A Dreadful Day As A Male CNA

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Specializes in ltc.

I have a luxury most don't in that I work a prn schedule, but the cost of the schedule is that I lose contact w/ the patients(residents) I take care of f4rom time to time. Well here goes my story I work @ a great nursing home in west virginia here's the catch i ride a bus and it is 1.5 mile hike up a hill so back and forth 3 miles so i make the the trip only three times a week @ my choice sometimes less.Yesterday i was working the abnormal assignment: the building is sectioned off and i worked on the side i normally don't work on..So all the other cnas except for the one cna who got pulled w/ me were normal to their assignments. So I made two runs before dinner and b/c of hippa I can't get into full detail but two residents weren't gotten up by me because I didn't know they needed to get up. so while assigned to the dining room I called to get these two residents up and bring them down(normally I would keep me cool cause I know sometime people are busy and they couldn't get them up for me but it was only one other cna in the dining room so I was ticked b/c I had to leave them shorthanded).when i went back the hallway I asked the nurse nicely to see if she would send someone to the dining room to help the other cna she said no and proceed to say after you finish go back down the dining room.now in the back of my head i was thinking we don't have insufficient staff why couldn't she get one of them to put these two patients up and send them down to the dining room...then something hit me it was because I was a man...so i followed the attitude technique taught to me by my cna instructor and refocused my energy to the task at hand..after finishing the job she grew somewhat upset w/ me and told me to go to the dining room and I went then there was finally enough staff so I returned to the floor the lpn then commanded me to start feeding residents on the floor and we all know as cna you must clean any area that has been soiled so i did that instead of what she ordered because I knew it would be an issue of neglect then I proceed to do what she instructed i could see in her eyes she felt dissent from me, but I stuck to my thought and went on.I already posted the Attitude by Charles Swindoll thats the cool down technique i was referring to.

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I work agency so I can relate to - you had two patients who were suppose to get up and were not. Sounds like the nurse's response was normal. Nurses generaly have the attitude - I don't care how you CNAs get it done-just do it and it has nothing to do with being a female or male CNA. I am also a bit confused - first there wasn't enough staff in the dining room, then there was. Sounds like others were still getting patients out when you thought all yours out and you just plowed in doing what needed to be done. (Yes it could have been better where one of the regular CNAs would have checked on you, but they may have not had the time/or they are accustomed to the Nurse doing the checking on PRNs and such) --- Sorry things proceded as they did for you, same has happened to me before. Now - if or when I have been in that situation - I usualy communicate with the other CNAs first and when everything is wacky busy - we just send a room try to the ones that did not get up and do the best we can. It might not be cool with some who read this but sometimes we just tell the nurse they did not want to get up. Leave it at that and most important thing is we still do the best we can and make sure no one goes hungry.

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Specializes in ltc.

i went from part time to prn and in the dining room they have a set time to get everyone down there. @ this facility others like to disappear around dinner time. the nurse was just being a jerk i believe cause she had something against b/c for two hours she sat @ the desk and never said a word..

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Yea it happens. Next time send room tray. What are they going to do argue with you? Just act stupid when they ask you why the patient wasn't up and tell them they didn't want to get up. --- Then of coorifice it is in the nurses ball field that you are being directed to get a patient up even though they don't want to. Most nurses don't have the time to fool with it(like chasing CNAs that disappear). Chalk it down for lesson learned and if you have the same patients again you know better. The important thing the patient gets fed and you make sure thier bottoms are clean.

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Specializes in ltc.

point being that as a male cna i'm asked to get them up cause i feel it was assumed that i would just put them over in a chair. i think your inference of my story is wrong: i know experience pointers..the point is in ltc nurses in some cases i believe that a male cna is just a lifting machine when we are supoose to use hoyers if they are not 1 person assist

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:o Sorry! I do agree with you it is true men are looked at as lifting machines quite often on LTC. I have to say I love thoose hoyer lifts and I do think they should be used more often.
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I def think male cnas in ltc get the worst treatment. I saw it happen, there is no slack given and male cnas are supp to be I agree "lifting machines". I've known three males that started out full time and all went to under 20 hours a week because they got sick of it.

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Specializes in ltc.

A lot of the male cna s that i work with are prn like me to cause it seems the more hours you put @ one job the more they ask. I understand going above and beyond your duty , but outside of your scope of practice is absurd.thanx

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the point is in ltc nurses in some cases i believe that a male cna is just a lifting machine when we are supoose to use hoyers if they are not 1 person assist

When I went to school for CNA we had about a 10 min orientation about hoyer lifts. We gathered around one that was in a shower room while the instructor explained what it is for and the basics of using it. When I first started working as a CNA in nursing homes - I just followed the flow(2 person lifts all the time hoyer not used) until in one nursing home an excellent CNA who was a Hoyer Queen-also head CNA taught me. Thanks to her I took the skill with me to another facility and noticed other CNAs started using it as well (they thought the hoyers did not work). In the same facility it was by the direction of the head CNA who was a male to get him when we needed help to lift a patient.

Thanks for Venting - you have mad a good point.

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