Anyone making the transition from CNA to RN on a unit?

elkpark · Aug 9, 2005

Unfortunately, it is human nature that the people who are used to working with you as a CNA are going to have a v. hard time getting used to you in a different role. It is the same kind of conflict/dilemma that arises when a staff nurse gets promoted into a managerial position on the same unit s/he has been working on all along, and the former peers are suddenly the subordinates ...

That's why the "textbook" advice for this kind of situation is that you make a fresh start in a new setting -- is it possible for you to transfer to a position on another unit within the same facility, where you would be working with people who have not known you as a CNA (or, at least, not known you well)? If you could do that for a while, you could perhaps transfer back to your original unit (if it's really important to you to be working there) after some time has passed and the dynamics of the original unit would have shifted a little, and you could start sort-of-fresh there ... If you have good/competent bosses, they should be sensitive to the potential problems in this situation and be open to coming up with an alternative for you (really competent management would have anticipated this and offered you a different unit ...).

Congratulations on becoming a nurse, and best wishes --

christvs, DNP, RN, NP · Aug 9, 2005

Before I became an RN I worked as a float nursing assistant at the hospital I'm at now for 2.5 years. Then last Jan-May I was doing my senior student internship on one of the med/surg units. Now I'm a new RN back onto that same unit I was both an aide & a nursing student on. The nurses on my floor all treat me great but the only thing is, every now and then one of them will slip & say (to someone who doesn't know me) "Oh, that's Christine the student......oh! I mean nurse! She's a nurse now!" I used to feel annoyed but honestly now I laugh about it. I'm slowly feeling like a nurse so that's all that matters really, right? :) What kinds of things do the other nurses on your unit try to have you do? Hopefully in time they will forget you were a tech & will focus on you-the nurse. Good luck. :)

-Christine

RaeT,RN · Aug 9, 2005

Thanks for your support! I know it will just take time. Most of them are not the kind that get the authority trip and delegate just because they can - you know the type - and I think it just will take seeing me as the nurse with my pts. A couple of them had caught themselves about to ask me to do something and then apologized for it. Really what happened today was that my preceptor and I did not have a pt the last few hours of the day (I work in L&D - sorry, didn't make to mean you salivate over having no pts! :chuckle ) and I really just reverted to helping all the other nurses on the floor. Now, there is nothing wrong with that, and I hope they would do the same for me . . . I just was mad at myself for falling into that role and not really thinking about it. I don't know what I thought I was at the end of when I finished school. The end is truly the beginning in every sense. Glad I have this forum to vent in such a transitional time! Thanks again!

dlhommer · Aug 10, 2005

I was an aid on the same unit that I now work as a nurse. I don't find that the nurses can't remember that I am a nurse, but the other aids often forget. It will just take some time. for the most part I found the staff very supportive and excited for me in my new role on the unit.

Deb :nurse:

krob0729 · Aug 10, 2005

Unfortunately, it is human nature that the people who are used to working with you as a CNA are going to have a v. hard time getting used to you in a different role. It is the same kind of conflict/dilemma that arises when a staff nurse gets promoted into a managerial position on the same unit s/he has been working on all along, and the former peers are suddenly the subordinates ...
That's why the "textbook" advice for this kind of situation is that you make a fresh start in a new setting -- is it possible for you to transfer to a position on another unit within the same facility, where you would be working with people who have not known you as a CNA (or, at least, not known you well)? If you could do that for a while, you could perhaps transfer back to your original unit (if it's really important to you to be working there) after some time has passed and the dynamics of the original unit would have shifted a little, and you could start sort-of-fresh there ... If you have good/competent bosses, they should be sensitive to the potential problems in this situation and be open to coming up with an alternative for you (really competent management would have anticipated this and offered you a different unit ...).
Congratulations on becoming a nurse, and best wishes --

With this I have to agree. When I was days from graduating I went by the LTC facility to take a graduation invite to the whole place. As soon as I walked in the door, the Admin grabbed me by the hand and asked if I had found a job yet. When I said no, he immediately took me to the DON's office and told her to give me a job. I just sorta looked at her like...'crap, i'm sorry, but i don't want an application'. I didn't say anything, but took the application home. I would love to work there again as far as the nurses go because they never really treated me as a cna. They encouraged me to go to nrsng school. It's the CNA's (some of them) that I don't want to work with because they will view me nothing more than a CNA and will treat me as such. I opted for somewhere else for sanity sake. Wouldn't u know it, the first night i was there on my own as CN my aide was a former coworker at this other place. :rotfl: She has been great though and respects me as a nurse and vice versa. Good luck to you....

**RosesrReder, BSN, MSN, RN** · Aug 10, 2005

Hello and welcome to the family of allnurses. Good luck to you.