the low pay, it is no wonder that some of them do not exhibit the devotion to the job that some expect.

I know a few of you are going to chime in that they chose that job and thus they just have to accept their status as low-level employees but I wonder how many of them truly understand what their job entailed. I don't know about other areas of the country but here, there are daily television ads pleading with people to join the "exciting" field of healthcare where you will learn complicated skills, get to "make a difference" and you will get to work with physicians!(as if that were a perk of the job). Imagine how disheartening it must be to find out the truth. After a while, they walk out. No wonder there's such high turnover and we always seemed to be short a tech.


We nurses love to complain that we are at the bottom of the totem pole but that's not true; housekeeping and aides are truly at the bottom. I have now been an RN for almost 17 years, I've had ample opportunity to work with aides of all stripes and work ethic and I have never forgotten this. NEVER.


And no I don't know what the solution is. You couldn't pay me enough to do that job again. So I guess we will just have to keep coming to allnurses and griping about them and the beat goes on.......

[NancyNurse08]

The thing is, I've never been mean NOR lazy. I work my tail off, and I ask nicely. If I ask an aide to do something for me, it's because I truly need their help. What I find frustrating is that I am expected to understand things from an aide's point of view (which I do because I was one), but I don't feel that the nurse's point of view is understood by the aides. It's like a one way street. That's why I can shake my head and smile that the aides that are in NS will someday understand. And most likely, they will be embarrassed at their lack of understanding when they were an aide.

I do believe that we should treat all of our coworkers with respect. But there is a difference between respect and placing them on a pedestal. The fact is, the aides are there to help the nurses. Period. To get attitude or noncooperation simply for asking that a simple task be done is not respectful.

[pagandeva2000]

I remember one time, a nurse that supports CNAs told me that a patient rang the call bell, and when the aide responded, the patient requested pain medication. Before the aide can answer, another nurse came in and said "She changes the diapers, I AM the NURSE, and I give the medication". My friend told me that she knew the aide felt very degraded, and she told that nurse that this was very rude.

Unfortunately, moving up is like a pyramid...the higher you go, the more people are behind. Not everyone is able to or even wants to be a nurse of any kind...LPN or RN. But, if a person is doing the best they can towards the patients, is being a team player and making an honest living, don't browbeat them. Try to include them in WHY their influence is so important towards patient care and the health care team. It does not work for everyone (I witnessed that as well), but for those that do try hard, give them the credit they are due. They may save our butts.