I am a new grad going into my fifth month working on a general surgical floor, day shift. Of course time management is still something I struggle with. I have days that everything seems to go as planned and on time and I feel like super woman and fulfilled. However, I have more days that go by in a blur and I spend an hour or more after shift catching up on documentation and finishing tasks. On those days, when I try to figure out what has caused my delimma, I can only truely answer that I have spent more time taking care of what should be CNA patient care tasks than actual nursing tasks. I did not work as a CNA prior to nursing, but I have full respect for them and am aware of what they do and that they are short staffed as well. My floor has 29 beds and is almost always full. We are to have 3 CNAs with a full house but lately rarely do. Lately we start with one and end up pulling another. I am too new to get CNA care and nursing care done.
I am a firm beliver that everyone should be treated with respect and kindness, but now I'm starting to think I'm a pushover and being taken advantage of. Does anyone have any advice of how to professionally get the CNAs to do what they are getting paid to do? We fill out task sheets for CNAs each morning. I also verbalize which patients need special attention such as turn q 2, special equipment like drains, tubes, etc and personal/family concerns like who gets mad if don't have fresh ice water etc. But rarely do these tasks get done. When I ask what was last time room #... was turned, I am flat out lied to or I get "I've been doing CBGs and I'll have to turn that one later"! What do I do? I've had several patients in my section lately who have been here for weeks and oral care has not been done to the point of tounge, oral cavity starting to peel; I'm catching stage I pressure ulcers starting to form and patients who have not been bathed in a few days and never had hair shampooed! The other nurses on my floor, including the charge nurses just shrug their shoulders and say, yep, gotta stay after them or make derogatory comments without actually adressing the problem.
I have expressed my concerns to my nurse manager and she understands my concerns and seems to have talked to the CNAs, but not all of them, and she explained that due to budget cuts we are having to run shorter on aids. The more experienced nurses that I work with I guess are just turning and getting drinks, helping with toileting and bathing also - or are more convincing to get the CNAs to do all of that for them, leaving me doing all of it for my patients. I have realized that at the end of the day, I have missed some major nursing actions simply because I have been answering call lights all day.
Does anyone (nurse) ever have a CNA ask them if they need help, or what needs to be done next, or anything proactive? Not me! I am the one asking the CNAs what still needs to be done and how I can help them!!!! How can I stop this?!?!?!
