Getting Pretty Discouraged and Having Doubts.

[gymnut]

It's late and I have a lot on my mind so this is going to be long so just bear with me here.

So I recently started my CNA training program and I love it. Since I have been on allnurses, have watched the videos provided through one of the threads on here, read other members posts and just being absorbed into all things medical related for several years now (I taught myself medical terminology just for fun) I am ahead in my class and my teacher says I bring up excellent questions and make interesting points. I even stumped her on one occasion which made me proud :)

Well despite me loving my education and knowing I will love the work itself it's my future work environment I'm worried about. A majority of the threads on this site just seem to talk about what a cut throat environment health care is. How coworkers are selfish and lazy and will 'eat their young' (heck there's a thread with over a 1000 responses in regards to that!) that people who ask questions are looked down upon, careless and could careless management, having just a few days of orientation and being thrown on the floor and I'm sure a dozen other crazy scenarios that I can't think of off the top of my head. It just seems that every day a new thread is created about how miserable someone is at their job.

Well I guess I should rephrase work environment to work family. I can handle the work in and of itself. I've worked in fast paced environments where people wanted everything yesterday, I've done physical labor and was in retail management so I'm use to strangers carrying on and being verbally and sometimes physically abusive. However I have always worked with a fair amount of decent people. Sure I worked with backstabbers, gossipers, lazy-as-the-day-is-longers, whiners, holier than thous and plain out loud mouths with God complexes. Despite this I always had at least a handful that were close to me and we became friends and helped each other out. No matter how bad the work day was we had each other to make it better somehow.

What's especially hard is for the past 5 years I worked at a job were almost everyone was just super sweet and nice and helpful. We had a few bad eggs that were mixed in but they were just the old "I hate working here so I'm going to make everyone else hate working here too" types and even they were tolerable. My co-workers and I actually hung outside of work a lot and even after losing our jobs we still do. It was very heartbreaking to be forced to leave a situation such as that. I just feel like an orphan who hopes to get adopted into another caring work family. It's also exhausting because this is a complete career change for me so not only do I have to find a job (in this economy?!) to find a work family I also have an entire new set of skills to learn as well. So it's been overwhelming to say the least.

I know that the ones who are most miserable tend to be the loudest and that for every CNA or nurse who hates their job there's at least 5 who love it and would work there 24/7 if allowed. I also know that work comes first and making friends isn't a priority. Still you can't deny that your co-workers can make or break your day.

So I guess if anyone had any words of advice or encouragement it would be great :redbeathe

[NiquiCNA]

WHEW. Good Luck is about all I can say. As far as dealing with coworkers.. it is sometimes vastly different when so many lives are at stake.. verses in retail or other fields where it is solely bottum line. And most of the nurses and CNAs are venting.. because working in healthcare can be frustrating and having to deal with short staffed, incompetant people.. you have to vent.

10 years as a CNA.. not long ago I told someone who was starting as a CNA dont do it. Long hours, horrible treatment, bad pay.. about the size of it. Depends on where you work though... SC is a BAD place for nursing homes I discovered. Just the environment here, for some reason. Myself and other nurses from out of the area have all noticed that here the abuse and blatant disrepect is rampant everywhere. I never realized how GOOD I had it in NY, but I love the hospital.. wouldn't go back to LTC full time for three times the money...

[lalah]

you can always check the rating for the facility you're applying too. also, during the interview, you can find out the management style and what type of people work there to gauge the dynamics. there are questions to ask on monster.com that can help find this out. gluck

[fuzzywuzzy, CNA]

I've worked in fast paced environments where people wanted everything yesterday, I've done physical labor and was in retail management so I'm use to strangers carrying on and being verbally and sometimes physically abusive. I worked with backstabbers, gossipers, lazy-as-the-day-is-longers, whiners, holier than thous and plain out loud mouths with God complexes.

Then you'll be fine. The beginning sucks because there IS a learning curve and not everyone treats new people like gold, but once you get used to it you'll find a few people you love to work with.

[gymnut]

Thank you guys for all of your advice! It really does help and I reeally hope people like you work in my future facility :)

It is also getting a little bit tougher because a few of my friends from my previous work family found a job at a warehouse and want me to come work there. The pay is great and it's work I know I would enjoy, BUT I have to keep telling myself that it's not what I want to do! I want to be a nurse and not only do I have to leave my comfort zone I have to demolish it!