Nurse's aides are running the the floor.

Anthonyp · Mar 31, 2011

Sounds like My DON I had on my last job!

gymnut · Mar 31, 2011

Interesting topic of discussion and while I have only been a tech for a few months now I'll give my two cents anyways.

First I will say right off the bat that I am blessed to actually work on a unit were a majority of my co-workers are hard working individuals and the RNs will often help the techs with menial tasks and actually thank us (well the ones worth their weight anyways) after the shift has ended and we in turn thank them as well. What also helps is everyone has phones assigned to them so there is no hunting down. Only a few button pushes to call an RN or tech and tell them what you want.

Now even though I mentioned that the nurses on my floor will help with the grunt work I will often shoo them away and do it myself. Just the other day I walked into a patients room and saw the nurse involved in a pretty nasty 'code brown'. I told her that I'll take over and she can go about with her med pass and charting. After all it's MY JOB! I was specifically hired to do this type of work. To me the faster she passes out those meds the faster my patients can stop vomiting, having diarrhea, carrying on, complaining etc and my night can settle down as well.

I also make it a point to get to know the nurses I'll be working with so I can adjust my schedule as well. One nurse wants all her accuchecks done an hour before scheduled. Another one wants every single vital repeated for her telemetry patients while another only wants a heart rate and blood pressure. I can anticipate what they want so I get it and they then don't have to interrupt what they are doing to get me. Also when a new admission comes in I will go over the active orders in the computer to see what that patient needs and then ask the nurse if the patient still needs it. A lot of these orders have already been done, but not completed in the system such as a STAT EKG or blood draw or if the patients is still on seizure precautions. Many times the nurse is so busy with everything these orders get looked over. They appreciate me for double checking and more often than not we will find many orders that have been discontinued and she can update her charting to match that.

Another thing I noticed while skimming through the final pages of this thread was the part about CNAs/techs and critical thinking. Everyone on the floor has to possess critical thinking and common sense. For instance if a patients blood pressure is sky high think things through before you run screaming to the nurse. Take the blood pressure on both arms and even manually after that to get a good reading. Check out the prior BP's. Where they always hovering around these numbers? Is the patient in pain? Post Op? Arguing with family or friends? Same thing with a temperature. Did the patient have anything to eat or drink? Did they have chemo recently? I have witnessed many techs run around like chicken littles because they failed to use their critical thinking and common sense skill set. It's even worse when they go to a nurse that doesn't have any either and she then is calling the doctor as if it's a life and death situation.

When all is said and done we have to be a team and help the patient reach their goals of being on the road to good health. RNs do not spend a lot of time with a patient due to their charting and med passes so the techs need to be their eyes and ears as well if a patient should start to go down hill. Many times I have seen a nurse get so tied up with admissions and discharges they haven't gotten to half of their patients yet and it's already several hours into the shift. How are they suppose to know if Mr. Smith is now having chest pains or Mrs. Jones is vomiting blood unless the tech tells them?

The point is we need each other in order to make the floor run smoothly. You will always have lazy and incompetent people. They exist at every single job on Earth. I'm sorry that some people in this thread are bitter towards each others professions because hard working techs and nurses do exist and we make each others jobs easier and not harder. Hopefully you all will find them and work with them soon.:)

emt123277 · Apr 13, 2011

flame me for my post on page 1 all you want but it doesn't change anything. i don't think less of the cnas that work on the floor because they perform "menial tasks". i just get a little upset when i have to hear a congregation of them complain about how they have crappy (literally) jobs. what didn't you understand about you're job description? did you think you'd be monitoring head bolts and performing cvvh with that high school diploma and a few weeks training?

i work in the icu and er which means i don't have the luxury of having a cna so i clean the messes up, and ambulate, and feed, and bathe these critically ill pts with invasive support lines. i do it all and i don't complain about it because it's my job. i choke every time i hear a gn or student say they're going "to go right for my rn so i don't have to wipe ass". i'm sorry but the responsibility of the entire pts care and the safety of their admission is squarely upon the rn.

as far as the quote "oh, so now cnas can't think". no, re-read my post again and use a dictionary/thesaurus if you're having difficulty. i said "critically think". critical thinking means noticing subtle differences between things, applying them to your knowledge base, and then formulating a decision based on the perceived outcomes. so: if you can not compare nor contrast the difference between thinking and critical thinking then you're not thinking critically.

to the comment about not telling the nurse about a pt that's crashing i have this to offer:

i'm sorry that you are morally and ethically corrupt. the fact that you would let a pt decline to prove a point both scares and angers me. to even threaten that in rhetorical fashion should demand your job be terminated and your verbal threats of abandonment reported to your board of nursing. in any event, the likelihood of you having to tell me about a decline in functional status of any of my pts is unlikely at best because assessment is my job.... ugh, there's that damn call bell again.

JSlovex2 · Apr 13, 2011

in my experience - patients who were declining were/are often brought to the attention of the nurses by CNA's who have checked vital signs - not that many people would admit it. oh, their blood pressure was 79/37 with a temp of 103 and that's what prompted you to enter the room, but the CNA had no involvement in that? once again, this is only my experience. i think minimizing their involvement makes them leery to alert you when such instances occur. i once alerted a nurse about a patient whose vitals were way off her baseline and she hadn't been alert for several hours. after the dust settled (meaning after the doctor was called and came to the floor, after she got a bladder scan, straight cath, etc, etc.) i mentioned that i thought something was odd about her vitals and her complete unresponsiveness while i was checking them only to hear, "yeah, that's not what worried me." hmm - really? so why exactly DID you go check on her and call the doctor less than a minute after i told you about it? god forbid she admit that she hadn't entered the patient's room in hours and wouldn't know there was a problem had i not said something.

furthermore, when i was a CNA i had a college education already, and a few other CNAs who worked on my unit did as well. so, the high school diploma and a few weeks training comment is very, very stereotypical. and - it's your, not you're.

Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN · Apr 13, 2011

Spanish or Tagolog, or ebonics.

And I know plenty of lazy people who, instead of working, chat in English as well...

CCL RN, RN · Apr 13, 2011

in my experience - patients who were declining were/are often brought to the attention of the nurses by CNA's who have checked vital signs - not that many people would admit it. oh, their blood pressure was 79/37 with a temp of 103 and that's what prompted you to enter the room, but the CNA had no involvement in that? once again, this is only my experience. i think minimizing their involvement makes them leery to alert you when such instances occur. i once alerted a nurse about a patient whose vitals were way off her baseline and she hadn't been alert for several hours. after the dust settled (meaning after the doctor was called and came to the floor, after she got a bladder scan, straight cath, etc, etc.) i mentioned that i thought something was odd about her vitals and her complete unresponsiveness while i was checking them only to hear, "yeah, that's not what worried me." hmm - really? so why exactly DID you go check on her and call the doctor less than a minute after i told you about it? god forbid she admit that she hadn't entered the patient's room in hours and wouldn't know there was a problem had i not said something.

Her *assessment*, based on critical thinking, paired with th VS data and knowledge of her pt is what worried her. THATs our point!! But you thought it was 100% your VS, right?

furthermore, when i was a CNA i had a college education already, and a few other CNAs who worked on my unit did as well. so, the high school diploma and a few weeks training comment is very, very stereotypical. and - it's your, not you're.

College makes no difference unless it's nursing. And it's I, not i...

emt123277 · Apr 14, 2011

Wow, I mistakenly typed you're vs. your! Did you learn where the caps lock or shift key is yet? Are we done discussing spelling/grammar?

emt123277 · Apr 14, 2011

so, the infamous "low bp" of 79/37? i'm sure everyone's aware that manual cuffs are in even numbers only. i say that because i hope that someone did re-check that bp manually instead of just reading a machine and taking it for face value. the bp was correlated on both arms as well before sounding the alarm too, right? i imagine the "hero" of this aside got a low reading, ran down the hall to the nurse and explained (read: demanded) the nurse call the doctor immediately. then the nurse is forever known in the cna circle as a jackass because they didn't jump when they were told to by their aide.

another note to add while i'm here winning friends and influencing people: when i'm riding ems i don't introduce myself as an rn. so when i saunter into a facility and ask to see mr. smith's nurse i expect an rn or lpn. just because you have nurse in your title doesn't make you are a nurse. in fact, it makes you an aide to a nurse.

ShayRN · Apr 14, 2011

I will never forget the aide that went to my manager about how "bossy and mean" I am. She left, went to the hospital in our system. Came back and apoligized to me. Said, Now I get it. You just really care about your patients. Highest compliment I ever got, lol. I try my best to pitch in. But when I am charting with one hand and eating a granola bar with the other and still not getting out until 3 hours after I was suppose to leave, I really don't care if you are mad that I hunted you down to clean someone.

enchantmentdis, BSN, RN · Apr 14, 2011

flame me for my post on page 1 all you want but it doesn't change anything. i don't think less of the cnas that work on the floor because they perform "menial tasks". i just get a little upset when i have to hear a congregation of them complain about how they have crappy (literally) jobs. what didn't you understand about you're job description? did you think you'd be monitoring head bolts and performing cvvh with that high school diploma and a few weeks training?
i work in the icu and er which means i don't have the luxury of having a cna so i clean the messes up, and ambulate, and feed, and bathe these critically ill pts with invasive support lines. i do it all and i don't complain about it because it's my job. i choke every time i hear a gn or student say they're going "to go right for my rn so i don't have to wipe ass". i'm sorry but the responsibility of the entire pts care and the safety of their admission is squarely upon the rn.
as far as the quote "oh, so now cnas can't think". no, re-read my post again and use a dictionary/thesaurus if you're having difficulty. i said "critically think". critical thinking means noticing subtle differences between things, applying them to your knowledge base, and then formulating a decision based on the perceived outcomes. so: if you can not compare nor contrast the difference between thinking and critical thinking then you're not thinking critically.
to the comment about not telling the nurse about a pt that's crashing i have this to offer:
i'm sorry that you are morally and ethically corrupt. the fact that you would let a pt decline to prove a point both scares and angers me. to even threaten that in rhetorical fashion should demand your job be terminated and your verbal threats of abandonment reported to your board of nursing. in any event, the likelihood of you having to tell me about a decline in functional status of any of my pts is unlikely at best because assessment is my job.... ugh, there's that damn call bell again.

right on!!!!

Esco99 · Feb 25, 2014

Sounds like the place I work at! The nurses are just lazy! I pray about it daily! Karma...

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Feb 25, 2014

This thread is almost 4 years old and about CNA's that have less than good work ethics. There are bad workers in every field. The point is how do you change your environment for the better.