How many CNAs do you have on your floor?

Nursing Students CNA/MA

Published

I worked 4 years in a nursing home. It was a common sense that the more CNAs you had, the happier the pts were. They got fed on time, they got dressed, they got changed more often etc etc. Simple, common sense. Nurses didn't have to do anything with poop. Or pee. Or dirty dishes. Or moping the floor. Or fetching soda pop. Or other things that don't really require BSN in anything. We could actually focus and spend all our time doing actual nursing whatever it was. Meds, tx, orders, labs, admissions etc. The stuff nurses go to school for, you know.

Imagine my surprise when I started my new job at the hospital and found out there's like one aide for the whole floor of about 40-50 people at night, and she's kind of doing her own thing and I'm supposed to do all the work. Now, I'm responsible for wiping poop 10 times a night instead of watching a titratable heart med administration. Or I'm sorry, another of my pt is having a stroke? Too bad, find somebody else, I'm currently to my waist in diarrhea and pee and vomit in a isolation room with my pt in a very awkward position, can't leave him like that, and it will take me a few minutes to clean up and exit the room properly. Can't run to another room like that! Anything else? Critical lab, you say? Doesn't matter, can't do it, tell them to wait or call the charge nurse... See, I got my BSN so I can wipe butts, not do critical thinking or take care of acute medical problems that requires several years of education. Sorry, once I take a set of wipes and briefs, I will be unavailable for at least 20-30 minutes. If anything happens... there better be other nurses around who can figure out what's going on with my pt right away, like his detailed hx, meds, etc etc. No. It's all equally important for a nurse in a hospital to do both poop wiping and high-level nursing. Because hospital can't afford a $14/hr aide or two. 10 nurses per 40 pts ok, but 2 aides instead of one - that's insanity! Gonna go bankrupt overnight. Hospitals aren't as rich as medicaid nursing homes that can afford 3 aides per 20 pts.

Do you get where I'm going? I hate it. I love hospital nursing, but I absolutely hate doing CNA job. I can help out, always did, but I hate being pretty much solely responsible for all that crap, pardon me french. It's like when you eat a delicious cake and stumble upon a piece of poop in it, literally, a piece of poop in the cake. And then you try another cake, and there's poop too. And almost all cakes have it. Some don't, but most do. That's how I feel about my shifts in the hospital. 2-3 complete bed changes a night completely **** me off and make me hate being there... and also makes me wonder - what the hell do hospitals think? How come nurses allow it? It makes zero sense. It's plain stupid. Why don't we strike and demand more aides?

So how many aides do YOU have? How do you deal with poop? Do you just accept/tolerate it? Love it? Does it make you hate your job sometimes? How do you feel?

Specializes in critical care, home health, med/surg, UM.

It's so true. I don't think it's thinking like a princess to expect that RNs not do CNA work. RNs just cannot do it all and do it well. When I worked on med-surg (left that in 2012) there were 30 pts. and we were lucky to have even one CNA. I felt like we needed 2 on each side of the hall. It would be 11 freakin' o'clock by the time I saw all of my pts. and passed out meds. And I always got stuck at the end of the shift charting. It's not that I mind wiping butts. I've wiped many a butt in my day, but there are other things to be done. It doesn't take an RN to hand out lunch trays or walk people to the bathroom, or grab a snack for someone. Nurses get the short end of the stick. ALWAYS.

Specializes in ER/Emergency Behavioral Health....
I worked 4 years in a nursing home. It was a common sense that the more CNAs you had, the happier the pts were. They got fed on time, they got dressed, they got changed more often etc etc. Simple, common sense. Nurses didn't have to do anything with poop. Or pee. Or dirty dishes. Or moping the floor. Or fetching soda pop. Or other things that don't really require BSN in anything. We could actually focus and spend all our time doing actual nursing whatever it was. Meds, tx, orders, labs, admissions etc. The stuff nurses go to school for, you know.

Imagine my surprise when I started my new job at the hospital and found out there's like one aide for the whole floor of about 40-50 people at night, and she's kind of doing her own thing and I'm supposed to do all the work. Now, I'm responsible for wiping poop 10 times a night instead of watching a titratable heart med administration. Or I'm sorry, another of my pt is having a stroke? Too bad, find somebody else, I'm currently to my waist in diarrhea and pee and vomit in a isolation room with my pt in a very awkward position, can't leave him like that, and it will take me a few minutes to clean up and exit the room properly. Can't run to another room like that! Anything else? Critical lab, you say? Doesn't matter, can't do it, tell them to wait or call the charge nurse... See, I got my BSN so I can wipe butts, not do critical thinking or take care of acute medical problems that requires several years of education. Sorry, once I take a set of wipes and briefs, I will be unavailable for at least 20-30 minutes. If anything happens... there better be other nurses around who can figure out what's going on with my pt right away, like his detailed hx, meds, etc etc. No. It's all equally important for a nurse in a hospital to do both poop wiping and high-level nursing. Because hospital can't afford a $14/hr aide or two. 10 nurses per 40 pts ok, but 2 aides instead of one - that's insanity! Gonna go bankrupt overnight. Hospitals aren't as rich as medicaid nursing homes that can afford 3 aides per 20 pts.

Do you get where I'm going? I hate it. I love hospital nursing, but I absolutely hate doing CNA job. I can help out, always did, but I hate being pretty much solely responsible for all that crap, pardon me french. It's like when you eat a delicious cake and stumble upon a piece of poop in it, literally, a piece of poop in the cake. And then you try another cake, and there's poop too. And almost all cakes have it. Some don't, but most do. That's how I feel about my shifts in the hospital. 2-3 complete bed changes a night completely **** me off and make me hate being there... and also makes me wonder - what the hell do hospitals think? How come nurses allow it? It makes zero sense. It's plain stupid. Why don't we strike and demand more aides?

So how many aides do YOU have? How do you deal with poop? Do you just accept/tolerate it? Love it? Does it make you hate your job sometimes? How do you feel?

This is just screaming ignorance, I'm sorry.

They teach basic care of ADL as well as patient hygiene in nursing 101. This is not just CNA work. It is nursing work as well.

Get used to it.

In my hospital, there are many units (ICU, CCU, etc) where the CNA's are not allowed to perform ADL's unless the nurse is present helping. The nurse and CNA will pair up and work together. TEAMWORK was taught in elementary school, and it carries over into nursing school, and definitely into nursing jobs. Luckily I work with (mostly) great nurses who know the value of CNA's and working together :sarcastic:

It depends on the shift. On day shift, we have three, evening shift has two, and night shift has one. Our census varies depending on the day, but we typically have 7 to 8 intermediates who are there on a regular basis. Average census is between 8 to 14. Seems low, but acuity plays heavily into it. There are times that even with three on the floor, it isn't enough either due to acuity, unexpected interruption, or part time staff who cannot adapt to routine or refuse to follow it.

The RNs for the most part help us out when they can but they also have to handle outpatient IV treatments and the ER. If everyone plays fairly, everyone helps one another, but some people don't want to play by the "rules" and be selfish. It is what it is and sometimes you just have to find a way to work around it.

1 PCA for 20-31 patients

We normally had for 30 patients

One PCA

5-6 Nurse's

1 Nurse to 6 patients

Charge Nurse had 2 to 4 depending on load

One Student Nurse, but that was at random points

3 to 4 Mental Health Workers

We weren't heavy loaded with medical issue's. I mean we had a few going through withdrawal, DTs, some open wounds, and few individuals with pregnancy. A number of individuals who struggled with ADLS or mobility on our floor. Observation was our kicker. We had 15 minutes of observation throughout a shift. Sometimes one person can be on 5 or close observation all day. So that is like adding an additional unit to the floor. Since a few individuals were going through withdrawal vitals every 2 to 4 hours. Normally just 2 vitals done during a shift.

I am a float CNA and a Personal Nursing Assistant. I work 7p-7a, 36hrs a week. I could have 1pt-20pts depending on my assignment for

the night. I think it is unreasonable to expect for 1 cna to do the work of 2 or 3 cnas. I work at a big magnet hospital with a big university attached to it. Needless to say we get alot of BSN nurses saying" what they didn't go to school for". Fine and well but I know they teach cna 101 before theroy,meds,etc... These are the ones who will go in a patient's room to find out the patient wants a bedpan and spend useless mintues looking for me to tell me this instead of putting the pt on the bedpan. Put the pt on the bedpan and then look for me to tell me you did this and the pt needs to be removed from it. I would appreciate the TEAM work; because you will probably find in another patient's room doing something. Another one I need v/s now because I'm giving b/p meds. What LPN or RN wouldn't take their own b/p before meds? TEAM work is a necessity as well as communication. These things make YOUR job and MINES easier.

Specializes in hospice.
Needless to say we get alot of BSN nurses saying" what they didn't go to school for". Fine and well but I know they teach cna 101 before theroy,meds,etc... These are the ones who will go in a patient's room to find out the patient wants a bedpan and spend useless mintues looking for me to tell me this instead of putting the pt on the bedpan.

Yeah, this gets my goat too. It's not just lazy, it's cruel to a patient who needs to go and may not be able to hold it. It's humiliating for them when they can't. You can spend one dang minute to place a bed pan. And yes, VSS, that is one of the things you went to school for.

Another one I need v/s now because I'm giving b/p meds. What LPN or RN wouldn't take their own b/p before meds?

Actually, almost every one I've worked with. They're fine with me passing the info. When I worked progressive care unit in the hospital, the rule was CNAs took q4 vitals and put them in the EMR for the nurses to see before med pass. Not being timely was one of the things we could get in trouble for. I've rarely seen nurses take their own vitals.

I can understand the way the OP came off to some people to induce this reaction. But if you're a CNA, it seems like she is for you not against you. More CNA's are a good thing. Yes RN's can do their jobs, but why take someone else's job and finical support away from them. CNA's need a huge advocate for them. This whole 20:1, 16:1 ratios are quite ridiculous. 6-10 should be the average CNA ratio.

I worked 4 years in a nursing home. It was a common sense that the more CNAs you had, the happier the pts were. They got fed on time, they got dressed, they got changed more often etc etc. Simple, common sense. Nurses didn't have to do anything with poop. Or pee. Or dirty dishes. Or moping the floor. Or fetching soda pop. Or other things that don't really require BSN in anything. We could actually focus and spend all our time doing actual nursing whatever it was. Meds, tx, orders, labs, admissions etc. The stuff nurses go to school for, you know.

Imagine my surprise when I started my new job at the hospital and found out there's like one aide for the whole floor of about 40-50 people at night, and she's kind of doing her own thing and I'm supposed to do all the work. Now, I'm responsible for wiping poop 10 times a night instead of watching a titratable heart med administration. Or I'm sorry, another of my pt is having a stroke? Too bad, find somebody else, I'm currently to my waist in diarrhea and pee and vomit in a isolation room with my pt in a very awkward position, can't leave him like that, and it will take me a few minutes to clean up and exit the room properly. Can't run to another room like that! Anything else? Critical lab, you say? Doesn't matter, can't do it, tell them to wait or call the charge nurse... See, I got my BSN so I can wipe butts, not do critical thinking or take care of acute medical problems that requires several years of education. Sorry, once I take a set of wipes and briefs, I will be unavailable for at least 20-30 minutes. If anything happens... there better be other nurses around who can figure out what's going on with my pt right away, like his detailed hx, meds, etc etc. No. It's all equally important for a nurse in a hospital to do both poop wiping and high-level nursing. Because hospital can't afford a $14/hr aide or two. 10 nurses per 40 pts ok, but 2 aides instead of one - that's insanity! Gonna go bankrupt overnight. Hospitals aren't as rich as medicaid nursing homes that can afford 3 aides per 20 pts.

Do you get where I'm going? I hate it. I love hospital nursing, but I absolutely hate doing CNA job. I can help out, always did, but I hate being pretty much solely responsible for all that crap, pardon me french. It's like when you eat a delicious cake and stumble upon a piece of poop in it, literally, a piece of poop in the cake. And then you try another cake, and there's poop too. And almost all cakes have it. Some don't, but most do. That's how I feel about my shifts in the hospital. 2-3 complete bed changes a night completely **** me off and make me hate being there... and also makes me wonder - what the hell do hospitals think? How come nurses allow it? It makes zero sense. It's plain stupid. Why don't we strike and demand more aides?

So how many aides do YOU have? How do you deal with poop? Do you just accept/tolerate it? Love it? Does it make you hate your job sometimes? How do you feel?

Honestly, your post makes you sound like a princess, and not the kind of nurse most people (including CNAs, who HATE nurses who refuse to wipe a butt) want to work with.

It's funny people say you learn it in a BSN program. So what? By this logic, say, Donald Trump should do his own accounting. Just flat out sit in the accounting office and crunch his numbers. Or plane pilot should go refuel his own plane. Just go out there, grab the hose and stick it into the gas tank of his plane.

Just because you know how to do something doesn't mean you have to function at the most basic level.

Also, the whole myth of "learning about your patient"... you don't learn squat! Just like in the examples above D.Trump can learn something about his company crunching numbers... or pilot can learn that his plane has grey numbers on its wing below... is that a useful information that he needs to fly? No. Same with pts... If you do learn something by wiping someone's butt, or spreading bedsheets, you probably didn't pay attention during a change of shift report or didn't read the chart on the patient. I have never found out anything new or useful while wiping pt butt... If a pt is in pain from rolling side to side when wiping, I don't need 30 minutes to find out about that... I can just ask aide who did it, and the answer will take about 2 seconds.

I'm pro-efficiency. I don't like stupid assignments. Making nurses do CNA work is stupid. You don't see doctors doing nurses work, do you? They could too... I'm sure it was in their program too, how to start meds etc... As I said, I'd rather have extra pt and have CNAs do stupid vitals and poops. The amount of time I'd save would give me plenty of time for doing something only _I_ can do, and while we're at it, professional development and maybe my hospital could have 20% less nurses. I don't know what you're developing spreading sheets on a bed or hooking up blood pressure cuff to one's arm.

It's a shame that most nurses kind of went with it and now we're all stuck in this poopy situation and most nurses are made to naively believe they're actually benefiting from this setup. Greatest hospital scam ever.

I honestly understand what the OP is saying, I just think she should have written it differently. I think what she is saying is that she spent a lot of money to obtain her BSN to become a nurse and she is not getting to do that job because she doesn't have enough help. For everyone who is being judgmental, you need to think about it, we are getting a degree.

I know your behind does! A lot of people including myself had to take out loans for a cna class. Who the hell do you think you are that you are the only asses that had to apply for loans??? You can roll your eyes, neck or any other body part. You both are disgusting and I don't see how you sleep at night or even have a consciousness to even exist in life. Do you have the cure for cancer? Neither do I. So zip your uppity ass mouth because the world does not rotate around you or me!

[h=3] [/h]

Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.
Yeah, this gets my goat too. It's not just lazy, it's cruel to a patient who needs to go and may not be able to hold it. It's humiliating for them when they can't.

This is an excellent point, and I couldn't agree more.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Transplant, Education.
I worked 4 years in a nursing home. It was a common sense that the more CNAs you had, the happier the pts were. They got fed on time, they got dressed, they got changed more often etc etc. Simple, common sense. Nurses didn't have to do anything with poop. Or pee. Or dirty dishes. Or moping the floor. Or fetching soda pop. Or other things that don't really require BSN in anything. We could actually focus and spend all our time doing actual nursing whatever it was. Meds, tx, orders, labs, admissions etc. The stuff nurses go to school for, you know.

Imagine my surprise when I started my new job at the hospital and found out there's like one aide for the whole floor of about 40-50 people at night, and she's kind of doing her own thing and I'm supposed to do all the work. Now, I'm responsible for wiping poop 10 times a night instead of watching a titratable heart med administration. Or I'm sorry, another of my pt is having a stroke? Too bad, find somebody else, I'm currently to my waist in diarrhea and pee and vomit in a isolation room with my pt in a very awkward position, can't leave him like that, and it will take me a few minutes to clean up and exit the room properly. Can't run to another room like that! Anything else? Critical lab, you say? Doesn't matter, can't do it, tell them to wait or call the charge nurse... See, I got my BSN so I can wipe butts, not do critical thinking or take care of acute medical problems that requires several years of education. Sorry, once I take a set of wipes and briefs, I will be unavailable for at least 20-30 minutes. If anything happens... there better be other nurses around who can figure out what's going on with my pt right away, like his detailed hx, meds, etc etc. No. It's all equally important for a nurse in a hospital to do both poop wiping and high-level nursing. Because hospital can't afford a $14/hr aide or two. 10 nurses per 40 pts ok, but 2 aides instead of one - that's insanity! Gonna go bankrupt overnight. Hospitals aren't as rich as medicaid nursing homes that can afford 3 aides per 20 pts.

Do you get where I'm going? I hate it. I love hospital nursing, but I absolutely hate doing CNA job. I can help out, always did, but I hate being pretty much solely responsible for all that crap, pardon me french. It's like when you eat a delicious cake and stumble upon a piece of poop in it, literally, a piece of poop in the cake. And then you try another cake, and there's poop too. And almost all cakes have it. Some don't, but most do. That's how I feel about my shifts in the hospital. 2-3 complete bed changes a night completely **** me off and make me hate being there... and also makes me wonder - what the hell do hospitals think? How come nurses allow it? It makes zero sense. It's plain stupid. Why don't we strike and demand more aides?

So how many aides do YOU have? How do you deal with poop? Do you just accept/tolerate it? Love it? Does it make you hate your job sometimes? How do you feel?

Am I the only one who wishes they only did 2-3 complete bed changes per night? We have two aides (on an appropriately staffed night, 0-1 on a bad night) for 38 beds and I did incontinence care/ almost all total bed changes at least 8 times last night between two patients, if not more and that was WITH my nursing assistant's help since they were a 2 assist to roll! I'd love to do less but with liver failure and lactulose making up the majority of my population, well that's the way the cookie crumbles. Great way to assess my patients skin and keep them comfortable.

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