cna & student nurse relationship

buddiage · Oct 8, 2006

I am an LPN student, almost finished...yay! I was just wondering if it is just at the hospital that I go to clinical at or it it is like this other places with student nurses....the CNAs at the our clinicals are really mean to us. They make rude comments about us to other cnas when we are in ear shot, and they give us dirty looks. Once a classmate of mine was told by a CNA that we just "get in the way of everything". My asumption was that we were taking a load of work off of their backs by taking half of their daily workload. Maybe some of you out there can give me some input...it just boggles my mind that we (student nurses) are not very well liked. Is it like this everywhere? and if so why?

Maybe they are abused from their own nurses there and view you as potential replacments?

Or, it could be a classic, "I hate my job, and I'm annoyed that you are happy to be a student."

No excuse, though.

P_RN, ADN, RN · Oct 8, 2006

No they are not all like that. I agree that there are some people who aren't happy to be there and want everyone to know it. Go ahead and enjoy learning and don't let the sourpuss staff rain on your happiness.

TazziRN, RN · Oct 8, 2006

And some are just plain mean. I remember when I was a CNA student and was in clinical. I knew some residents had their first voids dipped for sugar every morning, so I asked a CNA what to do with one man's urinal. She said very loudly, "You dump it in the toilet." Then she looked at her coworkers and laughed and even more loudly said "Isn't that right? Can you believe she asked me that?" I will never forget that humiliation and have made sure I never treated a student or anyone else that way for asking a question.

firstyearstudent · Oct 8, 2006

I think it is because some of them suffer from abuse on the job. It must be very difficult to be a CNA. If you think nurses don't get respect, think about them.

But not all of them are like that. We had a CNA at one of our rotations who was a doll. We absolutely loved this woman. She was so tiny and she must have been in her late 60s and she was such a wonderful and fiesty lady. It is not hyperbolic to say her service had a holiness about it. I had the privilege of doing post-mortem care with her once. (Imagine Mother Theresa, only Hispanic and with a mouth like a sailor.) We were all in tears and hugging her when we left. The students pitched in and bought her a gift. She was much nicer to us than the RNs. If she ever asked for our help we'd always come running...

I will never forget that lady.

Narnia456 · Oct 8, 2006

Where we are doing our last semester clinicals now, the CNA's stand back and the RN's tell us to do the bed & baths in addition to our RN things we're learning. They say as RN's we are responsible for the total care of our patients CNA's or not. While that is true and I don't have a problem with that, the CNA's stand around talking in the halls alot. If I was an aide I'd be thrilled someone was there being made to do my work. Noone from our group will be applying there anyway at graduation. It's one of those places where you go to work because noone else will hire you. At the end of the semester we fill out a critique sheet on our instructors and one on our place of clinicals. I know these are passed on and looked at, because I worked in my hometown at the hospital when one came down from the college. Where we are now is hurtin'.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Oct 8, 2006

i get so angry when i hear about situations like you've described. something is amiss there. it's either that the cnas are treated badly or the supervision and management is sorely lacking in some respects. it's not normal to treat guests in your "home" that way. so, something is wrong there. in any case, their behavior is rude and childish and it is being allowed to flourish. knowing all this, don't accept any job position there because i can almost guarantee that it would be even worse if you were in a superior position as an lpn over them which would only add to your own stress.

i hope you and your fellow students report the comments and behavior of these cnas to your instructors. the instructors should be telling the managers of this facility what is going on. if students are being made to feel unwelcome i'm sure there are other facilities that would graciously welcome student help.

Stalwart · Oct 8, 2006

I recently finished LPN school and it was just as you describe. The RN's were wonderful, most of the LPN were great but the CNA were horrible. They treated us like dirt and would tell the instructor anything they though could even remotely get a student into trouble. I even saw some go so far as to set up student nurses just so they could get them into trouble.

I enquired why this was the case, basically asking the same question you just did to my instructoir and was told it usually boils down to jealousy. The ones mistreating the students are the ones who generally are not bright enough to even consider doing what you are doing.

They will get nicer right before you graduate. Making jokes about taking a job there when you graduate and payback in x semesters seemed to help.

Good Luck,

CS

navynurse06 · Oct 8, 2006

We always heard the phorifice "Nurses Eat their young.", when I was in nursing school. At one of the hospitals I did clinicals at in the OB ward and peds ward all the nurses were hateful and rude to us. I never really understood that b/c everyone was a student at one time or another.

To some people its all about the peaking order, and as students you are at the bottom. Yeah it sucks when they are mean to you but just learn from those times on how not to treat people. Therefore, when you are preceptor for a timid nursing student they will have a good learning experince!

As a nurse, I find it helpful to have students and new corpsmen on the floor. I also enjoy teaching new things to students, because most skills are acquired by doing not just reading about them.

And what I've learned from my work experiences in different settings, the ones who are difficult to work with are also the ones whom the pts don't care much for either.

So hang in there! This too shall pass!!! :roll

Jules A, MSN · Oct 8, 2006

I guess like everything in life, it was a mixed bag at my clinicals. There were some CNAs that were awesome, very helpful and super nice. There were also some that were pretty lazy and once we walked on the floor they wouldn't lift a finger. I tried to be nice to all of them and in the instances where I needed their help moving a quad patient for example I was firm in my request and it worked out ok. Hang in there and don't let negative people ruin your experience.