Nursing Student HATES Nursing Assistant Job

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Before I started nursing school I was really freaked out because I've never worked in a hospital and I wasn't sure what to expect when we started clinicals. So, I decided to get a job as a PCT on a med-surg ortho floor (also known as CNA or nursing assistant) to gain some experience. Well, I HATE my job. The nurses treat me like crap (I don't even bother telling some of them I'm a nursing student because most of them sterotype PCT's as being stupid and uneducated), and the unit secretary is a pain in my a$$. She's always following me around telling me to go do this and that. She'll even call me (on the intercom thingy) while I'm in a patient's room to tell me to go do something else when she can clearly see that I'm busy. I hate doing Q4 vitals on 15-20 patients, I hate passing 15-20 trays, I hate being called every 5 seconds to "go do this, or go do that", I hate everything about nursing that I've experience thus far. Thing is, I only work once a week, and each week I find myself becoming physically ill at the thought of having to endure 8 hours of their crap. I'm starting to wonder, if I can't even hadle being a PCT, how the heck am I gonna be able to handle being a nurse? Sorry for the long rant. I just needed to vent.

I think that it is important to delagate, but there is a line that can be crossed at times. QUOTE]

I agree to me if I have 15 patients and the nursing staff wants me to a do alot for their patients when they each have 5 and I have the full load working as an aid not as an extern because of my externship level (which changes to a III next week :) ). To me I'm up to the challenge and feel that I manage my time effectively but sometimes there is just not enough of me to go around. For instance, I had the three nurses I was assigned to one asking me to run vitals on a pt. getting a transfusion while the other wanted me to do a dressing change STAT as the patient's family was coming in and the third was yelling down the hall trying to find me while I was busy dividing my time between their patients as well as doing all the aid tasks. Needless to say I was quite exhausted last night and although would relish the thought of working in a "fast food" joint I don't feel the comment was warranted when we as externs are just as much as overextended as the nursing staff and don't have the experience of extensive time management nor a lessened patient load. I often wonder why people bother to post such things since I don't complain to the staff about their use of me I take it with a smile that's part of the reason why they give me more tasks to do. I feel the more I take on the more I learn but if they work you to the point of exhaustion is it the blame on you for not being stronger?

if they work you to the point of exhaustion, I am to blame for not being stronger???? and then to daytonite...I think this whole post has been misinterpreted..it was only about weather or not CNAs hated their jobs and if it helped to be a CNA before nursing school..it has been a post to vent a little about what some CNAs have to endure. Some of us do the best we can at delegation, but because we often have more than one RN to answer to, prioritizing can be difficult, especially if there is lack of communication. Many times I have been in situations of literally being in the middle of something and a nurse hunting me down for something else..I can stop making a bed to take a patient to the bathroom, but sometimes its impossible to relay to the RN who assigned you the patients bed to make why you took an hour to make that bed....please do not patronize us or address us as if we are children..I am an adult. This was not a post for anyone, RNs included ,to jump in and make us seem like idiots who have no clue about life. As for education, where I come from the RN with the Masters degree doesnt get the more difficult assignments over the RN with a 2 year degree..the attitude of thinking that housekeeping and CNA work is somehow a piece of cake is the cockeyed thinking that makes a team fall apart...I worked with an incredible group of RNs, housekeepers, Techs and Drs..the key was everyone was treated with the same respect.subordinates..that is a term used when the Rn has no respect for her team and thinks that he/she is "above " them..its not about going soft, its about getting the job done , respect and patients come first.lets bring this post back to where it should be without animosity.It seems unfair that Cnas just wanted to vent a little..I have never jumped on a post for Rns venting about their CNAs, they need to vent as we sometimes do. I can assure you that when I am finished with school and get a job as an RN, I will be treating EVERYONE with respect..I know this because its who I am..and you don't need to be something different just because you have a few years of college under your belt.

if they work you to the point of exhaustion, I am to blame for not being stronger????

LOL I blame my brains which are currently recovering from being fried... I bow down to the CNA's though that is some tough work.. my poor bod is still sore I just don't know how they do it and I for one will remember what I go through as an aid so that I can help out my assistants when I get that RN after my name.. :thankya:

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

No, I didn't misunderstand the OP. Nor do I misunderstand any of the other posters. You cannot appreciate the situation that an RN or charge nurse is in until you've been in their shoes. And, most of you haven't been there yet. I don't like the scenario of a nurse searching the halls for a CNA to give a patient a bedpan being bandied about. Another is people saying they saw the nurse sitting down and doing nothing. Wait until you get there and you start to hear your subordinate staff talking about you that way and you KNOW you are working your butt off, not taking breaks, not able to go to the bathroom, grabbing every chance you can to sit down and chart just to get off your feet for a few moments. And, let me say again that there is no way you can continually do the nursing assistant's job as well as keep up with your own LPN or RN responsibilities, many of which you haven't even begun to realize yet. Yes, you can help your subordinate staff out, but not all the time. I guarantee you that there are some very childish behaving CNAs out there who are going to sit back and let you do as much for them as they think they can get away with. And, if you think I'm wrong about this, read the many, many frustrated threads about this very problem on the First Year in Nursing Forum.

As I'm reading these different posts I'm thinking that if someone can't handle and adjust to the stress of being a CNA how in the world are they going to make it as an LPN or RN when the stress and responsibility increases even more? That's the very question that the OP was asking. You should be talking about these problems you have on your jobs with your instructors and brainstorm how to cope with them. Your instructors are going to be impartial and maybe have some advice for you. Many of them have probably lived through some of these kinds of problems. Once you are out in the world post graduation, you are going to find it hard to find someone who will dry your tears of frustration, give you a shoulder to cry on and give you advice. I'm trying to direct you to some answers and save you some future heartache here.

There is a case for NOT working as a nursing assistant prior to getting your first job. Sometimes I think that the empathy that some have for the nursing assistants because they were one works against them when they have to move on to learn their licensed nursing jobs. But, that's for another discussion.

Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

I do believe that respect is due to the CNA that works. There is no reason to insult them if they are trying hard to work within their function. I also felt that if I had ever become a nurse, I would 'never forget and always help the aides'. As an LPN, I had to learn (unfortunately), that some of that had to shift a bit. It is very true that if you continue to stop to help the others, then, your function suffers because your attention is diverted. There is a higher risk of medication and documentation errors if you are constantly distracted by doing someone else's job. This is not to say that you should not help...I am not saying that. I am saying that we all have different roles, and they do NOT always blend together.

I work in the same clinic as a nurse as I did as an aide two years ago. And, now, some of the aides think that because I did their job in the past, meaning the vital signs, making appointments, drawing blood and whatever else, that I have time to do it again, and unfortunately, that is not so anymore. I had a physician come to me and say that a patient needed an EKG and nebulizer treatment. Immediately, as a nurse, I had to shift gears and begin to critically think. This is a person with an airway problem that needs assistance NOW. I told an aide to do the EKG, thinking that this would give me time to gather the equipment to initiate the nebulizer treatment. The aide (an old 'friend') told me that she was busy, and why can't I do it? I told her that I am assigning her to do the skill she is trained to do, and that she cannot administer the nebulizer treatment without a license. This woman flatly refused. I had to then turn around and set the nebulizer first while doing the EKG when the client's breathing was improving because I knew that by wasting time arguing with the person may further compromise the client. Now, I don't expect the aide to understand or even care that a nursing decision is different from that of an aide (not criticizing, mind you), but that to do a simple function that is important to the survival of the patient should NOT be beyond anyone.

It is not about forgetting where we came from. WHat it is; is that with the additional knowledge, we know the risks of ignoring certain things and the reality is that the nurse has to be freer to deal with more emergent things. The same applies to the LPN and RN. My function only goes so far...the RN has even more than I do. What I keep in mind is that while I can't do ALL that the RN can do, I can do my job to free her to deal with more emergent situations that I cannot handle. While I am not an RN (and have no desire to be), I can easily see where she is coming from because if I KILLED myself trying to get through a PN program and trying to keep the license I worked so hard to achieve, then of course, logic tells me the RN went through even worse and more (and longer), than I did.

What needs to happen is that each discipline needs to first respect each other for what they do, however, deal effectively with the slackers that drag down the team. I have seen where some CNAs do not help each other with difficult patients because it has happened to me...they will hide, steal supplies from each other and so forth. The same for nurses as well, unfortunately.

CNA stresses are different because we have no one to delegate to when our load gets too heavy. I will repeat that I have worked a great team, as well has experiences with lazy RNs, CNAs, housekeepers, etc..bottom line is respect..for everyone. We are not idiots, most of us appreciate that your license is on the line and having a difficult support staff can be stressful.WE had a housekeeper who everyone seemed to hate, they said she gave attitude, was lazy, and so on..well she went from the night shift to evenings(and worked with me), well, she was none of those , we worked great together and was never a problem. If personalities clash, if Aides think the RN does nothing and wont help, if the RN becomes demanding, it all wont work.Your support staff is your greatest tool, your attitude towards them will determine if they go the extra mile for you when things hit the fan and it gets busy. Hating your CNA job is no gauge for weather or not nursing is for you, it is only insight into the health care field. My little ones sing "Team work" (from the Wonder Pets) all the time..isint amazing what we forget as adults..???? Whatever other issues may have been brought to this post, one thing we can all agree on is teamwork and respect.;)..good luck to all

Specializes in ICU.

I was in that EXACT situation! It left a bad impression on me about the nursing field. BUT, I realized that it is TWO separate jobs and when you become a nurse, your bad experience as a PCT will allow you to have respect for your CNAs. What I decided to do (since I still need money and still in school), was work as a unit sec in the CCU (a specialized unit). That way, I can still see what is going on, but don't have the physical obligation of do this, do that. What you may want to try is to get on a specialized (smaller) unit. More critical than the floor. Usually, the nurses on smaller units are closer knit and more willing to help you with their critical patient (from my personal experience). You will get to see a lot and you probably won't even have 10-15 patients cause the unit will be much smaller than the floor. I WOULD NEVER WORK AS A CNA ON A FLOOR AGAIN!

Specializes in Education, Administration, Magnet.

I hate my Nurse Tech job too - on days that they put me as the only aide with 36 patients. It happens about every 2 weeks and I just feel like clocking out and never coming back. The nurses expect me to do everything on time as if I had help. I feel so sorry for those patients because they don't get the care they need and deserve.

The nurses expect me to do everything on time as if I had help. I feel so sorry for those patients because they don't get the care they need and deserve.

And some nurses might echo this complaint... The managers expect me to do everything on time even though the workload is impossible... or The CNAs expect me to help out with their tasks as if I didn't have a zillion other things that are also important for the patients' comfort and safety. Nurses can sometimes be unsympathetic to the CNA struggling to get everything done because they too are under similar pressure and aren't given a break. I'm not saying that's right or fair, just that it happens sometimes.

In general, if you hate your NA job, try to figure out what about it you don't like. Maybe get a similar job elsewhere (eg: different facility or different unit) to compare if it's the specific job or the job in general that you dislike. Is it the physical nature of the job? Dealing with bodily functions? Getting up close and personal with practical strangers? The non-stop busy-ness? A difficult workload? Unhelpful colleagues? No time to give the patients proper attention and care? The monotony of the same patients day after day or the frustration of never having a chance to get to know patients because of fast turnover?

Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

It is very true, that nurses are under the same circumstances, doing more invasive and dangerous things (if done wrong). It can be hard to emphasize, especially, when your license is always at risk. One of the reasons why I continue to read the plights of the CNAs, is so that I can remind myself to continue to appreciate them. Unfortunately, I cannot always help them with the physical labor, but, I try to show appreciation to the best of my ability.

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