A CNA snatched meds from me.

Nurses General Nursing

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I am a brand new nurse and working at LTC setting and have had problem with a CNA who has a certain relationship with DON.

She has showed lack of respect on the day I started working here. For example, she's always rambling something when I pass in front of her and been sacastic all the time. Today, Things happened. When I am sitting at the desk getting order from an doctor, she's yelling out and saying "According to this book (Alert book), I dont need to get this residents vital signs, why do I have to" like superviser. The thing is that she didnt see the font page. So what I did was sit next to her and show the page that she could not see and explained her nicely. after that, she was busy making excuses and never say sorry for shouting out to me.

She has been working there quite a while like, I guess, 10 years or so. she thinks she know everything about the residents. today, when I gave meds with pudding on it to a residents, she refused to take the last bite. the CNA who stood there snatched the last spoon from me and gave it to her when I didnt ask for it. I was so supprised and just said "thank you" to the resident. and got out of the room. she might think that I said thank you to her.

Come to think of it, I think I was so stupid. But dont know how to handle this CNA. I wasn't like this. But I dont know why. Seems to me, An LPN, who also worked there for a long time and are very friendly with the CNA, is not helping me and is avoiding to confront her on behalf of me ( I thought that she might give me some advice) Is anybody out there who can help me?

Is it only my problem?

Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
Originally posted by Yonsei94RN

I am a brand new nurse and working at LTC setting and have had problem with a CNA who has a certain relationship with DON.

She has showed lack of respect on the day I started working here. For example, she's always rambling something when I pass in front of her and been sacastic all the time. Today, Things happened. When I am sitting at the desk getting order from an doctor, she's yelling out and saying "According to this book (Alert book), I dont need to get this residents vital signs, why do I have to" like superviser. The thing is that she didnt see the font page. So what I did was sit next to her and show the page that she could not see and explained her nicely. after that, she was busy making excuses and never say sorry for shouting out to me.

She has been working there quite a while like, I guess, 10 years or so. she thinks she know everything about the residents. today, when I gave meds with pudding on it to a residents, she refused to take the last bite. the CNA who stood there snatched the last spoon from me and gave it to her when I didnt ask for it. I was so supprised and just said "thank you" to the resident. and got out of the room. she might think that I said thank you to her.

Come to think of it, I think I was so stupid. But dont know how to handle this CNA. I wasn't like this. But I dont know why. Seems to me, An LPN, who also worked there for a long time and are very friendly with the CNA, is not helping me and is avoiding to confront her on behalf of me ( I thought that she might give me some advice) Is anybody out there who can help me?

Is it only my problem?

Sounds like she will push and push at you as long as you let her.....I think that you need to set parameters stat.The longer this situation is allowed to go on the worse it will be and it will continue to become even harder for you to regain control.Your authority is also being undermined amongst the rest of the staff...In some facilities this is a common pattern and you need to cut your losses and update your resume.In other cases it is one particular staff member and she is testing you...Bottom line-she is working under your supervision-talk to her (with a witness) tell her exactly what you expect from her,what you will do if you don't get it and then follow through.Most of the time when you end up in the DON's office with someone like this if you just remanin calm and quiet they will dig their own grave....Some people just can't get along-and thankfully we all don't have to be best friends but we can not allow personal feelings to have a negative effect on patient care.....Handle the situation asap-this person may well become your Luca Brasi on the unit when you gain her respect.....We can psycho-analyze this all day-but it really does not matter why some people act the way they do-what matters is learning how to deal with them....Good luck-let us know what happens....

When I started my recent job in LTC, a very similar experience happened to me. The CNA had been there around 16 years, and I was hopping mad at the way she talked to me, a resident and she sat at another resident's bed while she "yelled" at me about the other resident and told this resident about the other resident. I went home and documented EVERYTHING, saved a copy, dated it and sent it to myself in the mail to prove postmark, had another RN sign and date it and handed a copy to the DON and ADON and told them that I was very unhappy to have to do this. I sent the copy to myself in case I was fired or let go and they wanted to put something on me. I was not fired, stayed there a year and now I left for a position in Hospice, where so far I am very happy. CYA, just in case, but write her up.

Originally posted by Yonsei94RN

I am a brand new nurse and working at LTC setting and have had problem with a CNA who has a certain relationship with DON.

She has been working there quite a while like, I guess, 10 years or so. she thinks she know everything about the residents. today, when I gave meds with pudding on it to a residents, she refused to take the last bite. the CNA who stood there snatched the last spoon from me and gave it to her when I didnt ask for it.

:eek: What does her relationship with the DON have to do with anything? Am I to understand that she gave the resident the last of the med? This is grounds for dismissal.

She probably does know everything about particular residents. But working out of her job role is another issue:eek:

You were right to come to this BB and get adivse.

Write this up quick, take your stand, let us know what happens.

hang in, there are some really great CNA's to work with in the profession.

Everytime something like this happens to me, I refuse to put up with it. I may be scared to death, but I stand my ground, hold my head up and look them in the eye. It works. No one messes with me more than once.

Specializes in ICU-Stepdown.

This is atrocious behavior, and certainly something I would never put up with. I did not when working in the field, and will not once I attain my RN. My future (not to mention that of my patients) is far too important to allow for this.

You worked far too hard to get through school and life, just to put up with that kind of behavior.

Too many jobs out there to put up with one that lets this continue.

'nuff said?

I had a CNA (a long time ago) go get a foley. Open the package and hand me the now contaminated cath and tell me to put it in. I did not even have an order.

This CNA was the darling of administration. Very charming, (tdranslations full of BS)

I had filed a formal written complaint of sexual harrassment against this CNA earlier. I delivered it to my DON. Not only did she refuse to discuss it with me she did nothing about it.

This CNA was supposedly a licensed nurse in another state and another time. Yea, right.

Good news is finally this sweety has left in a huff. We have a new DON who is not as impressed with this twirp.

I know this doesn't help your situation but to let you know you are not alone.

This was ACUTE care and this CNA was allowed to run the place. Adminsitration would go to this CNA with issues that should be addressed with a licensed nurse.

This CNA was instructed to TEACH some nurses how to do steril dressings etc.!! Administration asked This CNA about nuring decisions that were made on crtically unstable patients. Instead of addressing it with the nurse that made the decision.

OMG Agnus...talk about dysfunctional facilities. :rolleyes:

Youre the new kid on the block - if you dont stand your ground now its going to get worse. Running away at the first hint of work-relations problems doesnt solve anything or help you grow as an RN. And jumping to writing her up without fair warning or discussion/educating her to your expectations first is only going to increase the tensions and make work that much harder. I'd suggest taking her aside this one time - privately - for a civil, matter-of-fact discussion about it. Tell her what she did wrong & how it made you feel to be yelled at by her in front of everyone. Inform her of how her actions with the medication was wrong. Let her know what your position is, what her role is, and what you expect. Not in a threatening, superior manner - just a calm, private, clear-the-air type of thing.

And remember respect is a two way street.

Give back what you expect to be given to you. If shes been there a long time, she DOES know the residents better - recognize and utilize her expertise. Let her know that you realize she has a special relationship with each of them and you will be counting on her to help you get to know them as well too. As you go along in your workday, ask for her input on things within her scope, ask for her suggestions, ideas, and assistance with the residents, compliment a job well done, thank her at the end of the shift, recognize it when she does a little something extra --- basically show her that she is valuable too.

It may take time but you two could end up being a great team together.

I work with one CNA who for some reason takes it upon herself to suction vent pts, do trach care do dressings, mess with the vent alarms, the IVS, etc. I have never met another CNA like this but no one seems to mind that she does all these things. She works the 11-7 shift and there aren't as many people milling around to catch her. But the nurses and other CNAS on that shift know she does it. I was once working on a regualr floor with her and a pt wound up being intubated so she needed to be transported to ICU. One RN goes, the respiratory therapist and the resident and a CNA goes along just to carry stuff and help bring back the bed, that sort of thing. Well, I happened to be the CNA on that team and one of the nurses said to me, " I would rather Nancy go because she works with vent patients all the time and I really trust her, " Trust her to do what? Wipe the pt's ass if she poops on the way there? It was really weird.

Specializes in LTC/Peds/ICU/PACU/CDI.

this must be an ongoing problem everywhere; i too had problems with cna...here's a post that i wrote on another thread called: being a charge nurse. i would do as sooo many have suggested and move on somewhere else if you value your license. believe you-me, your don would side with this cna over you. good luck to you.

ciao - moe.

I am a student so it is not yet affecting me in the way. Oh, believe, me I would NEVER put up with that. It just seems that the nurses on that shift don't have a problem with it so no one is complaining. It's funny you say that the DON would side with the CNA. I figured the CNA would get fired and the nurse would just say she didnt know about it or something and since there is a shortage the nurse would just be reprimanded. We once had a CNA who gave tylenol and she got fired. Nothing happened to the nurse who let her do it.

Could someone explain to me why it was wrong for the CNA to give the resident the last of the pudding/med cup? I don't see how the meds were "snatched" from the RN, if the RN gave the meds to the patient in the first place. If the patient hadn't been fed the last of the pudding, wouldn't he or she have missed receiving the full dose of medication?

I must be missing something here. I'm starting my CNA classes next month, so this would be useful information to know.

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