Older PCA/CNA

Nurses General Nursing

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I usually agree with the idea that with age comes wisdom, more experience, and improved quality because of these factors, but when hiring assistant staff, STOP hiring old people!!!!!!! Lmao, my floor was in need of an aide during the night shift and my hospital hired a lady old of enough to be my grandmother. God bless her soul but she works at snails speed, limps while walking, and can't lift for sh!t. What's the point? When we send her to draw labs she comes back and says "I cant see the vein" or when she supposed to be emptying coleus she complains of a bad back. I like the lady and I respect my elders, so I'm the dumb @as nurse who does it for her because I feel for her. I'm sure she's getting over on me, but what should we do?

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So you agree with hiring a worker who doesn't work

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Ok, I will go gently here. I don't care what age a person is, not their creed, religion or their color. The only thing that I care about is, can they figure out how to answer a calllight. After that, the team can all work together to fill in the blanks. I hurt my back when I was a 19 year old CNA. I can pull up in bed, 2 person assist transfer and 1 person pivot transfer anyone. I will help transfer anyone. I put down my MAR (cuz we are NOT married) and I focus on the resident and my team. The rest comes with a team approach. I have seen very young, seemingly agile nurses apparently without movement below the waist, who move like slugs. I worry about them. I feel they will be enormous-ly dissapointed in the years to come. Who will give direct patient care if the RN's won't? I don't understand the mentality that has time to point out all the deficiences of their co-workers rather than mentoring and leading them. Am I wrong

I refuse to be a hero such as yourself because I'd actually like to avoid hurting my back like you did. No hospital will cover me if I'm reckless and try to be super nurse. Do you think your patient would risk their body and perform maneuvers which were unsafe? Yeah you go ahead and be super nurse. I'll pass. I haven't even had kids yet ii need my back. Let me help YOU understand the mentality..... I shouldn't be lifting patients by myself. I work in an ICU, not a nursing home, so my patient are sedated and are dead weight. Is it reasonable to expect me to do clean a 300 lb intubated patient by myself. That's not safe. Have you ever had a an ET tube migrate 2cm after washing ampatient by yourself? Well let me tell you it sucks. Reintubating a patient because it was my fault sucks

sO.... not a hero nurse, do work in SNF, encouraging all to work as team and not JUST focus on the task before us. I hurt my back in early 1970's working in a SNF, SNF's were really different then, no gait belts, no help, no teams. I mentioned it because despite this back injury, I am still capable of assisting the CNA's to do 2 ,3 or 4 person transfer up in bed, the rest is all hoyer lift, every facility in this area is now a no-lift facility. I am quite sure the ICU is different, but where are the teams that can help you, in the ICU? I have no idea if it is reasonable, in your hospital, ICU for anyone to dead weight clean, turn, transfer ICU patients. I wouldn't reccomend it, nor did I advocate that in my post. My other question is, what is the team situation that is available for you, in the ICU? I do understand your frustration, but I don't understand slamming the "super nurses" or me, for that matter. If you don't have enough help or a team mentality to move that 300 pound person, that is a problem. What I was specifically referring to, and my apologies for not making this more clear, was in the SNF arena, the nurses need to step up to the plate and help the CNA's do care, like turning the heavier patients side to side in bed, or up in bed, or whatever might be needed, maybe help with the hoyer lift. It just makes everyones job easier when we approach it from the team mentality, which is kinda a new idea/new frontier in SNF. (and exactly how so many of us DO have injuries from working prior to the no-lift SNF policies). And just because you are not GOING to do certain things (your perogative) doesn't mean that my choices are wrong or that as a nurse, you should slam me. I will take that title of super nurse though, cuz....I have earned it.

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And imagine one nurse doing it by him or herself

Why? I think this explains and answers the problem at hand. An RN that doesn't see the total care of the resident as the RN responsibility, believes certain portions of care are NOT RN duties, and is frustrated that the "Team" won't help, or can't, or is on light duty. Trust me, whenever I have someone on light duty, I am never short on tasks, lol. Lots of stuff can be done, but it requires mentoring and educating, particularly if the CNA hasn't done the task before. As a side note, many CNA's have learned in SNF/AL to assist the nurses at a much higher capacity, we have one that is fully cross trained for central supply, activities assistant, MDS activities, Social Worker assistant, CNA and rna, AND med tech. She is like a sponge, and wants to learn it all. She is proficient at many CNA tasks as well. Many nurses have taken time out of their day over the last yearto train her and the training has developed her to a much higher level, and we have 4 more that we are working on.

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Pixie120, thats great that you work with a cna who wants to learn other tasks to help around the unit, but where I work we already have a social worker, a central supply man, and a housekeeper. This particular person was hired as a CNA and no other position. Also the nurses on my unit work well together but it's painful to watch my fellow nurse help me clean my patient while our aide sits at the desk and plays on the computer. What's the excuse???? My neck hurts, my back hurts,...... and I believe her because she walks with a major limp to prove it. But my issue is what was the point of hiring her. She was always his way. She didn't hurt her back on the job, she came with the limp, and she came with the back aches.

Please dead the notion that I feel I'm above patient care because if you comprehended anything from my posts you would see that all I ask for an aide to do is aid me in caring for patients.

I used to be an aide and one thing I despise is when YOU nurses say it's MY patient. When i was an aide, the nurses would give the CNA's report at the beginning of every shift and a list of tasks which needed to be done. We as CNA's were given our own patients and just like the nurses those patients were ours. That gave us a feeling of responsibility. The aides used to compete amongst one another on who could get all of thier patients OOB, bathed, eating, and looking pretty. Maybe that's what's missing, aides don't feel part of the team. They feel like theyre just servants, so they don't always take pride in their work. It would be hard for me to take pride in my work when I dont feel needed.

But anyway, I just want my hospital to hire an aide who can do the flipping job. Aide me !!!!!!!! Do you get my drift? Please dont mistake me for someone who's nasty but its frustrating to be labelled as some snooty nurse when I know I am the exact opposite. But the blessing is that aides and my fellow nurses always tell me different and most importantly I know me. Please let's not get into a battle of who is a better nurse because that's irrelevant, just as long as my check clears at the end of the week, I'm good.

Excuse my typos, I'm tired

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