CNA licensing authority?
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My state board of Nurses Examiners states that it exists to protect the public against nurses who are, for whatebver reasons, unsafe.
My point then is this, the CNA comes into contact with the public as much as and, in some cases, more than the RN or LVN yet, to my knowledge, they are not in any way answerable to any authority outside of their facility and, as such, nullify the raison d'être of a state board of nurses examiners.
I have recently had an issue with a CNA whereby she acted unprofessionaly in front of a pt by telling him several times "I hate your nurse" that nurse being me. Furthermore, she acted outside of her scope of practicewith the same pt by disconnecting an IV line connected to a dilaudid PCA pump (for purposes of changing a gown). As if that weren't bad enough, she then jeopardized the pt's safety by tossing the running IV line onto the dirty floor and interefered with his therapy when the pt hit his PCA button twice only to have his medicine leak out onto the dirty floor. What's more, I observed her falsify a legal record record by entering 20 resp/min in her VS log sheet while I stood right beside her and counted 12 (for the same pt). This is the second time I have caught a CNA/PCT not recording an accurate repsiratory rate for a pt on a PCA pump. Needless to say, I am furious.
My question then is this does anybody know of an authority beyond the immediate employer that regulates their ability to come into contact with the public? I have already sent letters to my chain of command but if they refuse to fire this person I want to go higher. What's more, I feel she is a threat to the public's safety and should be barred from working in a situation where she is providing "care" for the public. If she were a nurse, her license would be forfeit for these violations of the NPA. Her lack of a state licensing authority and the overall increased demand for CNA's should not be a license to act with impunity. Any thoughts?