CNA - Clinicals

race8girl · Sep 29, 2010

WOW! I cannot believe that you are having to deal with this!! And, you are only in your clinicals!! :mad:

I would be very surprised if ANYONE during their week of clinicals (and for quite a while after) is very fast at all!! In fact, you shouldn't be! Everything you are doing is new to YOU. Whoever your assigned CNA is needs to think back to when she started and how she felt! She is out of line in the way she is speaking to you. Personally, I would talk to her about it and she if she is willing to be a little more patient, understanding, and compassionate with you during this time. If not...then I would ask to be reassigned to another CNA. I was very fortunate in that I had a wonderful CNA to work with during my clinicals...and also two wonderful CNA's to work with during my orientation for my job. I was VERY slow at first (clinicals and the job itself)!! But, the two girls who trained me during orientation would go out of their way to help me if I needed it, etc. You only get "faster" with time and experience!! Plain and simple. And...you are always going to have "off" days...where it seems as though you can't do anything right...I think that just comes with the territory! lol :)

You aren't doing anything wrong...and don't ever let anyone rush you in your clinicals or job! The resident comes first...their safety and comfort. If you are rushing to get your job done simply because the CNA you are assigned to is pushing you or intimidating you...and something DOES happen to one of the residents you are caring for (i.e. skin tear, bruise, etc.)...then the blame is going to fall back on you. You just need to hold your head up and do things at a pace YOU are comfortable with for now!! Everything else will come in time! Please don't get discouraged! I am sure that you are doing a wonderful job...it just takes practice!! Just know in your heart that you are going to be fine!!! :)

AzDeb · Sep 29, 2010

Great reply from race8girl. I was in that same situation for my clinicals in August. I would have had such a different attitude if I was a CNA with a student shadowing me. The CNA's we were assigned to were very much the same and our experience just like the one shared above. It was discouraging because we were there to practice and learn and it was very difficult to do that when the person you are assigned to seems to resent the fact that they need to take a little time to help you and let you "take over" some of the skills. I refused to get discouraged because as soon as I get my first CNA job, I know I may be slower at first but I also know in my heart that I will be very good at what I do and I will put the residents safety and comfort (both physical and emotional) as top priority. So I hope the rest of your clinicals go better for you!! Best of luck!

sweettiff4prez · Sep 29, 2010

Im sorry you had to deal with this. I would say just keep going. I heard that some places treat their students or employees like crap . I guess its expected at some places.

this is about almost how it was with me. the cnas at the clinical that i went to a week ago were rude. one of them actually took a piece of equipment (it was ours actually not the facilities) and said she needed to use it. she just snatched it out of one of the students hands and didnt even ask. Im not trying to talk down on anyone because im not perfect but a lot of the cnas at the facility I was at were sitting outside smoking most of the time. a lot of them just laid back while I guess we were to do their job. Now I dont even know if most of us did it correctly because we didnt even have an assigned Cna! We were just partnered up with another student with a patient. It would have been a lot better if each one of us had a CNA there to help us out because we were there to learn not just to have everything on our plate. We were students and did not have everything mastered. Well some of us didnt. Our instructor who is an RN just walked by the rooms. I already wrote about my experience in one section but he was just as rude and criticized just about everything we did. He rushed us through the clinicals and acted like we were just supposed to know how to do everything. the class was 10 days with 2 clinicals so we only went over one skill once so it was difficult to just remember. Im the type of person that has to practice something and then I got it down really well.

sweettiff4prez · Sep 29, 2010

i keep hearing people say they were assigned with a cna during their clinicals. we didnt even have one . are we supposed to? lol. :/ . damn thats one reason why i need to practice these skills over and over again before the test. we were rushed and partnered with a student. the rn barely watched us

fuzzywuzzy, CNA · Sep 29, 2010

That's the nature of the work- it's fast fast fast. And stressful. You can't expect the CNAs you're following to stop and hold your hand in everything that you do or half of their work *won't get done*. That said, you SHOULD expect them to at least be nice to you!

When your CNA says you need to speed up, she means on the job. But you're not learning a job right now, you're learning how to pass an exam and those 2 things are totally different (actually once I got a job I actually felt like the CNA class really should teach more time management). If you feel like you're not able to practice your skills, then go to your instructor. I'm shy like you, and when I did my clinicals the CNAs there weren't overly friendly either and the ones that were still had a lot of work to do. I had no freaking clue what was going on. They were flying around from room to room. So if I wanted to give a shower, I had to ask the instructor to coordinate it, basically. If I asked the CNAs what I could do to help they had me emptying trash all night. I would turn around and they were gone. At the time I was a little miffed that they weren't more accommodating but then after I started working I had an a-ha moment.

You DO need to just jump in and do it, which is hard at first, but in the end makes it easier. The old people aren't made of glass and if you act hesistant about touching them it makes them nervous. You get used to it after a while. And your skills test is probably going to be on a young, limber A&Ox3 person so I would focus more on trying to soak in some real world experience.

AmandaZamar · Oct 1, 2010

Thank you everyone for the replies it really helped me feel more good about what I am doing and that I am not an idiot luckily I was assigned to another CNA on thursday and she is AWESOME! she works quick while doing everything how its supposed to be done and giving attention and affection to her patients. I even asked her for some advice and explained to her the situation with me from before and she made me feel very good.She explained that I wont be all fast at first that it does take time and that I should not rush because that is how things go wrong and people get hurt, she even told me she was like that at first too but that I just have to get used to it and with time and more practice I will do good and she said that I was doing very good on thursday.Slowly but surely I am feeling more and more confident and I even went to visit my other patients I don't have anymore because I changed CNAs and they still remember me and smiled when they saw me so that made me feel even more good and happy.I know this field is very hard and challenging but like I have always believed if your heart is in it [Like me too] then you can do it. and yes I will have to get used to knowing the elderly is not glass lol its just hard because the ones I have been dealing with are very skinny and fragile.Thank you all for the advice and I look forward to asking more advice! :)