aides that put your job on the line

[This message has been edited by lorrie (edited January 11, 2001).]

Lorrie,

If you read back through the posts, I think you will find that Butt-Wiper actually identified themselves as "Butt-Wiper" so those that post in reply have no other name to address the poster by. No One is running down nurses Aides. Most of what we are saying in this post is that we wish that our Aides would work within their scope of practice. I work in an all RN (only RN) unit, so I don't really have contact with anyone but RN's- but I used to be an aide, and have a lot of respect for them. However, since that person chose to be addressed as Butt-Wiper, what are we to call them? I think that says a lot about the respect that person has for themselves, rather than how other posters feel about it.

Thank you, Holly Kate, that was VERY tactfully put.

I have been away from the boards for a while, so I scrolled through this as the topic intriqued me. First I would like to say about the opening post: Does your facility have a privacy act????? Does your staff get inserviced on it????? And when someone breaches the confidentiality of a resident it is up to anyone who hears that breach to remind the person. That the discussion needs to move to a private area. Nurses need to not feel sabatoged, TEACH.

Then about the comment about reading a piece of paper and being able to give pills. I thought that after being an CNA for 6 years, so I enrolled in a BSN program at the age of 40, because "I only needed a piece of paper" to do the job of a nurse. Well that tells you how naive I was. I have now been an RN for 6 years. I am invited back to my college to speak because my final paper was my journey to seek a "piece of paper" which was my license, turned out to be a "piece of paper" my diploma from a BSN program.

I chose to become an RN because I did not want to lift and do the heavy work all day long. If someone does not like the work, change fields or pursue a degree, but never stray from the fact that the client is first and formost and his/her privacy is everyone's business.NA

Originally posted by erezebet:

I had an aide blurt out in front of another patient and his family that I had just given a drug that a patient was allergic to. Horrified, I felt stupid and looked in the chart to verify this. It was untrue.

Later I asked this aide "who told you he was allergic to that med?" "Oh, no one" she replied, "he was confused last time he took it."

This patient was always confused. And she wanted to know why I was so pissed off at her. She should know better having graduated from nursing school (she is an aid because she can't pass boards)

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Nursing assistant

Originally posted by fireandice:

I've been working everywhere. I once worked in a nursing home where nursing aides rules! They rule everybody, they act like they're in charge, and they arhue with the RN! Why? Because most of them had been working in the facility for years and even earned more than the RNs! Pathetic isn't it? Right now I am working in a hospital facility where our nursing aides work according to their job description, doing their job well, and recognize who's their bosses.

I have worked as a nurse aid for

over seven years. I have always shown my nurses repect. yes,nursing does require an education. I have an education although not in nursing. I hold an Associates and a

Bachelors degree in Criminal Justice and Behavioral Science. I think the real issue is

respect. Everyone wants respect from their coworkers and from their supervisors. It

does not matter how much education you have. True professionals bring people up with them. RN's are in a great position to have a positive influence on their cna's.

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Nursing assistant

Originally posted by susnel:

i am really unhappy to hear this because i am presently an aide and a nursing student. i hope that i always have sense enough to think before speaking. i just hope that this aide realized ALL of her mistakes in this situation and learned from them! sorry you had to go through this.

I have worked as a CNA for over seven years. I have always had respect for the nurses that I worked under. Working as a CNA is how I put myself through my Associates and Bachelors degree. I still work on call when needed. I do not think this is an education issue. I do feel that it is a respect issue. Every one wants to be treated with respect. Nurses are in a great position to be positive role models. True professionals bring people up with them!Remember their are other careers besides nursing. I studied criminal Justice and behavioral science.

Originally posted by teapot:

Nothing inflames me more than when aides start crying about nurses making more money than them and they can do our job.I hear it all the time. I've had aide's say, "I could start that IV or insert that foley catheter." Just because they have seen you do it a hundred times. Any moderately intelligent person can be trained to start IV's or foley's. They just don't get the point that you need the background knowledge that goes with the task.Most of these nurse-want-to-be's aren't able to

cut nursing school and pass the tests and they are just jealous. I hope butt wiper gets out of the medical field, because she is a bitter person and should not be inflicking her bitterness and negativity around her coworkers and the sick. I work with many CNA's that care about their patients and have respect for the nurses. We work together in harmony and help each other, but one's like butt wiper make everyone miserable.

I have worked as a nurse aid for over seven years. I have always had respect for the nurses. I put myself through my Associates degree and my Bachelors degree in criminal Justice by working as a nurses aid. I do not think this is an education issue. We all want respect and we want to know that what we do makes a difference. T

I have worked as a CNA for over seven years. I have always had respect for the nurses that I worked under. I do not feel this is an education issue. This is an issue of respect. We all want respect and we want to know that what we do makes a difference. In nursing we tend to put to much emphasis on our titles. I have earned both my Associates and my Bachelors degree in Criminal Justice. I work in a different field,but I still work on call as a CNA. Remember true professionals bring people up with them.

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Nursing assistant

I want to make some quick comments on NAC's, hope I can make them quick, it's late, should I say "early!"

I love it when I can work together with my NAC's. I depend on them so much to see and hear things I miss. They ask good questions sometimes, like when I am having tunnel vision, or distracted by the obvious, they have at times helped to get me on track to solve a problem. Some of these NAC's do these things naturally, some out of curiosity, some because they feel part of a team. I try to encourage the teamwork attitude, everyone benefits, especially our patients.

At the same time, I can be surprised what things they don't know about nursing basics, like the difference between 15 and 30 degrees(to elevate the head of the bed). I have had "critical thinking" NAC's, which I value. And then I have had just the "good hard worker" who does what she is told, or what she knows or feels her job to be, always asks when in doubt, and smiles and hardly ever complains. I have to teach her, redirect or correct her sometimes, but I would trade her for a smart NAC with a bad attitude anyday.

I had one NAC that thought she was smarter than the nurses (she had been an EMT),she was always telling the RN's what a patient needed, of course she didn't understand pathophysiology or drug action, which could have made her very dangerous, and she was too confident. Glad she thought she was too good to work in geriatric and found a "better" job!

One last thing, my NAC's are "my NAC's" they deserve my support and encouragement. I want to see them succeed and I want them to enjoy coming to work for me. I have had my insensitive moments (I think I provided the last straw to make one quit when I was a new LPN,) I hope to think as an RN with a little more experience I am learning to be an inspiring leader. I still don't handle correcting people when they are whiny and backbiting.

but I love my NAC's, and when their eyes are bugging out, or their tongues are hanging out in exhaustion, I call my husband to deliver us all mochas!

Oh, one last thing, I used to have trouble asking them to do things I could do...I too was once an aide...but as I tell my patients, " I may be able to do the things that the aides do, but they can't do the things I do..." And also, when the shift is over, they get to go home, I still have piles of paper work, etc, and don't leave for 2-3 more hours!

Originally posted by moonshadeau:

I don't know where buttwiper works to think that s/he can do as much as an RN. I was an aide for several years before deciding to go on to nursing school. Yes, aide work was very hard. But it makes you appreciate your aides more if you have done the work yourself. On my hospital floor, I am very fortunate to have very good aides. However, one thing that I would like to point out is that an aide usually gets to leave the floor for smoking breaks, lunch and other various breaks. Plus, almost always have I seen aides leave at their scheduled time. Myself, lunches are a 5 minute stuff your face and breaks are non-existant. So yes, aides do have a hard time, but let me tell you that in comparison to the responsiblity of the patients in administering 10-15 meds to one patient at a time and having to watch for interaction/allergies. Making sure that the patient is safe in all aspects. Because if something goes wrong with that patient it usually is the nurse that they go after not the aide. Just food for thought.