CNA Clinicals

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I started my clinicals at a nursing home Thursday and have to go back all week next week. I was told by my teacher that we would never be left alone in the facility and that we were never supposed to provide any kind of care or do anything with the residents by ourselves. However, the CNA I was assigned to follow around either didn't know this or didn't care. The first thing she had me do was go into a resident's room by myself to get her vital signs and then to two other rooms to make beds. I did because I know how to get vital signs, but I didn't know which resident she was talking about because there was two to a room and I also didn't really know how to work the equipment because it was digital and I never learned how to use those because we learned how to use the manual ones in school. I had to ask her and I felt like an idiot. Anyways I have to go back there tomorrow and I was just wondering if she tries to get me to do anything by myself again - do I have the right to say that I am not yet comfortable doing it by myself and if I can just watch her do it? I felt like asking that would just cause drama - but even a fellow student made the comment that it seemed like this CNA was trying to get me to do her job for her. I know how to do all of my skills and I checked off on all of them during lab in class - but I had never done them on an actual patient and I am extremely nervous to just have to jump in there and do it by myself. We also did not have a lot of time in class to practice some skills and some of them we only got to do on the mannequins once! I'm the type of person who learns better by seeing it done a few times and then when I am confident enough, jumping in and assisting. So, tomorrow when I go back to clinicals and a CNA tries to get me to do something by myself again, do you think I should just tell her that?

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Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.

When I did my clinicals, I made it my mission to do an much of my CNA's job as I could. I figured it was the best way to learn. I did vitals, gave baths and gladly allowed her to just watch me. I felt I needed the hands on experience. We did have student partners, so there were always 2 of us students. But, I was happy to get the change to bathe, shower, or wipe someones feces all by myself. (-:

HTH! and hope your clinical experience is as positive as mine was!

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Maybe just tell your instructor that she keeps asking you to do things by yourself and see what she says?

Like you, I was really nervous to start working on an actual patient after working on fellow students in lab!! Today was my last day of clinical and from the very first day, we were given a resident and told "ok, get going! total care!" working all by ourselves, and if a CNA who worked at the facility came into the room and our instructor was around she would say "we got it!" by the second day the CNA's rarely came around, even to answer questions if we had any...we had to pretty much leave the room and find our instructor or somebody to ask.

In my eyes..clinical is a time to learn and to begin to feel comfortable doing this! Not get thrown to the wolves. Some people learn better just jumping in, BUT if you dont - PLUS your instructor said not to do anything by yourself - I would say something.

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When I was in clinicals we were given pt's by our instructor... The first few times we were put into groups of 2-3 and sent to take care of them. Then after that we were given our own pt each to take care of. If we needed help we would find someone in our class to help us and if had a question we would ask our instructor or a CNA *though they never wanted to even talk to us, and acted as if we were just in the way* it wasn't the "usual" way of how I heard clinical's went, but it worked! Lol... I had no one to shadow.

But, if your instructor said not to do anything by yourself, I'd def let them know what the CNA was doing. Because it does sound like they just want you to do their job, and you're there to learn! And if you don't ask questions, you won't learn! Good luck and let me know how it goes!!!

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Thank you all for the comments! I just got done with my fourth day, still have two days to go! I got to just shadow a lot more and did a few things like feeding and making beds on my own, but I still don't feel comfortable with any other skills besides those and I mean skills like transferring patients, bathing them, changing their briefs and their clothes...basically all of the really personal things. Did they tell you what your patient's condition was or anything about the patient during your clinicals? Because they don't do that at the place I'm at. The only thing they tell us is their name and their room number. I know that a lot of the skills are pretty much common sense but they are difficult to do when you don't know anything about the patient like their limitations, illness, routines and preferences. I don't really feel like I'm learning any more than I did in the book except for how this place is ran basically and a day in the life of a CNA, but I just feel like I'm aways in the way and I feel stupid all the time. I wait for the CNA to tell me what to do and I ask her all the time what she needs me to do but it's never anything other than feeding or making beds and when I'm not doing that, I'm following her around the whole time and watching her do everything. I even told the one I was shadowing today that I still had some skills left that I needed to check off on and she was like "ok we can do those after lunch break" and then I never saw her again after that.... There is also only five of us in my class, so we don't have a partner and even if we wanted them to help us they can't because they are busy following their CNA around. I don't know if this is what clinicals is supposed to be or not but I feel like it's not supposed to be like this. I wish I had just one patient or even a few...or even a section of the hall (Which is 12 patients at this place) that I could get to know during the week but we go all over the facility and there are about 60 patients there.I also wish I had one of my classmates as a partner I know that would make this a much better experience. There is also a lot of drama between the workers there that we get put in the middle of and have to listen to everyone constantly talking **** about each other and complaining about how much they hate their job and want can't wait to leave. I feel like they care more about being *******s to each other than they do about the patients.

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My clinicals start week after next and I can't wait! They haven't told us what to expect yet, other than long days (6am - 4pm).

It's fantastic that you're taking the time to educate all of us who haven't been to clinical yet! My guess, based on hearing about others' experiences, is that we'll be busy getting residents up for the first hour or two, then standard CNA-type stuff after that.

During my clinicals week after next, I've made a reminder to come back to update this thread with what I experience. :)

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I would love to hear about your experience and good luck! I hope your clinicals go well and you have a better experience than me.

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My first day of clinicals consisted of learning how to properly make a bed, feeding residens in the dining room and observing how to do peri-care on residents as well as how to run the mechanical lifts. The next day, we were assigned a CNA to shadow and were expected to jump and help. If you don't get in there and help, you'll never really learn. We practiced things like how to run the mechanical lifts and how to take vitals on one another but until you actually do it on a resident, you never really get the feel for how to do it.

There was one girl in my clinicals who refused to get in and help the CNA she shadowed. She didn't pass the class because she never demonstrated that she knew how to do the skills required.

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OK, I said I would check back during my clinical so here's my experience so far:

- We're expected to use all 24 skills required for the state NA-C test with sign-off on satisfactory performance during clinical. That hasn't been difficult. I completed 20 of the skills in the first three days. In addition to the core 24 skills, I've learned about 20 additional skills that aren't on the state test.

- CNAs at our clinical facility are 1 CNA to 8 residents for day shift. To provide quality care, that means moving fast, carefully and in a caring manner for the entire 8 hour shift. Clinical is physically demanding.

- By the second day, I was completing some resident care independently. I've only done that for skills I've completed two or more times under the direct supervision of the CNA to which I'm assigned.

- Each CNA I've been assigned to has been wonderful at teaching how to apply our classroom/lab training in the real world. I've learned as much in clinical as I did in the classroom/lab, even though it's half the classroom time.

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