I will probably make someone mad but I just needed to vent about this issue. I work at a hospital in Oncology/Medical. The cna/tech responsibilities are to do vitals, blood sugars, bathroom duties, and turn pt. I constantly hear some of them say that the nurses treat them like slaves when all we did was ask them to do a blood sugar. In the mean time I have one pt. dying, hanging blood on another, one is complaining of chest pain, I am getting a new admit, and still haven't charted, and they can't do a freaking blood sugar because they are too busy sitting on their a@# talking on the phone. I will say that not all of them are like that. We have a few that are wonderful at what they do and I let them know that they are greatly appreciated. I don't mind wiping a butt or doing blood sugars when the cna is busy, but if they are sitting there while I am running around like a crazy person and then gripe when I ask them to do something, it really makes me mad:madface:. Does anyone else see this behavior?
Either way, I work to provide CARE for my patients....and I have NO patience for fellow aides that don't do their share of the work. Often, I have one fellow aide who will call off every saturday, and when she does work, she doesn't do any of our extra required duties.
I am always there to help out, and from a student nurse perspective, I know the nurses are working....even when they're on the computer. Such is life.
After so long, many aides get burned out when they get asked things that some nurses believe are above them. One nurse asked me my last shift to take someone off the bedpan.....(yes, I put them on, I was going back, but that nurse gave them pain pills while on it, and then when asked...said "let me go get the aide."
I will NEVER forget where I came from, but there will be nights where I'm too swamped to help.....that's life.
I've seen just as many lazy nurses as CNA/techs. I've also seen Docs who barely keep any office hours because they like to golf and a FNP who is always rescheduling all her appointments because "something came up". We've had lab techs and X-Ray techs who had to be forced out of their chairs and off their butts to get some work done. There is the maintenance man who never gets around to fixing anything and the housekeeping gal who is never to be found when someone pukes in the hallway.
On the other hand, there are employees in each of these positions who do the work of 2 or 3 people and always have a smile on their face when you ask them to do something.
It seems to always hold true - when you are so annoyed at another employee's behavior, you can bet that there's an employee somewhere who is really annoyed with your behavior.
One of my managers once said to me it's not an equal tradeoff - the nurse can do both her job and the CNAs job(s) but the CNA could never do the nurse's job - so therefore it's double work if the CNA is not pulling their weight and the nurse has to do everything.
I work closely with my aides and I tell them at start of shift to get me when they have to wash this patient or that one - because I know they are heavy and I also need to assess or they are swamped too I will do the admission by myself.....we work as a team....I love the aides on my floor - and I treat them with respect. It's a really hard job they have - they are overworked (like the nurses!) and they DON'T get PAID ENOUGH!!!
Specializes in Gyn Onc, OB, L&D, HH/Hospice/Palliative.
I work with some awesome PCA's, I think if you respect others, they will work really well with you, I've seen some PCA's get really ****** at other nurses b/c of the way they are treated and made to feel like slaves, I also think we all can be burnt out at times and made to feel that way RN,LPN,CNA,PCT,PCA whoever, it doesn't matter we are all overwhelmed and stressed at times, one hand needs to wash the other
I'm one of those lowly CNA's but I'm a bit cocky and think I'm an amazing CNA. When running my butt off while another CNA sits at the desk and flips through magazines I've learned that when you say "Can you...." they can easily say no. Instead I say. "I have XYZ going on I need to to do ______ for me because _______"
Specializes in ICU,PCU,ER, TELE,SNIFF, STEP DOWN PCT.
Okay I have to wonder where you all work where the CNA/PCTs sit on their butt all the time, refuse to do vitals, turns , blood sugars and so on. My unit I work as a tech on is VERY busy. We(the techs) run like crazy all the time. There are only MAYBE 2 who are lazy, get along with the important folks and get their way and are just lazy and RNs make excuses for them and their reasons. If we refused to do these things write ups would ensue and potental job loss I would figure where I work waiting to finish RN school. I am in a hospital setting.
I work as a tech, give 110% all the time and run all night, miss lunch for my pts come first always, rarely sit down ever, even to chart, and sometimes get to void hours after really wanting too. I want to know where the lazy aides are who get to talk on the phone(we sure are not allowed too) that way I can find a place I can sit down at once in a while to see what it is like.
Specializes in ICU,PCU,ER, TELE,SNIFF, STEP DOWN PCT.
BTW: don't think just because an aide is a student nurse that the aide will provide good care. I've worked with some students as aides that provided some of the worst care I've ever seen. They didn't care about their pts, they were just their to get a paycheck. (not to lump all students together, because my pts do get excellent care)
AMEN to that or. I hear" I am sooooooo tired from school." all shift long and how hard they have to work and go to school. WELL D'UH! Welcome to the real world. We are all tired tooand many go to school besides "you" but we still do our jobs 100%, no matter how tired we are.
Sure I've seen this lazy behavior! There are "bad eggs" everywhere; simply too many to count at our facility! Alas, if you complain about them, YOU are considered the complainer, the non-teamworker and then suffer for it in one way or another. Those who sit around seem to have more rights than those of us who bust our butts. Management has its favorites.
Roles that require significant dedication to education and training are going to weed out anyone technically competent to perform the role but isn't sufficiently ambitious or motivated to do so.
You don't tend to see a lot of lazy advanced practice nurses, doctors, lawyers, and so on- they've all had to dedicate a huge chunk of their time and limited resources to achieve their goals and as a result aren't prone to being "lazy" at their jobs.
On the other hand, with the exception of people just starting out in an industry, anyone that maintains a job with minimal education and training requirements and has little desire or motivation to further their education is significantly more likely to be lazy.
I can say with n= close to 20 that some of the laziest people I've ever met are those in low end jobs for many years simply coasting by life doing the bare necessary to pay bills. Many such people were nurse's aides-- I know, because I worked with them as an aide for over three years and I had to pick up their abundant slack.
Many of the aides I've worked with that I respected for their dedication and care have gone on to nursing school and many are now nurses with the same level of dedication and care.
I think you are very brave to express your theory in this age of coddling everyone's feelings. I have seen some career CNAs that are awesome but I've seen more of the behavior you describe ie..doing the bare minimum with no interest in furthering skills or education. If some of them spent as much time on education as they do on their cell phones, then they'd be PhDs by now. Granted, I'm sure money is a factor sometimes but many of us have worked their way up the ladder with sacrifice and determination.
I stated this before in the other post, but they need to up the standards and training for CNAs- but with a nice pay raise to go along with it.
Back to the OP. Yes, I have seen this behavior. There are some CNAs who are lazy. Some CNAs are burnt out. Some CNAs have no idea just how much the nurse has to juggle. Then there are the wanna be nurse CNAs.
I think, with a CNA like this, ask nicely, and if they give you grief, get firm. You have to not care about being liked by them. If they still give you grief, then you need to report the insubordination.
I think that was my initial problem. I wanted to be liked by everyone. Well as a leader, not everyone is going to like you and they may not even respect you. But as leaders we need to make sure our residents are taken care of. I answer to someone, just as my CNA answers to me if tasks don't get done. We all answer to someone.
I do think a big part of it is that some do not understand what a nurse has to do. There are also some that just don't want to work..period. And of course those people come in every job description as someone else mentioned. But when that type of person is taking care of your residents, and risking your license, it is really tough.
I think if we're all really honest with one another, we'll admit that every hospital, every nursing home, and every clinic (worldwide) has lazy CNAs/PCTs/PCAs, as well as lazy, LPNS/RNs/APNs.
I am a full-time PCT/full-time nursing student and I work my *** off each and every shift, come home, sleep for 2 hrs, go to school/clinicals, come home and study, and then go back to work to work my *** off some more.
Just a few hours ago, I had to continuously track my patient's RN down so that he could receive 1 Percocet. Each and every time I caught up with the nurse to remind her that the patient was in pain and needed his meds, I found her at the nursing station (not busily charting or frantically gathering labs to report to the impatient MD on the phone) chatting it up with one of her RN buddies.
So, in conclusion, the "lazy employee" can be found on all nursing levels...no matter the pedigree, no matter the title, no matter the education.
One of my pet peeves as a PCT is when a RN speaks to me as if I dropped out of school at the age of 5 and just learned to speak English 2 hours ago.
I believe that with some RNs and other staff members--not all--the assumption is that just because the job is an entry-level position that PCTs are uneducated.
I say this not to come across as better than or conceited--I say this only to make my point-- but I have more education than alot of the RNs on my unit. I have a Bachelor's degree in another field and am currently in a BSN program.
The sad fact is that alot of times some of the RNs that I work with don't even bother to treat me as a fellow human being until they find out where I graduated and what program I'm in.
If we refused to do these things write ups would ensue and potental job loss I would figure where I work waiting to finish RN school. I am in a hospital setting.
locolorenzo22, BSN, RN
2,396 Posts
Either way, I work to provide CARE for my patients....and I have NO patience for fellow aides that don't do their share of the work. Often, I have one fellow aide who will call off every saturday, and when she does work, she doesn't do any of our extra required duties.
I am always there to help out, and from a student nurse perspective, I know the nurses are working....even when they're on the computer. Such is life.
After so long, many aides get burned out when they get asked things that some nurses believe are above them. One nurse asked me my last shift to take someone off the bedpan.....(yes, I put them on, I was going back, but that nurse gave them pain pills while on it, and then when asked...said "let me go get the aide."
I will NEVER forget where I came from, but there will be nights where I'm too swamped to help.....that's life.