Nurses who let NAs Boss them around

Nurses Relations

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When will nurses ever learn to delegate? When will nurses ever collectively stand up and get some backbone--Fight for higher wages, and better benefits like a company matching 401K plan?

I get sick when I work at institutions (I am an agency nurse) and I see the Nurses aides doing whatever they want when they want--unlimited breaks, breaks all at once together leaving the floor uncovered, flat out refusing to answer lights or doing a task.

Its no wonder nurses are leaving the profession in droves. Management appears to be scared to approach the NAs too, but have no trouble when it comes to chastizing an RN. Whenever I ask an RN why they tolerate a situation, the response is always the same--management lets them get away with it. I have returned to Nursing after 13 years of working in a business setting. Not much has changed. PT, Pharmacists, and OT have all manged to get substancial financial increases while many nurses are still making $21 bucks an hour. I don't allow NAs to get the best of me, and all I get for my trouble is even more resentment. Not all NAs are like this but I will go out on a limb and say the lack of RN delegation and management skills are detrimental to the professionof nurses.

Phe Phe, RN, BSN, MBA

I agree, that the support should not get to friendly with Doc anyway. It usually comes up to bite ya in the you know what! As a CNA I am fully aware of my position, support my patient and RN. I remember once a paitent asked me how safe was Trip bypass surgery. I said I call the nurse in so that she can discuss it with you. Do you know, the next day I came in the Cardia Surgeon came looking for me, and asked? " Did you tell my patient that she should get a second opinion?

Well, my point is that yes some aides step way out of there boundaries, especially if they fell comft. with the Doc. Hell no, not me. I barely fell comft, with some of the RNs I work with.

Originally posted by FutureRN_Mandi

I feel that it would be very difficult for a nurse to push meds, do treatments, call doctors, do their charting, inserting cathiders, calling families, in addition to answering call lights, doing vitals, toileting patients, laying them down, getting them up, feeding them, CNA's charting, showers, doing ice pitchers, among many other things. I think nurses should be greatful to a good aide. I really try hard to be a decent aide even though I'm not miss speedy.

Obviously you haven't worked in the hospitals I have, where we nurses do EXACTLY all that, and even clean a pt room after d/c as well!

I always appreciate a good CNA, PCT, whatever your title may be. That person will make or break a nurse's day (if not his/her job). Always hate working without them.

There are bad nurses and bad NAs..I agree it is always best to approach ANY coworker politely. There is no excuse for rudeness. A good NA is worth her/his weight in gold! Often I am treated rudely because I am from an agency. I try not to go back to those places.

R. E .S .P .E .C. T. ..... ~sings Aretha Franklin style~

I agree with a lot of the above posters..of course there are good and bad people in ALL areas of nursing.One thing I've found is that if you give respect where it is due 9/10 of the time you get it back.As for the other 1/10 ,some people just don't belong in the nursing field at all and need to move on. Exibit A: the cna who threw the nurse to the floor? GOOD LAWD!!!..if that person would harm a nurse, what would stop them from harming a pt? definetly time for a police report..assault and battery...at least it would be on their record.

I depend on the NA's at my hospital. The patient turn over is so great that if the NA's were working I would be on the phone to the night supervisor in a second to send me someone that was going to help. Of course I have experienced times when ancillary staff is off playing in a different field. However, I am the one ot bring them back into the game. If they don't want to play...off they go. I work in a hospital that is union....my floor supervisor isn't worth more then a penny...but we have others whom we can call..I just go above her head!!!!

When I was a CNA, I worked agency. I had tons of shifts because the hospitals would call my agency and ask for me specifically. I knew my job, did it well, worked hard and RESPECTED the nurses I worked with. In turn, they are treated me wonderfully.

Once in awhile, I would get sent to work in an awful place w/ CNAs who were doing drugs on the job, and bad nurses. In those cases, I would tell the agency that I would not do any more shifts there.

75% percent of the CNAs I've worked with since I've been a nurse should not be CNAs. The ones that are good, are praised lavishly and spoiled by their nurses.

I've tried write-ups, kissing the aide's butts to get them to do their work, tough love, being a total b#%^h, everything.

You can not make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. You cannot talk someone in to having a work ethic if they have none.

As for my two friends that were assaulted by CNAs, I encouraged both of them to file police reports, but neither one chose to do so.

I have not been physically assaulted by a CNA, but I have been sexually harrassed by two male CNAs. I did file reports on them at work. But as is the norm, nothing was done. I've also been in situations where an aide I was working with was behaving so aggressively, I felt I was on the verge of being assualted and did not feel safe.

The main reason I quit my last LTC job was because of aggressive, insubordiate, hostile CNAs. The atmosphere was so thick with tension and aggresstion, I sometimes felt that blows were about to start flying. I could not tolerate that kind of environment.

To all the hard-working, caring, respectful CNAs: Be assured that any good nurse will value you HIGHLY. And so will your pts!

I wish I could invite you all to come work w/ me.

When CNAs and nurses work well together, treat each other with mutual respect, know and adhere to their roles, help each other, and are focused on the same goal- providing their pts with the best care they can, it is MAGIC.

I am a patient care tech on the night shift in a level 1 Trauma emergency room. Speaking from an aide's persepective, sometimes we get treated like absolute crap from nurses who forget that they were once aids and nursing students also! I get tired of nurses blowing me off and saying to me "you're not a nurse. You don't know what you are talking about" Nurses might not get such attitudes from aides if they were a little more respectful and understanding that while a nurse may have a few patients, most likely the aide has twice as many. Understandably the aide needs to respect the nurse also but the street goes both ways. There are many nurses who just treat aides like garbage no matter how hard they work and there are some who shouldn't be working as aides but for the most part, most of my coworkers just want to stop being treated as "ass- wipers". We are knowledgeable and are also learning just as you once were!

We have the same problems at our facility. So bad that I have been called into the office as an LPN for complaints made by a CNA. This particular CNA seems to get an attitude when asked to do something; then goes to our manager and complains. I have never asked her to do anything beyond her scope of practice. We are really short handed most of the time with nurses and often have 10 or more patients each nurse with a variety of conditions: telemetry, MI's, COPD, etc; everything a med/surg floor comes along with. Rarely do we have enough coverage to have a "Charge" nurse; so we have all our meds, any treatments, OR preps, charting, checking MAR's and chart checks.

At the facilty where I work it is hard to correct one of the CNA's because we have one nurse who babies them and lets them get by with anything. Especially this one CNA, the nurse also thats long smoke breaks with this one CNA, and she (the nurse don't even smoke) 15 minutes turns into 45 minutes. She sits behind the nurses desk with her, even thought it is posted Nurses Only. So how do we reprimind that CNA when one of the nurses allows it? It makes us other nurses look bad. Especially when I have went to the supervisor and told her these things, it as thought she don't believe me, because the other nurse has been there longer than me. Sometimes it gets so bad I just feel like walking out. Its a no win situation.

At the facilty where I work it is hard to correct one of the CNA's because we have one nurse who babies them and lets them get by with anything. Especially this one CNA, the nurse also thats long smoke breaks with this one CNA, and she (the nurse don't even smoke) 15 minutes turns into 45 minutes. She sits behind the nurses desk with her, even thought it is posted Nurses Only. So how do we reprimind that CNA when one of the nurses allows it? It makes us other nurses look bad. Especially when I have went to the supervisor and told her these things, it as thought she don't believe me, because the other nurse has been there longer than me. Sometimes it gets so bad I just feel like walking out. Its a no win situation.

Yah, I agree allot with phe phe and Mandi. Oh you look great Mandi(if that is your picture) I wish I worked with RN's that look like that!

Oh, yah, I agree that Agency people get screwed for the most part. But, the staffs sometimes get screwed babysitting NEW agency personnel. 50/50, on that one! Sometimes it's nice to assist an Agency RN, because they may have a different work ethic. Sometimes we get to comft. with another. Then, there are times that your reg. Staff RN instills to much trust and ends up running you around like a hebrew slave.

However, for the most part, The nurses I work with are great, mostly new grads, eager, and willing to learn from the NA's as well. Some of the new nurses- I've told, not to burn themselves out trying to prove that you can do patient care. I rather see my team leader making sure her doses is correct, rather than changing diaper. Although, don't get me wrong NA's and RN's , it nice to get some help from your Team Leader every now and then.

Simply, Rn's are not the only clinical staff that has to handle more than one task at a time. Hello!

Oh man, what's up with that assaults on nurses by NA. I guess being male I don't understand what these nurses are doing to get assalted. There are ways to let your nurse to know that it is time to "back off a little" without assaulting her/him.

Oh, worked in a nursing home for 30minutes. I punked out, because I'd worked in an ICU setting, to have 30residents and a PCT drove me crazy. I told the DON to keep the check. I was min wage anyway. I can see why some NA'g go nuts in LTC. Still no excuse to lay your hands on a coworker!

I'll be a nurse soon, and will be more than happy to take it outside if my NA decides that he or she wants to assault me.

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