be kind to your CNAs

Nursing Students CNA/MA

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I want to appologize ahead of time. This is mostly a vent really. I have worked with 2 different nurses (besides the regular nurses on my floor, the past 2 weeks. One was a traveler and one has recently transfered from our "sister" hospital. I work nights as a nurse tech. Now comes my vent...I want to know why SOME nurses treat their CNAs like they are not smart and are their own personal assistants. They can not answer a call light, won't help you turn your patients or change them...that is until....someone pipes up and says....so...you finally graduated huh? When are you taking your boards....once they realize you are a graduate nurse they treat you differently. Then they start helping you and talking to you like you are human and want to know why you did not tell them you graduated from nursing school. Well my question is...what difference does it make and what does it matter that I graduated from nursing school. I am still a tech in the eyes of my employer even though they pay me new grad pay to do CNA work until I pass my boards. They should be treating their CNAs with respect anyways...and what I learned in school is it is all nursing regardless of if it is passing meds or cleaning dirty behinds. Sorry this just really upsets me. Perhaps it is because I have been on both sides now and made a HUGE promise to myself that I will always respect any CNA or secretary that works with me. I will always remember what it was like. I just do not get why it should matter that I am a graduate nurse and not a CNA. I am still doing the same job.

hello vrsgrl,

first congrats to you on your graduation.;) we in this field have to keep in mind that we are in it for the people we are caring for.not to make friends but is nice to have and make along the way ,but if co workers are causing you so much grief and interfering with your work performance you should let it be known !!!i think we all should treat all with respect and do unto others as they will to you.catching ____ in all directions is no fun ! but someones gotta do it.weather we like it or not.there is somethings on any job title that will upset us ,but at the end of the day give yourself a pat on the back and say i did well today,great job!!!as you know for as long as you been in this field as i ,krama can drive you nuts! you survived,again congrats and keep up the team work.

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Specializes in Nursing assistant.

The issues of mutual respect and teamwork really are at the core of good patient care. I think if we all stay focused on our common purpose, giving the patients the best we have, we will naturally see the value of everyones contribution to this end.

I think it is the responsibility of the management to actively encourage this attitude, and to also have no tolerance for childish and counter productive actions.

It is not about us, it is all about our patients. :)

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Specializes in Nursing assistant.
The issues of mutual respect and teamwork really are at the core of good patient care. I think if we all stay focused on our common purpose, giving the patients the best we have, we will naturally see the value of everyone's contribution to this end.

I think it is the responsibility of the management to actively encourage this attitude, and to also have no tolerance for childish and counter productive actions.

It is not about us, it is all about our patients. :)

please excuse my grammar problems tonight!:rolleyes:

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Specializes in Surgical Intensive Care.

I understand your frustration. I work nights as a nurse tech as well, and Lord willing, will be graduating nursing school in December. I have found that respect has to be earned and you have to prove that you know what you are doing. It shouldn't be that way, but that is life. I do get frustrated however, with the new graduates every year that come to work where I do. I have been working there about 3 years and know most policies & procedures, so when I take something to one of these new grads and tell them that I will help them with something and they say that it isn't necessary I just smile. Because, just like the other night, they will come to me in a few hours AFTER they read the orders and realize that I was RIGHT and they now need my help. I am glad to help and forgive them for snubbing their noses at me because they are, after all just new grads... and in a few months I will join them, hopefully not in their nose snubbing, but in their ignorance anyhow. Don't allow other people to control your emotions- you are in control and after all, some people are just convinced after a while that they were BORN RNs and the rest of us are beneath them... Congrats on your graduation, good luck on Boards, and kudos for your commitment to make the techs and CNA's lives better that will work with you in the future.

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Before I became a CNAII with med license,I went to college for 4 yrs and got a teachers cert to teach special needs children. I decided I wanted a job change and went back and became a CNA II with med license. While in class for this, some of the student nurses who were also in the same area at the college called us "WANNABES" I am what I WANNABE and dont care to go back to school for anything. I have worked for the state for 22 yrs and can retire in 3 yrs at the ripe old age of 48. so why would I wanna go back to school? My teaching degree took longer to get than what some of those nurse students had to do to get their degree.

recently there was a write up in one of the papers here about a CNA II who saved a patients life in the er.THe reporter who wrote it stated one place in the article that the person was a CNAII and then later on he referred to them as a RN. Man let me tell you the editoral page was FULL 2 days later from RN's complaining that he referred to a CNAII as a RN. Big deal.! The whole point of the original writeup was this person saved a life. Who cares what the persons degree is. The fact was a life was saved. But it sure ruffeled alot of RN's feathers.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

One thing to look at is even when you move up the nursing career ladder, you may find that the LPNs are mistreated by the Associate Degree RN, then there are the BSNs looking down on the Associate degree nurses and so on. It really doesn't stop as you move up...it is the character of the person, not so much the position. I recently became an LPN and some of the CNAs told me that they wished that they could be one as well because they would gain respect. However, when I told some of them that I am also being disregarded, they find it hard to believe.

What has happened in my case at times is that I now have responsibility to give medications to many patients and that if they are not given out or if there is a mistake in the administration of the medications, then, I am accountable. A medication mistake can kill a client, and if you are a new nurse, your attention is more on assuring that you administer safely. I had a CNA ask me to help her to bathe a person, and I had to say that I could not because I knew that it may take more than a half an hour to do it and then I would have been behind in passing meds. I told her that I would come and help her to move the patient when it was time, but then, I asked another aide to assist her. The aide that I asked to assist told me that she was NOT going to help and then, the first one told me that I forgot that I was once an aide. It was not that...I had an RN that was going to mistreat me in the same way, because she felt that my job is now to medicate. Sometimes, it is the hierarcy that makes things so rough. The RN told us ALL that she was going to write the aides up for not assisting each other, and me because I was going to be late passing out the medications. Go figure....

I am not saying these things to make up excuses for the rude nurses that mistreat ancillary staff. I do believe that we have to respect THE TEAM and the talents and responsibilities that they carry. What I am trying to explain is that in some cases, there may be something else that is going on where the nurse may want to assist, but actually can't at times, because of his/her responsibilities can be a deterrent. And, that as one may rise up the nursing ladder, the mistreatment, (sad to say) does NOT always change...it is just that some of the behavior happens behind the closed doors between the nurses and the aides may not see it all. It can be really bad on all ends, believe me.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
Before I became a CNAII with med license,I went to college for 4 yrs and got a teachers cert to teach special needs children. I decided I wanted a job change and went back and became a CNA II with med license. While in class for this, some of the student nurses who were also in the same area at the college called us "WANNABES" I am what I WANNABE and dont care to go back to school for anything. I have worked for the state for 22 yrs and can retire in 3 yrs at the ripe old age of 48. so why would I wanna go back to school? My teaching degree took longer to get than what some of those nurse students had to do to get their degree.

recently there was a write up in one of the papers here about a CNA II who saved a patients life in the er.THe reporter who wrote it stated one place in the article that the person was a CNAII and then later on he referred to them as a RN. Man let me tell you the editoral page was FULL 2 days later from RN's complaining that he referred to a CNAII as a RN. Big deal.! The whole point of the original writeup was this person saved a life. Who cares what the persons degree is. The fact was a life was saved. But it sure ruffeled alot of RN's feathers.

I am curious, what is a CNAII? And do you live in the United States? I ask this because I hear that there are so many new titles under the CNA umbrella, and it is very interesting. Way to go...

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Yes I live in the u.s and a level II does alot more stuff than just level I. We do alot of caths and dressing changes where I work.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
Yes I live in the u.s and a level II does alot more stuff than just level I. We do alot of caths and dressing changes where I work.

That is nice. Do you draw blood, also?

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

I understand that sometimes the nurses are wayyyy to busy to help out and thats not a big deal...but...when you get a nurse like the one I was refering to who is sitting there reading a book and she flat out refuses to help you with one of her patients especially when the pts safety is at stake then that is absolutely unacceptable.

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When I worked at the state mental hosp. All staff took self defence classes every 6 months. I worked high control and most of the patients we had had some type of charge against them. ( murder, assalt etc) There was one nurse who worked the ward with us who was afraid of the patients. Because of her, one of the staff got hurt really bad in a fight and was left partial paralyzed. This nurse was rather big. ( 5'8 200 lbs) and would have been alot of help in a fight if she would not have went and hid in the bathroom ever time there was a fight. I am only 4'10 and weigh 110 lbs but I never ran from a fight in all the yrs I worked there. After the big fight that left the staff member injured, there was a big meeting with all the staff on the ward and this one nurse who ran said that we shouldnt worry about the injured staff member because the state would take care of her the rest of her life. Needless to say, ALL respect for this nurse went out the window after she made that statement. ( she was the less liked staff member on the ward by staff and patients) She finally transfered off High control to a less violent ward.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
When I worked at the state mental hosp. All staff took self defence classes every 6 months. I worked high control and most of the patients we had had some type of charge against them. ( murder, assalt etc) There was one nurse who worked the ward with us who was afraid of the patients. Because of her, one of the staff got hurt really bad in a fight and was left partial paralyzed. This nurse was rather big. ( 5'8 200 lbs) and would have been alot of help in a fight if she would not have went and hid in the bathroom ever time there was a fight. I am only 4'10 and weigh 110 lbs but I never ran from a fight in all the yrs I worked there. After the big fight that left the staff member injured, there was a big meeting with all the staff on the ward and this one nurse who ran said that we shouldnt worry about the injured staff member because the state would take care of her the rest of her life. Needless to say, ALL respect for this nurse went out the window after she made that statement. ( she was the less liked staff member on the ward by staff and patients) She finally transfered off High control to a less violent ward.

She sounds like she would not be a safe nurse, anyway, and it was better that she transferred somewhere else. It is not fair to state that this partially paralyzed person because she will be taken care of...in fact, if that is how she felt, then, she should have stood in the line of fire so that she, too, could have been taken care of. What about the quality of life this staff member is currently experiencing and the loss of self esteem as well as income? What a disaster...

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