CNA went missing....

Nurses General Nursing

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i am a student intern where i work. i alway help out the cna's at much as i can, however, it can be difficult because i am trying to learn the whole nursing role. so i was frustrated yesterday when the cna went missing and i spent a lot of time doing small things that were time consuming that she could have been doing. she was not busy she just went missing. so i told another nurse who was frustrated and she also said that she had not seen her all day. well, i guess the cna was in a room at this time and was upset. her job is also to take the vitals and some were not charted and she had left for the day.

anyway, i feel bad that i even said anything because i am just an intern and almost want to apologize. but it is frustrating when some of these CNAs delegate to me because they feel i should be doing everything for a pt which is nearly impossible without their help. i feel that she also should have said something if she did not take the vitals because i would have done them for my pts.

thanks!

This is pretty serious. CNA's (at least in my state) who walk off the job may be charged with patient abandonment, which will not only cost them their job, but also their license. In extreme cases, it can lead to criminal charges. A CNA who feels like they cannot work that day for whatever reason has a legal obligation to inform their supervisor before they simply disappear from the floor.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, ICU, educator.

At the hospital where I work, I also teach clinicals. Each week, my director at the hospital wants to know if there were any problems with any of our staff. She does deal with it, because we are a magnet hospital and are supposed to set an example for students.

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Did this aide go missing without proper clearance? Every place I ever worked would promply dismiss her if she did.

Too hasty...in my opinion

It is a vicious cycle. Too understand another, you need to work a mile in their shoes. I'm an RN and I try as much as I possibly can to help out my helpers- it's not always easy. some residents require constant monitoring.It's not always very easy.

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Specializes in LTC.

I have had cnas take trips to walmart, and go MIA for 2 hours so I'm not surprised.

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Our CNA's go missing all the time and always have an excuse about why they can not do their jobs. I work in an ICU where the nurses do everything for their patients. We ask the CNA's for help with patient care because the patients are intubated, sedated and hard to turn and they say "OK, I will meet you in there" and then they never show, or they they are busy while they are hiding in the linen closet talking on their cell phones or texting. Usually we do not ask them for help and just help each other.

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Specializes in Mental Health/School Nursing/Corrections.

We've just endured a hospital wide policy change because of the cell phone, texting thing. One bad apple demonstrates some bad behavior and their successors pay the price. This seems to be the way MGT deals with things ~vs~ dealing with the source.

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Specializes in Post Anesthesia.

As a cost cutting measure my hospital just elliminated CNAs from my floor for most of the time- There has been some moaning but I'm fine with it. It was WAY MORE annoying to me to have the CNA sitting in the back room for 6 of her 8 hour shift- watching TV, playing video games, jamming to her IPod, and if you asked for help- you got "I'm on my lunch now." I do the same amount of work, and I don't have to put up with someone drawing $10-$13 /hr to hold a chair down in the break room all night while I work my tail off. At least your CNA was good enough to get out of sight and not rub your nose in the fact that she was getting paid 1/3 your wage for watching TV and there was nothing you could do about it!

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I'm in a difficult situation right now.

Apparently, I am the only nurse in my facility who will answer call bells OR ringing personal alarms. I have seen nurses call aides who were involved in patient care to come and toilet a resident rather than do it themselves. THis doesn't fly. Safety comes first, and if someone is alert enough to know they need to pee and also a fall risk they WILL end up on the floor if made to wait.

But now, one of the aides will sit there with her butt plunked into a chair - where I need to be at the nurses' station - with her food and drink spread around her, paper open - and look around whenever a bell goes, waiting for me or the other aide to get it. How do I deal with a lazy person?

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

Sounds like OP was trying to manage her time and not so much upset about doing the CNA type tasks as she was about not knowing where the CNA was. I don't see that as being unreasonable at all. I can understand someone being overwhelmed and needing a minute, then you know what you're dealing with. Just disappear? No.

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Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.
I'm in a difficult situation right now.

Apparently, I am the only nurse in my facility who will answer call bells OR ringing personal alarms. I have seen nurses call aides who were involved in patient care to come and toilet a resident rather than do it themselves. THis doesn't fly. Safety comes first, and if someone is alert enough to know they need to pee and also a fall risk they WILL end up on the floor if made to wait.

But now, one of the aides will sit there with her butt plunked into a chair - where I need to be at the nurses' station - with her food and drink spread around her, paper open - and look around whenever a bell goes, waiting for me or the other aide to get it. How do I deal with a lazy person?

I read this really good book - http://www.amazon.com/Managing-Difficult-People-Survival-Handling/dp/1593371861

I generally don't recommend books, but it might give you some ideas.

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I am really sorry that y'all have had such a bad run of CNA's. I am a CNA and where ever I am working, it doesn't matter if the nurse is a student, intern, or a regular staff, unless i am told otherwise, if the patient is assigned to me, I take the care of them to the best of my ability from toileting to ambulating to taking vital to charting. Even if the patient is not mine, I will help out when I can.

I have worked with CNA's that "magically" disappear whenever they are needed, and it really irritates me. It isn't very often that I can get a nurse to help me, so when I can't get an aid to help it makes my job even harder. In a hospital, I typically have 10 people to take care of, in a nursing home or a skilled nursing facility I will typically have twice that.

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If they are allowed to disappear the whole day and aren't held accountable for it they will continue to do it. They should have been written up. They would have been fired where I work. It's unacceptable.

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