Cna or Activity Director Advice?

tonicareer · Aug 5, 2004

Still looking for replys.

P_RN, ADN, RN · Aug 5, 2004

No type of education is ever wasted. Learning CNA skills would also help in being an activity director. When you get the activity director position, they don't have to know you took CNA lessons. Heck I have an Assoc in Secretarial , was a telephone operator, an worked in a car repair business but new employers don't have to know that.

Use your degree the best way possible. Good luck and Live Long and Prosper!.

meggers · Nov 15, 2005

This issue has it's pros and cons. I started as a CNA 10 yrs. ago. Three years into that I was promoted to Restorative and ran the dept. pretty much, then 3 yrs. ago I became an activity director. The benefit is the ability to beable to move residents, walk take them to and from activities. The disadvantage, is sometimes if a lot of "call ins" you may get pulled to do CNA work. I am probably pretty lucky, as I do not get pulled much, however, I have to admit, when the past activity directors rounded residents up, it used to burn the CNA's when they would "tell" them to bring so and so...or pull the call lights in the rooms and leave. Granted the Activity Director's were NOT CNA's. Me, myself being a CNA, and fairly young (29) I have found that relating to them, and them knowing I was a CNA, lending a hand now and then to help then, answering call lights for them, gets me further than pulling a string and barking out orders. I don't know if you work in a small or large facility may make a difference to. I would suggest talking to the administrator and DON and telling them how you feel, and that your having a battle with deciding what's best. Let them know you are considering it, and how much of a benefit it would be, but if it's abused by them pulling you to the floor, or having you "feed" daily...that that is something you could possibly do now and then, and in desperate measures. You really cannot hide being a CNA. The other CNA's know who can and cannot do certain things w/ residents, such as walk w/ residents who need asst. Lying to them, per say, is't a good start. I believe that any DON and Admin. would respect you even more for coming to them, and explaining your concerns. And most importantly, we are there for the Residents...every person who works in a nursing home should be there for the residents...the more certifications you have, the more opportunity you have to get to know your residents, and become an advocate for them. In the 10 yrs. I have worked at this one Nursing Home, I would say I have seen Act. Staff come and go, and staff get flustered, and upset, because of the Act. Coord. not being able to help get her own people to activities. It has a lot to do with if you have enough trust in your team mates, if you can come across to the CNA's as sincere...and approach them with will you help me, do you have time to help me? And do not take "charge" over them.

Hope that helps. Let me know how it turns out. It's interesting to see how different places opperate.

Cute_CNA, CNA · Nov 15, 2005

Careful. I get the feeling that if they expect you to become a CNA, then they will probably expect you to act as a CNA at times. In other words, I suspect that not only will you act as an A.D., but also as a CNA for activities of daily living (ADL), and neither will be exclusive of the other. It's sneaky.

If you don't want to do CNA work, you should find out if you will be helping with ADL, or if you will mainly act as an activities director.

boulergirl, CNA · Dec 20, 2005

I can give you my observations.

We have two Activity Directors where I work:

One has experience working in daycare, and currently does activities with residents in the Alzheimer's unit. The other, who is in charge of the department, has a journalism background and works primarily with the assisted-living folks.

The one who works in the Alzheimer unit is more than willing to help us with our work on the floor from time to time when she can. In turn, we are more than willing to help her do activities with the residents when we can. She knows we do an exceptional job and tells us so, and things are easier when she's there. She also understands that she has to use a different approach to doing activities with these residents, as their needs are unique.

The director in charge of the activities department, on the other hand, seems to be a little clueless about how to approach us when asking for help, and has never assisted us on the floor with a resident, to my knowledge. If the activity director for the Alzheimer's unit is not there one day, we are still expected to follow the activities schedule, and he does not care if we don't have time. Never mind that we have to feed, toilet, shave our residents and keep them from hurting each other or themselves--he still expects us to follow the schedule. If anyone stands up to him, he goes straight to the admin's office to tattle on them. I've noticed that when this guy comes to me to ask me a favor, I feel as if I'm being patronized. Sometimes he makes me feel as if I'm one of the residents! Grrrr. (Hello, you don't have to talk slowly and quietly and use small words!)

The only problem with being a CNA and being an Activity Director is that mgmt. might try to use you as one of the carestaff and might pull you away from doing what they hired you originally to do. I've seen this happen. On the other hand, I have much more respect for an Activity Director who is willing to roll up their sleeves and help us out once in a while than a person who has obviously never done this type of work and treats us like we don't know what we're doing.

boulergirl, CNA · Dec 20, 2005

Another thing:

I've noticed that our mgmt. is trying to use the activities directors to check up on us from time to time to see if we're doing our jobs (i.e., checking all briefs on the Alzheimer unit to make sure we've written our initials/time/date on them and that they were recently changed, doing a buildings round late in the evening to see if the evening shift carestaff is doing their assigned housekeeping chores, that sort of thing). The AD for the Alz. unit doesn't seem to buy into this nonsense, but the guy in charge of the activities dept. is more than happy to play undercover cop. I've noticed that his personality changes when he does this.

Just be careful about letting mgmt. try to rope you into checking up on their staff. We do our jobs to the best of our ability and don't need a babysitter to watch us.