If I hate being an CNA, will I hate nursing?

BabyScanner82 · Oct 27, 2008

Hello everyone. I work as a CNA/PCT on an OB floor and many days I am the only tech working with 6-7 nurses. (mother/baby-45 pts) Each RN has between 3-5 patients. (couplet care) Some days I work with great RNs who help work as a team and other days I work with ones that make me wanna pull my hair out. That being said, I think CNA work is FAR different than being a LPN or RN. You work much more independently as a nurse and you manage your own time. When you are a CNA, you have your everyday duties and the added bonus of 6 nurses asking if you could do this and do that. On a positive note, the demand for CNAs and RNs will always be good so if one place doesn't work it's easier to try another. I can't wait to become a nurse!! :nurse:

SunnyAndrsn · Oct 27, 2008

I passed my LPN boards in Feb of this year too. I was in my third semester of RN school, and will graduate in December.

How did you go from LPN in Feb to RN in Dec? I am an LPN, I was going to RN training until I missed passing by .3 of one point and the head of the nursing rubbed my face in so badly that I didn't pass, but thought I did, and that "we all can't be astronauts". I have never gone back. She isn't there anymore.

queen777 · Oct 27, 2008

Hello everyone. I work as a CNA/PCT on an OB floor and many days I am the only tech working with 6-7 nurses. (mother/baby-45 pts) Each RN has between 3-5 patients. (couplet care) Some days I work with great RNs who help work as a team and other days I work with ones that make me wanna pull my hair out. That being said, I think CNA work is FAR different than being a LPN or RN. You work much more independently as a nurse and you manage your own time. When you are a CNA, you have your everyday duties and the added bonus of 6 nurses asking if you could do this and do that. On a positive note, the demand for CNAs and RNs will always be good so if one place doesn't work it's easier to try another. I can't wait to become a nurse!!

You sound like you will be a good nurse too!

jeepgrl944 · Oct 29, 2008

I work as a tech in the ER. To do this I had to get a CNA license because my hospital requires one unless you've begun clinicals in nursing school. At that point in time, I hadn't begun nursing school, and didn't want to wait. On the floors its the same. And, my hospital doesn't call CNAs "CNAs". They just call them techs. The techs on the floors don't get to draw blood and do foleys and other invasive procedures, as do ER techs. They also have the same patients pretty much all day, whereas in my department I obviously get new ones all the time. So they have the total cares and lots of intense, time-consuming work. I don't mind giving baths, but if I had to do this for 7 or more people in a certain time limit, not sure that I'd like it too much. The role of a CNA is very important. They're very necessary, and work hard.

suziqiluv · Dec 12, 2008

I hate to say it, but you probably will...

the nursing shortages this country has had, were largely due to the fact that alot of people didn't like nursing or realized it was not what they wanted once they got in it, and quickly got back out again!

katherinecm · Dec 13, 2008

Emily,

It sounds like you have a really crappy CNA job. Find another one. You shouldn't be assigned so many patients alone unless half of them are fairly independent. Try for either home health or hospital work. Or ask around for a place with a low census that hasn't gotten dinged by the state for a bunch of violations. Or (although this isn't always true) try for a nursing home run by a church or a non-profit so that it isn't chronically understaffed for money. Another option is working for a staffing agency. Something about seeing how lots of different facilities handle things makes it easier.

Also, while it isn't easy when your work is so hard, try and relax when you get home. Your heart is in it, but all you're capable of is your best. After that, relax.

MaritesaRN · Dec 16, 2008

I've been planning for about 6 months now to apply for MEPN/GEPN programs for fall of 2009, with a nurse-midwifery degree being the end goal. I recently (three weeks agao) started working as a CNA at an LTC while taking pre-reqs and I am miserable. Even with 10-12 patients, I feel like I never get eeverything (even enough) done and I take all my work-related anxiety home with me and worry on my days off about my previous and upcoming days at work. Is nursing different? Or will I carry all this stress with me all the time, and should I get out now before I've invested $$$ in an education?

I think there is really a diference in function beween the two , but overall , you will be pretty much in the same environment . A hospital is and will always be a stressfull place to work, now even more because of understaffing , older and multiple diagnosis and very sick patients. you will be surrounded w/ possibly stressed out nurses . Of course it will make a difference if you work in a facility that is well run and nurses friendly. It also depends as to how bad you want this education. It sounds like your problem is the environment. As a nurse you will not be doing so much primary care, but nowadays the hospital uses the nurse for primary care as well!! Yes, it is crazy in the hospital , but midwifery will take you to homes and rural areas, right ? not in the hospital.....think aout the pros and cons ...you are making a big decision. follow how you feel , not the rationale or intellectual reasons. Wish you the best girl!:wink2:

Tippy-ta-ta · Dec 20, 2008

for me ...i am a CNA and have been for over 15 yrs. I enjoy my job, I enjoy the knowledge & experience that I have gained. I have learned alot and most of it was hands on training type stuff. I was trained at the hosp I worked at (don't work there anymore) to do foley insertions, enemas, CBGs, ostomy care, ect. I also seem to do better under stress and pressure. I actually like the fast paced environment. I am not a nurse (someday soon I hope to start classes) but I think that I would really like nursing. Not that I would like being a nurse better than I would a CNA, but because I have soo much more potential that goes beyond being a CNA and I feel that by becoming a nurse I will meet my full potential. I know that being a CNA and a nurse are not the same and there is a world of difference. Being a CNA would give you an idea of what being a nurse is all about. Just observe and watch what the RN's and LPN's you work with do. There jobs are a lot more mentally exhausting than it is physically exhausting. As a CNA you don't have to worry about getting the med pass done on time, or making sure that you didn't have any med errors at the end of the shift, not to mention the narc count. (dont' know if they still do that with the pyxis now). Or getting home at the end of your shift and realizing that you didnt' chart something that needed to be charted, just to get back in your car and drive back to the hosp to finish your charting. (I worked with a nurse who did this LOL, not that often tho, funny that that stood out to me). So just because you don't like being a CNA, doesn't mean you wouldnt' like being a nurse. From what I gather, you really like being a CNA but you don't want to be a CNA because you feel that you have the potential to strive beyond that. That's what I gather. You're compassionate, and you want to spend time with your residents, you enjoy taking care of them. I think the death of one of your residents hit you pretty hard. As time goes on it will get easier, it doesn't get better just easier to deal with.

Kmarie4507 · Jun 12, 2011

Finding this post just relieved soo much anxiety for me!! I've always dreamed of being a nurse and just a few months ago after high school started work as a cna/hha because I felt that was the best route to begin nursing and HATED IT. I was so scared that I would then hate nursing and the path I had chosen for myself my whole life was over! So glad to hear it'll be different!!!

rosahawk26 · Sep 8, 2011

I want to say that I read many of these posts and I am not a nurse ..I work as a home health aide or a caregiver in a LTC facility..It is the most challenging work I have ever done in my life..I want to say that I think that EVERYONE except for some doctors are UNDERPAID in the medical profession..but truthfully CNA's and caregivers have it really bad..I have not done this for long and I can see how badly caregivers and CNA's suffer abuse and non empathetic attitudes, I do not think the opinion towards this should be to say things like " you are in the wrong profession" or "it is about the patient and not you" ..I am sorry but people need to understand that we are all human beings , and being a CNA and or a caregiver in many states in america is one of the closest things to slave labor that we have going on today, someone who was a CNA had a good pint when she said that almost anyone else who works with excrement gets paid A LOT more to do so than a CNA or caregiver does . I don't understand how someone doing this job can get paid minumum wage or below that..I also know of many places where caregivers and CNA's work 16 hour days of this backbreaking work with no overtime being paid and no breaks..when ever there is a question as to why a CNA or caregiver is treated this way some smartass wants to say stuff like " you should be doing the job because you love what you do and not for the money" and this is very bad to tell someone because that person is sacrificing their body and taking risks of hurting theirself to help others for little pay and constant stress and blame for any and everything that goes wrong..I hope there will be some kind of union in the future for CNA's and caregivers so that people who want to abuse them and stress them out unnecessarily will have to answer for their actions ..some of the work loads and working conditions I have seen CNA's and caregivers have would be most people's worst nightmare..