Ok... I just touched on this in another post, but now it is bothering me again. I was floated to my hospital's telemetry floor last week, and something happened that has been making me bitter all week! First off... I LOVE NURSES! I want to be a nurse, I respect nurses, I know my role as a CNA and I am a darn good one at that! The nurses on the med-surg floor I work on are great, no complaints (well almost none, but none work related, LOL ). While on the telemetry unit I was busy, the floor was at maximum census, I was the only aid, and the nurses were stressed a short staffed. I understand this... it has been that way many times on other floors. Well while I was busy answering call lights, taking vitals, and trying to get a very dirty patient bathed (his last documented shower was a week before, and you could tell), I get a call on the handset for me to get to 515 stat from a nurse. I run in there and smell the reason I was dispatched. Yes it smelled bad! Feces all over this patients legs and bed. I understand it is my job to do this, so I jump right in... while I am cleaning her up I notice that there is foley kit on the overbed... so I knew why it was a stat. Then when as I turn around to go to the cabinet to get a fresh linensaver I see the nurse standing there! Ok... I have been in situations when nurses called me in to clean up a mess, and I am fine with that... I know you guys have A LOT more to do than I do... She caught me off gaurd, and I jumped a little. She laughed and told me I just cleaned that patient up very quckly and well (I think it was a compliment). Well I asked her how long she had been standing there, and she said she never left the room, and gave me a pat on the back for a job well done. I was confused to say the least. I don'd mind if the nurse is busy and has something else important to do and I come it to aide her in saving time... but if she was going to be in the room the whole time... why call me in there stat to do the peri care when she apparently had nothing better to do???? It took me about eight minutes to change her bed and clean her up... so it took the nurse about eight minutes to watch me do it! It just irritates me... not sure why... maybe it shouldn't... but it does. Any thoughts as to why? Maybe there is a good reason I do not understand... let me know...
Actually the nurses owning me is one of my pet peeves....I had one nurse who would talk about what HER aides would do, how she would make HER aides do this and HER aides do that...It really made some of us aides that were on her shift mad...NOBODY owns me...If she really owned me then she can pay me thank you very much....Also if I'm a cetified nurses aide aren't I working under my own license?...Anyways I do agree with someone that said respect is a two way street! And that's SO true what your instructor told you. If you treat me fairly well and as a HUMAN I'll bend over backwards for you...Ultimately I'm there for the residents though...Nurse has her duties and I have mine....Nurse can help me with his/her duties but I can't help her/him with theirs so I do understand why a nurse may not be able to help me...BUT as the OP said the nurse was just standing there she should have jumped in!
We are certified to aide the nurse, everything we do for a nurses patient is something the nurse is responsible for in the end. We can loose our place on the registry, but the nurse loose their license to practice. Basically the certification just tells the nurse we have been taught and tested basic nursing skills. The cert is really only needed when working in a nursing home, and it was enacted in response to wide spread neglect and abuse. Our tasks are actually the nurses responsibility... we are delegagted tasks by the nurse. Bottom line is, it is the nurse who is responsible for all the nursing care provided to a patient, be it by them, or by an aide.
). While on the telemetry unit I was busy, the floor was at maximum census, I was the only aid, and the nurses were stressed a short staffed. I understand this... it has been that way many times on other floors. Well while I was busy answering call lights, taking vitals, and trying to get a very dirty patient bathed (his last documented shower was a week before, and you could tell), I get a call on the handset for me to get to 515 stat from a nurse. I run in there and smell the reason I was dispatched. Yes it smelled bad! Feces all over this patients legs and bed. I understand it is my job to do this, so I jump right in... while I am cleaning her up I notice that there is foley kit on the overbed... so I knew why it was a stat. Then when as I turn around to go to the cabinet to get a fresh linensaver I see the nurse standing there! Ok... I have been in situations when nurses called me in to clean up a mess, and I am fine with that... I know you guys have A LOT more to do than I do... She caught me off gaurd, and I jumped a little. She laughed and told me I just cleaned that patient up very quckly and well (I think it was a compliment). Well I asked her how long she had been standing there, and she said she never left the room, and gave me a pat on the back for a job well done. I was confused to say the least. I don'd mind if the nurse is busy and has something else important to do and I come it to aide her in saving time... but if she was going to be in the room the whole time... why call me in there stat to do the peri care when she apparently had nothing better to do???? It took me about eight minutes to change her bed and clean her up... so it took the nurse about eight minutes to watch me do it! It just irritates me... not sure why... maybe it shouldn't... but it does. Any thoughts as to why? Maybe there is a good reason I do not understand... let me know...
CNA_Timmy
69 Posts
We are certified to aide the nurse, everything we do for a nurses patient is something the nurse is responsible for in the end. We can loose our place on the registry, but the nurse loose their license to practice. Basically the certification just tells the nurse we have been taught and tested basic nursing skills. The cert is really only needed when working in a nursing home, and it was enacted in response to wide spread neglect and abuse. Our tasks are actually the nurses responsibility... we are delegagted tasks by the nurse. Bottom line is, it is the nurse who is responsible for all the nursing care provided to a patient, be it by them, or by an aide.