Bossy CNA's in LTC(long)

Blackcat99 · Dec 23, 2004

It seems that some CNA's in LTC just don't care about their co-workers problems just their own. Maybe if you have a decent DON you can discuss the problem with her and see what she suggests?

jaimemds · Dec 23, 2004

Thanks, did I mention that she has been counseled several times for her "mouth" and even put on final notice, so she behaves for a couple weeks and then goes right back to being herself. Also, she and the unit manager are good friends!

Blackcat99 · Dec 23, 2004

Sorry to hear that the unit manager and her are good friends. Well, everyone has a boss and if your unit manager won't help perhaps you can try the unit manager's boss? Start writing the CNA up or keep some kind of record of her behavior so you will have something in writing. Good luck. I had a CNA years ago who drove me crazy. I talked to management and they put him on a different shift. That didn't work out so they said they were sending him back to my shift. I told them if he was coming back to my shift that I was leaving the facility period. Believe it or not, I didn't get him back on my shift. However, there are CNA's at my present job who have been their for years and who always work a lot of overtime for them. They are the "untouchables" it seems who can do anything they want. :angryfire

Fiona59 · Dec 23, 2004

It's all so true. I had one NA who was just plain nasty!! but she got an employee of the year award from our Care Manager.

She made sure when families were around she was the angel of care. Treated LPN's like cr*p. Would stand there and question why we were administring meds or doing the tube feeds a certain way. "My daughter, the student RN" were her favourite words. "Ru sure its done that way". No matter what you said to the care manager, it was always ur problem, "X has been here forever and the patients love her" Well, yeah, they don't have to work with her.

It was her chair in report, she would stare anyone who sat there out of it. I managed to sit there by mistake one day and boy did I pay for it. No help with two person transfers, no bells answered by her that day.

Someone told me she was like that outside as well, they nearly got rammed by her at the stop sign and were rwarded with the one finger salute by her!

Why is managment never around when these things happen??

lastkiss32 · Dec 24, 2004

Have had similair problems a few , but if they have been there forever you might as well hang it up they are always right and you are wrong

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Dec 24, 2004

I remember the type.......but you know what, hospitals have them too! Just yesterday I had a run-in with one CNA who is actually a terrific patient advocate, but has a way of going beyond her scope of practice and making the nurse look bad. A patient's family had some questions regarding a proposed procedure that could easily have been answered by me, but this girl went around me and had the unit secretary page the MD, who called me back demanding to know why he'd been paged when I knew perfectly well he'd just been in to see the patient and had answered all their questions! There I was, standing there trying to sound intelligent, when I had NO IDEA what he was talking about......naturally, he was not happy with me, and I had no choice but to take the a$$bite because I couldn't very well tell him my CNA had been the one to have him paged. I already looked incompetent enough......I didn't think he needed to hear I couldn't even manage my assistant. :angryfire

First thing, I told the US never to page an MD on a CNA's say-so, then I took the aide aside and told her she was out of line---going over the nurse's head to page an MD was beyond her scope of practice, and I didn't appreciate being embarrassed that way. I probably should have written her up, or at the very least reported the incident to the department manager, but I'm used to handling these things myself, and since this aide really is an excellent worker, I didn't want her to get into trouble. But darned if she didn't cop an attitude.........I've worked with this aide at three different facilities, and she's saved my butt more than once, but that doesn't give her the right to pull such a stunt and in fact I'm STILL pissed about it.

PBAJS · Dec 24, 2004

jaimemds

i have also seen that happen ... between an lpn who has more years at the ltc than the cna.

after hearing the belittlement and disrespectful comments by the cna repeatedly, i asked the lpn why she doesn't do anything about it. she said it has been happening for a long time. the lpn said that she decided years ago she was not going to "lower herself to the level" of the cna and talks to the cna only when absolutely necessary.

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stbernardclub · Dec 24, 2004

You should have just came right out and asked...what seems to be your problem? Then of course this smart *** probably would have said she didn't have one..You could then say, well if you change your mind about discussing it, we can sit down with the boss and talk about it !!

tiroka03, LPN · Dec 24, 2004

It has taken me a long time to learn this lesson: When a person speaks to you disrespectfully, or uses nasty words or tries to bully you, that means they don't have to compacity to understand tact and respect back. They need to be responded to in kind because it is all they understand. I know normally most people don't want to respond in this manner, but again, its the only thing those kind of people understand. When I say those kind of people, I mean rude, selfish, pig headed ect.

lovingtheunloved, ASN, RN · Dec 24, 2004

Whoo-hoo. I'm a CNA. Can't imagine talking to nurses that way. I do remember ONE time that I outright demanded a nurse to do something. She was filing her nails while a lady in a geri chair was fixing to leap out of it and smack her head on the floor, and said nurse refused to help lift the rather large woman into bed so she wouldn't kill herself. I was rather insistent. Other than that incident, the nurse is the boss, not the other way around. Hence the title nursing assistant/

Nursebaby23 · Dec 24, 2004

Man, there are some CNA's employed where I work that do not only think they know more than nurses, but the doctors that make rounds also. I am a new nurse, so I'm still tackling the whole "delegation" thing. It does not work to be a B#$%^ toward a CNA, it does not work to be their friend. A happy medium must exist somewhere in the CNA/Nurse contiunum. I think what pisses me off the most is when it's time to chart, everybody is clustered around the desk shootin' the breeze while you're trying to give the anxious "get the hell up I need to chart look" and they don't pay you any attention. One of our CNA's told another nurse at the facility "Do you expect me to get up just because what you have to write is more important that what I'm doing? Well, duh! Maybe just a little. I think the majority of CNA's that hate nurses are ones that tried nursing school and flunked out. I think good CNAs are truly angels. It's all about working together. When CNA's dislike a nurse there is a total breakdown in communication. I can say that I'm very happy with the CNA's on my shift. They work very hard and they will be getting a very good Christmas present from me this year:Present1: . Maybe this is the time to show those nasty CNA's that good ones get presents and nasty ones get a lump of coal:o