Re: Does your ICU have techs or aids?
I was a CNA in a teaching hospital in the south that was 24 beds, then went to 32, and now back to 24 when I graduated. I did this for about 4 years.
RN's were responsible for total care cause very few CNA's would want to work in the units unless they were students and working in the units as a nursing student/CNA was a valuable nursing experience.
There was usually only 1 CNA if you were lucky, and that's if they were not being pulled elsewhere. I know there was problems with teams both nights and days where I worked. There was a bad night shift team leader that use to treat their CNA's like crap, and I got crapped on a few times I switched over to other team where they actually worked as a team and got a little respect.
Night shift CNA's on the floor are only responsible of changing, tolieting, and VS I&O's in the ICU, CNA's are responsible for all that, plus bathes, stocking, setting up rooms for new admissions, plus the VS are every hour to two hour depending on the patient and they don't get paid anymore to do this. So it's very hard to keep a CNA in the units to be expected to take on so much more responsibility in a very stressful work environment and not be compensated for it.
Some of us CNA's that were perm staff in the ICU were allowed to be alone with the patient to do total ADL and wound care, 1 nurse had to be present for turning if the patient had multiple lines or a ICP bolt, on CRRT, or just that critically unstable that they shouldn't really be turned anyways.
I know now that I have left out of the four teams, they only have two CNA's and both are fixing to leave cause of being overworked or mistreated and not being compensated for it.
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