A Jacked Up Situation

Nursing Students CNA/MA

Published

Specializes in ltc.

In the future companies are going to have to stop this from happening to employees.All of my CNA career until this last job I never know what bullying was until I got to my previous job.My situation is I'm a male CNA and my demographic is 18-24 crowd so there are only 11 percent of us out there even working in long term care(ltc) so i guess you can call it a minority in its own . I didn't want to be a dominating figure at this now that being said I work mainly with women and the authority figures(RN and LPN) are in position I never would have thought of in my mind that they have controlling power over how I work . So @ the job I performed just like everyone else until a chance encounter w/ one of the "pretty"(her personal opinion of herself) nurses and she didn't do her job properly but I'm one of thos people who goes w/ the flow unless it compromises me or job requirements. So there where two of us working on the midnight shift :the facility I worked @ is about 120 beds and normally i work alone b/c the other cna doesn't do the same routine as me: so I took on the task of taking care of my half of the patients giving them ice and etc..The other cna I can't quote on what they did ,but they sure didn't help me and i assisted them w/ the usual turns and etc I never mind that, but I never took a break and the two Lpns and this cna took numerous breaks and i never questioned that cause like I said I go with the flow .So around five in the month I finally go take me lunch and the "pretty" LPN states "If you don't return to the floor and help the other cna : I"ll write you up." So me being me I seat back further in my seat and respond cause I know while on my lunch break it isn't anything insubordinate abut responding while off the clock so I tell her no and cite all the numerous time her and the other nurse stop off the floor and neither answered a call light that night or asked if we(CNA) needed any help. So we got into an arguement I was wrong for that so she wrote me up . Myself not knowing the lasting consequence of my encounter with her: the write up never went anywhere and was quickly disposed of by the don for reasons I don't know. So for a two months I noticed there was a trio to this "pretty" nurse group. I played my part by working in the other part of the building but once I was pulled to this side of the building one of the three nurse would watch me carefully trying to find something to write me up for on the first occasion of being pulled one of three wrote me up and instead of fighting I took the write up because I had no support behind me on the issues . Comapny policy is to sign the write up but the disclaimer is it isn't admission of guilt thats a line of bull. So for another month or so I didn't get pulled then one saturday I got pulled and recieved another write up. Now the RNs who handled the write ups waited two weeks to give me the write up(for reasons I don't know) so this time I didn't sign it because the write was ths same write up before and I know it was one of the trio who cited me and this time they had no cause, but the nurses didn't want to hear my side so I went back to work and dwell on the issues but I decide to quit cause for once in my CNA career and this is the second time of having an issue with the company I worked(i previous worked for them at another facility but I left). So I decide to investigate some more and my fiance left because of similiar issues and a male cna who fits into my demographic left the same facility so that finally convinced me that the problem wasn't me because I took the stance of following the company motto and policies. So then I questioned if I was meant for the field and I remember what my LPN instructor told me and it is if a house is not home when you get there then it isn't home nor is it a house : it is just a building . Her next remark was that a nursing home is like a basketball team some are good , some are great , some are downright horrible. Then I did some research and found the problem was natonwide : not doing my research I left the number one nursing facility chain for the number three based on 2005 results so know I realize the problem was really more than meets the eye.So if anyone ever has a similiar problem check who you work for if I had done this maybe I would have saved myself from incident.

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Wait what? What were the problems? Why did they write you up? I'm interested in your story, but I'm not sure I understand it...

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Specializes in ltc.

She wrote me up the first time for not returning to work area when prompted by supervisor: she tried to pull me from my lunch break when everyone else took theirs:and there was no apparent need for me on the floor. The second and three write ups were cited as being care issues. The problem w/ the situation was that I normally worked in the south portion of the building and never had any problems, but once I went to the north end and work under one of "three nurses" tried to find something wrong with the way I worked. The reason for the post is to make new CNA and people thinking about becoming CNA that this job is like any other job in the sense that people will try to compromise you if you don't fit int their scheme of things or go with their flow thats all.

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Not trying to be flip - and I'm interested in reading your story.

But, you need to break it down in paragraphs. Be concise. Your asking us to do a lot of reading here...

Sorry if this comes across rude or as threadjacking.

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Specializes in ltc.

in the future companies are going to have to stop this from happening to employees.all of my cna career until this last job i never know what bullying was until i got to my previous job.my situation is i'm a male cna and my demographic is 18-24 crowd so there are only 11 percent of us out there even working in long term care(ltc) so i guess you can call it a minority in its own . i didn't want to be a dominating figure at this now that being said i work mainly with women and the authority figures(rn and lpn) are in position i never would have thought of in my mind that they have controlling power over how i work . so @ the job i performed just like everyone else until a chance encounter w/ one of the "pretty"(her personal opinion of herself) nurses and she didn't do her job properly but i'm one of thos people who goes w/ the flow unless it compromises me or job requirements. so there where two of us working on the midnight shift :the facility i worked @ is about 120 beds and normally i work alone b/c the other cna doesn't do the same routine as me: so i took on the task of taking care of my half of the patients giving them ice and etc..

the other cna i can't quote on what they did ,but they sure didn't help me and i assisted them w/ the usual turns and etc i never mind that, but i never took a break and the two lpns and this cna took numerous breaks and i never questioned that cause like i said i go with the flow .so around five in the month i finally go take me lunch and the "pretty" lpn states "if you don't return to the floor and help the other cna : i"ll write you up." so me being me i seat back further in my seat and respond cause i know while on my lunch break it isn't anything insubordinate abut responding while off the clock so i tell her no and cite all the numerous time her and the other nurse stop off the floor and neither answered a call light that night or asked if we(cna) needed any help. so we got into an arguement i was wrong for that so she wrote me up . myself not knowing the lasting consequence of my encounter with her: the write up never went anywhere and was quickly disposed of by the don for reasons i don't know. so for a two months i noticed there was a trio to this "pretty" nurse group. i played my part by working in the other part of the building but once i was pulled to this side of the building one of the three nurse would watch me carefully trying to find something to write me up for on the first occasion of being pulled one of three wrote me up and instead of fighting i took the write up because i had no support behind me on the issues . comapny policy is to sign the write up but the disclaimer is it isn't admission of guilt thats a line of bull. so for another month or so i didn't get pulled then one saturday i got pulled and recieved another write up. now the rns who handled the write ups waited two weeks to give me the write up(for reasons i don't know) so this time i didn't sign it because the write was ths same write up before and i know it was one of the trio who cited me and this time they had no cause, but the nurses didn't want to hear my side so i went back to work and dwell on the issues but i decide to quit cause for once in my cna career and this is the second time of having an issue with the company i worked(i previous worked for them at another facility but i left). so i decide to investigate some more and my fiance left because of similiar issues and a male cna who fits into my demographic left the same facility so that finally convinced me that the problem wasn't me because i took the stance of following the company motto and policies.

so then i questioned if i was meant for the field and i remember what my lpn instructor told me and it is if a house is not home when you get there then it isn't home nor is it a house : it is just a building . her next remark was that a nursing home is like a basketball team some are good , some are great , some are downright horrible. then i did some research and found the problem was natonwide : not doing my research i left the number one nursing facility chain for the number three based on 2005 results so know i realize the problem was really more than meets the eye.so if anyone ever has a similiar problem check who you work for if i had done this maybe i would have saved myself from incident.

does that work for you?

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Long story - and thanks for sharing. I work Agency so I have been to more Nursing Homes than I can count. I have noticed that the ones that have poor work ethics, bullies, CNAs not working together as a team when needed, negative cliques, bad attitudes also have high turn-over rates. Homes where these problems do not exist or are very minimal and they are cleaner, more organized, patients get a higher level of quality care. The patient ratios have been the about the same in all homes however the work load seems to be so much easier when working with people that don't have issues. Naturaly homes where the nurses and cna's have a good working ralationship - they seldom call agency. Go figure that is also why they seldom have job openings as well.

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Specializes in LTC, Home Health.

I have been in your shoes before. I completely empathize with your situation.

I once worked for "clique-ish" Nursing Home. The Personnel office took a liking to me when they hired me so they put me on a floor that only senior CNA's/RN's were sent to. Basically, the CNA's that been there for many years or were close to retirement went to this floor because of the "light" work. Soon as the staff they saw my fresh young face, there were problems. They were very jealous and vendictive. No more than 2 weeks later, I got a write up from the Charge Nurse, based on what a CNA said about me.(this CNA was also Senior Union Shop Stewart!!!) The write up had at least 5 different issues. The DON threw away the write up, and apologized to me for their behavior. She said that they do this to the new or young girls who work over there. She also told me I could switch floors immediately if I wanted to. Being the strong empowered woman that I am, I said "Nope, I'm staying". I also reminded her what she & I confirmed was a form of age discrimination & that she needed to reiterate that to the Nurse and CNA before there were legal issues. She agreed she needed to talk to the Charge Nurse about my write up. Apparently, the DON had issues with so many things being on the write up-none of the issues were previously discussed with me so that I could rectify them. (I was a new CNA grad). Also, unbeknownst to me, she sent a RN to watch me for a week before I was confronted about the write up. The RN said I was an excellent employee, and that she cited no issues whatsoever with the care I gave. Plus the residents loved me!:redpinkhe

This place had a turnover rate so high, there was a new training class every month.

Sorry to rant on, I can sooo relate!:wink2:

Sometimes you get picked on unfairly. Especially if you are new to a place that has a lot of cliques. it's easy to say quit but it's hard to do if you have pride. However, when it comes to getting written up to the point where your job and your certificate are on the line, I say leave or talk to someone above them about whats happening. No one should have the right to take ypoithat away from you. When your in a position where the immature parties so happen be supervisors, it's a losing battle. I stayed for 2 years until I decided to look for another job. Not all places are not like that. They have good ones, and bad ones. It's really hard to find the good ones because when people get hired, they don't leave!

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