clueless coworker

[fuzzywuzzy]

This person is nice, caring, hardworking, and always willing to help when asked. But no one can stand working with her because she's so clueless. I have to work with her all the time and I think it's starting to burn me out. I'm losing patience with her, and she's noticed. I'm looking for advice on how to deal with her nicely without eventually exploding. I also just need to vent!

The other day her and another CNA (who NEVER works this wing and had no idea what to do with anyone) took one end of the hall. Normally the residents eat supper in their rooms, but we've recently gotten slammed with a lot of feeds/total supervision with meals, so now we have around 7 people to wheel into the dining room so they can be supervised all at once. I highlighted all the feeds on a sheet of paper and reminded this person to make sure they put all theirs in wheelchairs so they could be brought down to the dining room quickly. She made a comment about me ordering her around.

I wasn't trying to be bossy, but if I hadn't said anything, she wouldn't have done it. She's not lazy, she just doesn't think. Everyday I have to tell her who the showers are, or she'll put them all to bed without realizing it. This is with everything. When she works, others end up doing half her assignment because for one thing, she's slow with HS care, and on top of that, she's completely disorganized. Most of the residents on this wing are pretty alert, and they all get p*ssed off at her. She wastes your time by asking you for help and then not showing up or not being prepared. She's always wandering off somewhere. She doesn't know anyone's name. We constantly have to make suggestions to her about how to manage her time.

Later on the same day I asked her for help toileting a 2-assist. When I said the person's name i got a blank stare and a "who?" I repeated the name a few times (this resident did NOT just show up yesterday). She agreed to help me so I started down the hall, turned around, and saw her going into someone else's room. I thought "oh crap she's already distracted by something else" and went to go get her. She's in the room getting that resident ready to sit on the commode. I said "can we do my resident first because she's jumping in her seat and REALLY has to go." I get another confused look. It turns out that she thought I was talking about someone else the whole time. These people have COMPLETELY different names and live in rooms at different ends. I don't know how on Earth she heard what I said and had this other person come to mind.

So, basically, she drives us nuts. We all have plenty of our own work to do without having to waste time waiting around for her or following behind her getting everything in order while she runs around in circles. WHAT DO WE DO WITH HER?

[caliotter3]

she is either passive aggressive, and a consumate actress; or she has processing problems......i would think she needs a neuro psych eval.....

I have worked with many a CNA (and others) who used the "dumb and stupid" ploy successfully to avoid productive work. Not saying that is the case here. This is a problem for the supervisors to be aware of and to deal with. Expecting too much for the other CNAs to work around this person's inability to do the job.

[moonchild20002000]

Are you her supervisor or co-worker?

You said she was hard working and helpful...wonder whats going on?

Could she be hard of hearing? Does she read well or maybe not at all?

If she had a proper orientation sounds like there are areas that need to be retaught.

She may need to have her duties written down and she could use that like a check sheet.

She may need to have several days working with you and basically be retrained.

You need to have a discussion with the charge nurse about the situation.Good luck!

[fuzzywuzzy, CNA]

I'm her coworker. We're both CNAs but she's older than me and has been a CNA longer, and has been working at this facility a little bit longer than me, but others have said that she's always been scatterbrained. I really believe that she is NOT just playing dumb to get out of work. The best way to be lazy is to whip through your assignment giving half-assed care and then go sit behind the desk the rest of the night ignoring call lights, taking an extra long break, and then avoid doing any side work. She's not like that. She just has no common sense. I know that from helping her. She doesn't keep track of how much time something is taking her, everything takes forever, and doesn't think ahead.

Like last night I was helping her do HS care on a guy with bed/chair alarms- assist of 2. He was constantly oozing poop so we decided to put him to bed with a brief on. She never put a brief in the room beforehand so she went out to get one. At the last minute I yelled out for her to get a spit cup for oral care (they're in the same room as the briefs). She brought me the cup but no brief- oops, forgot! Had to go leave again to get the brief. She never came back. I finished washing the guy up, brushed his teeth, etc. Still no sign of her, and I couldn't leave him alone on the commode by himself. I leaned out in the hallway and asked another coworker where she was and she said she saw her going into another person's room with the brief. So SHE helped me put the guy in bed so I could leave. The crappy coworker had seen the other person's light come on, and instead of taking the 2 seconds to come back and finish the job that we started, she forgot all about it and went in there. That's a typical thing for her. I could rattle off a hundred similar examples.