Not willing to do the dirty work? - Page 4

I work as a CNA part time and have done so a year before I stated nursing school. I actually started my PRN hospital float pool job the day I turned 18. After I started nursing school I always wanted to remember where I would be coming from. I wanted to remember the good and bad nurses that worked with me. I entered nursing school with the desire and determination to be the nurse who can humble himself to do as much as I can for my pt.

In both my first year of nursing school, and now in my final year we have never been allowed to delegate to the NA's wherever we do clinicals at. We can ask them questions like where to hind things or what was the last time the pt urinated etc...... But we have to do vitals, adls, i&O etc.... Regardless if we have 1 or 3 pts. ( 3 pts is our limit for now) On our on or ask a classmate for help if you need it. Our program director said that she refused to let us graduate as needy nurses bc we won't always have the luxury of a CNA in many situations. Especially for those in my class who want to work in ICU. In all of our local ICUs no UAPs are utilized outside if the secretary role. Each nurse can have up to 4 critical pt. and if you need help with a bath, all nurses are expected to help each other.

Bathing a patient is the absolute way to assess them. You get to see their entire body, head to toe, and have a nice, long conversation with them while you're doing it. You find out things that you wouldn't normally find out about them. Things like family dynamics and home life. These can be very helpful for discharge planning and aftercare. Unfortunately, I rarely had time for this. I would set up my patients who could mostly bathe themselves and wash their backs and feet if they couldn't reach them. If I had a patient that had to go to the bathroom, I'm wasn't going to let lem have an incontinent episode because I was too busy to walk them to the bathroom.
With that being said, the CNAs are getting paid for a reason. If they were tied up in another room or short staffed, I picked up. Otherwise, I did my job and let them do theirs. If I was caught up with my work, which was rare, I would answer call bells. I'm not against getting my hands dirty at all, but I have a job to do too.

WOW this is absurd!!!!! first of all things like bathing and bathroom assistance help you to do the most important thing as a nurse ASSESS!! second I have done clinicals at some small hospitals that do not have CNAs or Techs. My first semester that is all we really did was "tech work" and I got to know my patients and could do a full physical assessment during. Any of the clinical instructors would send a student home right away for pulling something like this. Sounds like an attitude that needs an adjustment. :/

I agree with you 100%. These patients are obviously unable to perform these daily routines on their own and need someone to do it for them! If the new RN interns didn't want to do the dirty work they should have gone into a different profession. Those are the kind of people who do not truly have their heart set in nursing.

You can't ask or expect someone to do something you aren't willing to do yourself.

That is not the American way!

I agree with and respect everything that has been said, but I would like to add two things that I have had to think about lately.

1. Especially first semester nursing students on their first clinicals - we want to see things, we want to have exciting experiences, we are full of wonder and curiosity. Having to spend an hour cleaning up diarrhea while there's a code down the hall gives us a case of "I wish". A good student will reconcile this and say "there will be another opportunity for me to see that". Personally I don't mind having to do the dirty work, but that's not the whole reason I came to nursing school. I came to learn, and missing out on educational experiences to clean explosive code brown can get you down. My suggestion on this (from the preceptor or educator standpoint) is encouragement and supplemental education - I'm sorry you had to do that, thank you for doing it, now lets talk about that tarry black stool, look at that developing pressure ulcer.
2. The second part is a touchy topic - please. Telling me in a condescending way that I have to clean up, by myself, doesn't make me any more thrilled or thankful to do it. If you ask me politely if I will help you by bathing your patient, I'm more than happy to help out. Please is still the magic word. For the past 2 weeks, on our floor, there have been no PCTs at all. There was a big difference in attitude and willingness when we as students were asked to abandon our normal patient routine and just do the PCT jobs for the day to help the nurses, than there was when we are told by random nurses on the floor that we have to give a bath to their patient. It's not always what you say, it's how you say it.

Let me just say that my "attitude" does NOT need adjusted in any way, shape or form! I have been an aide for a long time. I'm not above or beyond patient care, nor will I ever be! But any of you who are nurses...cannot tell me for ONE MINUTE that you spend your entire day doing PATIENT CARE!! When did you LEARN to be a nurse and not an AIDE?? ALL I am saying is...my clinical experience has been NOTHING BUT BEING AN AIDE! When am I supposed to learn to DO MY JOB AS A NURSE WHEN I GRADUATE FROM WHAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE NURSING SCHOOL??? READ THE FINE PRINT before you tell me to "suck it up!!!"

My CI has been very specific about us NOT spending out entire time doing aide work. We're there to learn to be nurses, not aides. Being a nurse involves ADLs when required by your patients, not floating from room to room changing briefs. I have one pt I am responsible for. That includes everything the pt needs that's within my scope. I have no problem helping out with other pt's needed if I'm really needed, but I'm not there to shadow the PCAs or BE a PCA. Every nurse I've worked with has been great about it, but a couple PCAs have been irritated that during down time we're looking up paths/meds instead of manning the call lights nonstop. I

Not my attitude at all. I have never said I'm above doing pt. care. Not one time. What I AM saying is...when I graduate, I will have had little to NO experience doing duties that are assigned to a nurse. I will NOT be confident in my job, nor will I come across as being even CLOSE to knowing what I am doing except for basic patient care. Let me ask you...when your loved one is in a nursing home, would you expect the nurse to be able to administer medications and IV's and treatments to them? Or would you expect them to not know what they are doing except when it comes to giving a bath or cleaning up BM? I went to nursing school to further my career. Not be an aide. I WOULD NEVER NOT clean a patient up, give a bath or assist them to the bathroom! Even as a nurse! I want to be a good nurse. Period. I can't learn to do that while I'm being an aide for free. I've been an aide for a long time. Not above it at all. I don't see many nurses out there giving baths and doing assessments at the same time. Sad to read your pitiful comment.