I have posted about my work situation b4 and very much appreciated everyones thoughts
I am a CNA working in a nursing home. I am brand new to health care. I decided to make a career change 5 months ago. I have had the displeasure of working with the lowest calibur of people I have ever met on my first job as a CNA.
I work on a very "heavy" floor, hoyers, trans-aids...dementia and alzheimers patients. we have 40 residents to take care of and I am lucky if we have 3 CNA's. The CNA's I work with purposely trained me wrong...had me doing chucks backwards and than ran to the supervisor when we had a full bed change. They smile in my face and stab me in the back every second they get. I have had money stolen right out of my purse, my dinner eaten, taken right out of the fridge in the breakroom. I was driving a woman home at night who constantly told me what the others were saying and come to find out she was right along with them. I refused to drive her home and now it is impossible to get help with my 2 assists and hoyers which puts me behind which makes me look incompetant which they love.
I went to my supervisor for a floor change and she instead gave me a "PM"..peer mentor. The peer mentor came last night and showed me her way of doing things. She also repeated all the god awful things my fellow CNA's had been doing to me..showing me incorrect ways and then running to the LPN, etc.
The CNA's I work with mostly do not have a high school diploma and are single mothers at the ages of 21-25. Some have 3 or 4 kids at this young age. I have been doing everything but cartwheels to fit in or at least work with them but I do not.
I have the support of the RN's who supervise, who see me as intelligent and caring needing time to learn this. I feel my fellow CNA's see me as a bumbling idiot without a clue and are more than willing to point it out.
Do I quit? Do I find a new health care center? Has anyone experienced this? I feel I have the ability to move on to my RN, but the fact that these girls have been so viscious to me is discouraging
Regardless..I have to pay the bills, I have to take care of me
It is horrible (not to mention unproffessional) the way you are being treated. Unfortunitly- I have seen this many times, as a CNA, and as an LPN. Staff complain about lack of help- yet they chase the "newbies" away. You sound like a good person- atleast your trying. There is never a cause for this type of behavior. You don't have to take it. I would resign immediately- and definately let the DON know what's up. Somebody seriously needs to address this issue.
undefinedhi krissy, don,t be discouraged. i am an rn and have worked with some of the worst rns you can imagine. it's not always the lack of education but a mentality or culture of the workplace. the don will never get anything changed unless she does something about that culture. real hard to do. get out of there before they do something awful and blame it on you. go to home health jobs where you will be respected for your care and get better pay.
hi everyone
i have posted about my work situation b4 and very much appreciated everyones thoughts
i am a cna working in a nursing home. i am brand new to health care. i decided to make a career change 5 months ago. i have had the displeasure of working with the lowest calibur of people i have ever met on my first job as a cna.
i work on a very "heavy" floor, hoyers, trans-aids...dementia and alzheimers patients. we have 40 residents to take care of and i am lucky if we have 3 cna's. the cna's i work with purposely trained me wrong...had me doing chucks backwards and than ran to the supervisor when we had a full bed change. they smile in my face and stab me in the back every second they get. i have had money stolen right out of my purse, my dinner eaten, taken right out of the fridge in the breakroom. i was driving a woman home at night who constantly told me what the others were saying and come to find out she was right along with them. i refused to drive her home and now it is impossible to get help with my 2 assists and hoyers which puts me behind which makes me look incompetant which they love.
i went to my supervisor for a floor change and she instead gave me a "pm"..peer mentor. the peer mentor came last night and showed me her way of doing things. she also repeated all the god awful things my fellow cna's had been doing to me..showing me incorrect ways and then running to the lpn, etc.
the cna's i work with mostly do not have a high school diploma and are single mothers at the ages of 21-25. some have 3 or 4 kids at this young age. i have been doing everything but cartwheels to fit in or at least work with them but i do not.
i have the support of the rn's who supervise, who see me as intelligent and caring needing time to learn this. i feel my fellow cna's see me as a bumbling idiot without a clue and are more than willing to point it out.
do i quit? do i find a new health care center? has anyone experienced this? i feel i have the ability to move on to my rn, but the fact that these girls have been so viscious to me is discouraging
regardless..i have to pay the bills, i have to take care of me
Krissy, what you are experiencing is gang mentality. I have worked in that situation and it was so stressful. I hated going to work because of their pulling things like that constantly. I'm so sorry and recommend what others have that you find a better one. I stuck my worst one out and ended up getting promoted into another area that was quite nice but look back on it and wonder why I ever stayed during that bad time. Good luck to you.
Krissy, I am so sorry you are going through this. I think that you must imediately begin working on your LPN or RN (even if you just begin taking prereqs). Here is why: I believe you when you say that you are a caring, positive person, and in nursing school you will be rewarded for your diligence (sp?). YOur confidence will increase, and you will know that within the next year to two years, you will have the option of working at another facility or even being the supervisor ( :angryfire hehe) to these incompetent people. Also, if your LPN co-workers know that you are in school they may "take you under their wing" and show you different proceedures,etc. Will this p*ss off you CNA co-workers, yes, but now you will have others who DO support you. Good luck, this is just my 0.02cents, but I really think you can never go wrong with education!
I absolutely would not work in that situation. They are stealing from you and lying to you- either get your transfer to another floor or get out of there. For your own mental health, get a job as a waitress to tide you over, anything. The more they beat you down the less able you will be to stand up for yourself and move on with your life. I would not set foot on that unit again.
Specializes in Case Mgmt; Mat/Child, Critical Care.
There is no way I would stay there either. Get a job elsewhere, even if it isn't in the healthcare field, and start working towards a nursing degree. There is no point wasting your time with those people....they don't appreciate you nor will they ever change. I'm sure the management is aware of the horrible work environment from the sound of it anyway. You are too good to waste yourself on that ungrateful place! I pity the poor residents there.
Krissy, I am also so sorry for what you are going through. I can't even imagine having to face people like that everyday on top of the physically and mentally challenging work that CNA's do. I also feel VERY sorry for the people in the LTC center that have these awful CNA's as their caregivers! To me, this behavior is not only abusive to you, but is abusive to the residents. I wonder what goes on with these CNA's and the patients behind closed doors?! :uhoh21: It's sad, but there seems to be quite a few CNA's like that out there. In one of the hospitals that I did my CNA clinicals in, there were a couple CNA's with a mentality like that. Needless to say, that hospital does not have the best reputation! My advice is to no doubt, GET OUT! Make sure that you reserch the next LTC center you work for to the best of your ability. And of course, sometimes you will still run into people like this (well, maybe not THAT bad.) But, I would tend to think if the place has a good reputation, then the calibur of people working there might be a little higher. Oh, and also, home health is a good suggestion! I work for a caregiver/HH agency and I love it! VERY rewarding! :) Good luck to you and I will keep you in my prayers too! Louisepug
I would definitely get out of there as soon as possible. And I would document everything that is going on right now.....and I don't like to say this, but I really believe that this is one place that you do not need to give two weeks notice to. I am surprised that you have put up with work conditions like this for so long. I do not know anyone else that would.
I would definitely look into finding a position in a hospital ASAP. One major reason is that many of them will actually pay for you to go back to school for your RN, as long as you have been there for a year.
jenac
258 Posts
It is horrible (not to mention unproffessional) the way you are being treated. Unfortunitly- I have seen this many times, as a CNA, and as an LPN. Staff complain about lack of help- yet they chase the "newbies" away. You sound like a good person- atleast your trying. There is never a cause for this type of behavior. You don't have to take it. I would resign immediately- and definately let the DON know what's up. Somebody seriously needs to address this issue.
Good luck to you.