But all the Nurse is doing is sitting down. Why cant the help?

[downsouthlaff, LPN]

Im an LTC Floor Nurse/Charge Nurse. Im an LPN and i have 41 patients on a brutally busy 3pm-11pm shift in a busy rural nursing home. But i wasnt always....

For nearly four years, from the ripe age of 16 and a half to the age of 20, i was a Male CNA in the LTC Enviroment. I remember all the demands and physically exhausting shifts of turning, changing , getting endless vitals on heavy patients. Feeding patients. Working short. Low pay. Broken back. Little respect. CNAs i get you. Ive been there. I understand. But what do i miss? 2pm-10pm met 2pm-10pm. In between rounds i was able to sit down, eat, socialize with co workers and basically have little emotiomal stress. There was no staying 2-3 hours over.

Flashforward! Im a 20 year old male Nurse who is still considered a kid by most residents. Recently at one of the CNA staff meetings one of the Aides made the comment. Of why cant the Nurse help ? All they do is pass meds for two hours and sit on there lazy butt for 6? That burned me up. CNAs in LTC, you must understand! Being a Nurse means!

1. We are responsible for these residents well being and life, and have a professional license bound by the board of nursing to protect. When residents fall, or get injured because of your carelessness, we have to stay 30 minutes over to complete a thorough incident report to cover our own behind. I know its not always your fault but when your sitting on the hall reading fifty shades of gray, and the fall risk bed is 10 feet high in the air, the bed alarm is turned off, well heck ?

2. Upon clocking in for our shift, us Nurses already have about 8 hours and 15 minutes of work cut out for us. That is without anything extra that may come up, like an incident, new physician orders, or god forbid a 2 hour complex full 3-11 LTC Admit.

We have to complete about 2 hpurs worth of time consuming Medication Admin Record on computer. Roughly about 10-12 Narrative Nurses Notes that determines whether or not the facility will get paid for the services they provide. On 3-11 a Treatment record. We have to chart on active incident reports. Notify family members of changes. Reorder medications. Handle facility conflicts. The list goes on and on. Its a mentally draining and exhausting overwhelmong kind of fatigue that no CNA will ever understand unless there sitting behind that nurses station as a Licensed Nurse having to make mentally draining independent decisions. And yes we are sitting down. But this does not mean that we are not slammed and drowning trying to complete very important documentation.

3. Management. We are all being scolded about overtime. A Nurse needs every free moment he or she can to even take a stab at finishing in 8 hours. Very rarely do CNAs work for eight straight hours without breakinh and clock out more than 15 minutes after shift change. So when a Nurse teels you to hold on there very busy, they more than likely are. And you must understand that while flying out the building after 8 hours the nurse may be staying anothet hour or two or heck even three to finish up crucial documentation, and them get accused of just riding the clock by management.

Message to CNAs from a used to be turned nurse. When a Nurse delegates to you , and you feel rudely interupted from reading your book, or socializing with co workers, dont roll your eyes, stump your feet, mouth off , becuse you think the nurse is just being lazy. I can tell you as an ex CNA now Nurse, you truly have no way to understand what the nurse is going through and workload and responsibilty placed on Floor Nurses in LTC. So dont judge. Just do, you will still have plenty time to socialize and clock out on time.

But we truly thank you CNAs for what you do. And the help you provide us. Without you guys we would be responsible for the total care of 40 patients. I dont even wanna see that dark day.

[Oceanpacific]

I think your post comes off as being pretty condescending and I really don't think you meant it that way at all. Venting is completely understandable, but you are bashing CNAs. It's not ok just because you were a CNA previously or that you include one supportive statement at the end.

[cardiacfreak, ADN]

I am a CNA turned nurse too,but I work in a hospital, I getcha Downsouth.

From Upnorth.

[shesanurse]

I am a LVN and a CNA once told me that there should be a "law" that nurses should help the CNAs with bedside care because according to her it is part of the nurse's job. I agree that it is part of the nurse's job. But with the super overwhelming job duties lined up for the nurse i doubt it if we still have the time to spare for that. That is why we have CNAs to delegate tasks that can be delegated to them. If nurses will do everything including their job... then what else will be left for them to do? Plus we nurses might not be able to finish everything that were expected from us... tasks and duties that are far more important than assisting CNAs with bedside care. I am not generalizing but that comment from the CNA made me mad from the inside... just venting out, because i didn't say a word to her about her statement, don't want us to have comflicts, i just kept it to myself.

[cardiacfreak, ADN]

tasks and duties that are far more important than assisting CNAs with bedside care.

I don't think you meant it in a harsh way, but all care is important from turning every 2 hours to charting assessments.

[shesanurse]

Was just at the peak of my emotion last night... i am ok now. :)

[jojo489]

Downsouth, I completely get where you're coming from, although I do think your post came across as a little...edgy? Snippy? I'm not sure what word I'm looking for. But only at certain points.

Previously being a CNA, I'm sure in your nurse role you do help your aides as you can, with boosts and the like. I've always done that as well.

Ive had a few CNAs give me the eye roll before, but the thing that I heard from the vast majority of them was, "I'm glad I'm not a nurse, I could never deal with that kind of stress."

But I must say, I think I've been pretty blessed in my career because I have had mostly wonderful CNAs who were very understanding and extremely helpful. One of them in particular would even lift my spirits after a phone call where a particular family often tore me apart.

[NurseQT]

I feel ya OP!! I worked as a CNA in both an acute care setting as well as LTC, so I know and fully understand that I'd be lost as a nurse without my team of CNAs. A long time ago, after a pretty crazy shift, one of my nurses said to me "thank you for all your help tonight". it was out of the blue and unexpected, but to this day I remember how good it made me feel to know I was appreciated. I always try to do the same for my CNAs. I have also told my CNAs if they need help don't hesitate to ask me! I'm more then happy to help with a boost, repositioning, a transfer, ect ect.. I'm lucky enough to be working with a pretty good team. BUT I have worked with CNAs that expect the nurses to be answering lights and toileting their residents just as much as they do. I am more then aware that answering lights is EVERYONE'S job, but if I'm in the middle of my 3 hour long med pass and am currently getting a resident's 19+ a.m. pills ready I can't simply stop, leave the pill cards sitting on top of my med cart to go take someone to the bathroom. It's not because I'm lazy or that I think toileting a resident is beneath me, it's because I don't want to make a med error or have to explain why a card of pills is missing.

I did recently work at a facility where the CNAs felt entitled and expected the nurses to help them with rounds! On one particular noc when I was the only nurse in the building with four CNAs (for around 40 residents), I was trying to do the early a.m. med pass, which I was behind on and after I gave one resident her pill she said she needed to go to the bathroom. Now, the CNA was in THE SAME ROOM finishing up with the roommate, I guess I made the mistake of assuming that since the CNAs were doing rounds and the aide was in the room she would be helping this patient next. So I told the patient that the CNA would assist her in just a moment and then let the CNA know just in case she hadn't heard the resident, I then continued with my med pass. A short time later the CNA stopped me in the hall and questioned me as to why I didn't toilet that particular resident and said "or don't you help with things like toileting?!" Wait, whaaaat??!! So I asked her if she would like to pass some of my meds while so toilet some of her residents! I then pointed out that I was trying to do a med pass and that I am more then happy to help when they're swamped. But when they're not busy do not expect that I will put my own work on hold to do yours. Don't mean to sound harsh but it's irritating to help and then watch as that person clocks out on time and I'm staying over to finish my own work!

[Red Kryptonite]

Where is this magical job where CNAs get to read books or socialize on the clock?

I do clearly remember nurses at my hospital job who ignored call lights and had Sandals resorts or high end handbag websites open on their desktops.....so that knife can cut both ways.

[Pangea Reunited, ASN, RN]

My previous job made one serious attempt to stop that type of behavior. We were put on "teams" and no member of the team left until all members of the team were finished. So nurses could stop their charting and walk patients to the bathroom while CNAs watched movies or took yet another lunch break, but the CNAs had to stay late while the charting got finished.

The system didn't last long, for obvious reasons, but it did get through to some people while it lasted.

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

I had an aha moment at work. We are scheduled primary care on our unit more and more frequently. Five to six to one primary care is crazy busy.

If I don't answer a call light in a timely fashion because I'm busy, I might get reprimanded. If I don't pass HS snacks and patients complain, I might get reprimanded and my name won't make it to the kudos board.

If I make a nursing error that results in serious patient harm, my job is probably gone and my license threatened.

If it seems unfair that I have more seat time than our CNAs, what's at risk should be considered.

[heather7781, BSN, RN]

For me the problem is when I'm given an attitude, like I'm a jerk, because the cna had to do her job. Just like most other people have said I am happy to help when I have time to. But when I'm busting my butt to care for my patients I really can not accept being scolded by the cna. Which did happen to me recently. She took me aside to ask me why I hadn't cleaned a room and she had to do it. Let me mention that this CNA took a postion as a housekeeper on the unit and no longer even does pt care. The pt's iv site bleed after being removed and she dripped some blood on the floor. I did use a towel and wipe it up but according to this cna I missed some. I must have apologized at least five times. "I'm sorry. I really thought I got it all" and so on. I got the eye roll and told that I'm a jerk because she would never leave a room that way. Not cool. What happened to professionalism and doing your job.