cna's who don't do their job

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Specializes in Level III cardiac/telemetry.

I started my job 6 weeks ago and my 2nd day of orientation I went with another aide (we'll call her "B") who infuriated me. She charted all of her patients as "bathed" even though none of them was ever given a full bath. If she changed the patients brief or cleaned them after a BM she considered that a bath. A lot of times she charts them as "refused bath" when what the patient really said was "can we wait until after breakfast (or lunch)." Never once during that day did she put water in the wash basin and get out the wash rags. She used the disposable wipes to clean their bottoms and sprayed some deoderant and anti-microbial spray on them and that was it. And yet B always told her nurses that the patients had been bathed. Our charge nurse/PCC asked me if B had actually bathed any patients and I told her no. So the next day B said "you can work with me again today" and our charge said she wanted me with someone else. I let our charge nurse know later that that wasn't an example that I intended to follow and thanked her for not having me work with her again. Our shifts are from 630a to 7p but if something happens during the 30 minute overlap of shift change she always says it's not her responsibility and the other shift needs to take care of it. Or instead of giving the next aide report on the patients she will hand them her patient roster with notes on it and say "I'm leaving." Last weekend she left and then we found out that one of her patients (who happens to be 300+ lbs and needs 3 people just to clean up) had told her an hour earlier that he had soiled himself and needed cleaned up but she left him. So myself and the other aide who were finishing our shift helped one of the aides coming on get him cleaned up. B constantly leaves the floor without telling anyone and comes back when she wants to. Lately she's been pairing up with one of the other aides and saying "lets go see if there's anything new in the giftshop" or some other excuse to leave the floor and leave me alone.

Sunday we had all just gotten there and I heard her tell the other aide "let's just fart around today." WHAT? Besides the fact that she "farts around" every day, what kind of attitude is that to have at work? I'm so sick of it and plan to talk to either my manager or charge nurse when I go to work on Friday. I'm just wondering if it will look like I'm the new girl stirring up trouble. How should I handle it? I also know that unless she is fired or quits, having someone get on to her will not make a difference. She will still do her job the same way.

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Lana,

You've been on the job for six weeks already... where has the time gone?! :p

I would suggest that instead of "ratting out" B, go to your nurse manager and pose a few questions such as "Who is supposed to cover the 30 min overlap between shifts? The person who I'm learning with is saying it's the next shift's job and I thought it was our job. What's the right thing to do?" Ask questions in that vein of things. Does this make sense? You really don't want to rat someone out, but it's really a shame that a person sat in their own excrement for an hour before someone got to them. I don't think that this is a person your facility wants to retain, however, you don't want to get the reputation of "tattling." It's a tough position to be in and I wish I had more concrete advice to give you.

Also, if there's another person who you think you'd train better with, say to your NM, "From watching [person c] I'm learning a lot more and I think we might be a better match. Is it possible you can change the assignment so I can work with him/her?"

I hope that everything else is going well with your job, and schooling, too! :)

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Specializes in Wound Care , Foot Care,and Geriatrics.

hi there!i am also a c.n.a student here on vancouver island b.c.i am on my practicum and i know where you are coming from.it is our first one and i feel like i am so quickly learning what i will not do when i am hired somewhere and you very quickly see who is safe,caring and on the ball as opposed to all the other stuff!!ahhhhh politics,already seeing the games and what side some peoples bread is buttered on. bwhat do you find the most challenging aspect?for me it is time management ,you know! anyways take care at least you know that you will do things the way you want to and can live with,and the esidents aswell.best of luck.:monkeydance:

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I definitely understand what you are saying, followyourbliss. One my CNA clinicals I learned from one CNA what I should NOT be doing. In fact, when it was my turn to be with her, I graciously asked to be paired with someone else. I noticed that this particular CNA was complaining more about floor politics than she was concerned about her job.

I know that we have ideal concepts of what we will and will NOT do on the floor once we are a CNA or even RN, we might say that we won't EVER do such and such and then finding ourselves doing it. However, there are a few things I did learn from this person as what to NOT do, it will be ingrained in my brain for a LONG time.

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Specializes in Level III cardiac/telemetry.

Katherine,

thanks for the reply! Yes, it's been that long - can you believe it? I guess the problem is that I'm not training anymore, so I'm just as responsible as everyone else for making sure jobs are done. It's gotten so bad that one day last weekend one of the other aides (the best one we had on our floor - learned so much with him!) and I spent 15 minutes in the parking lot venting about how we had done all of her work that day because she never stayed on the floor (I swear she made 10 trips to the giftshop that day!) and everytime she was gone her patients needed changed so we had to do it. I also know that the charge nurse we had that day (who was a floater) wrote an e-mail to our manager about all the things that B hadn't done for her patients that day, including leaving that large patient sitting in his BM for so long. She's told me outright that the only thing that really needs to be done on her shift is vitals q4 for all her patients. A couple of weeks ago I was gathering up cleaning supplies to take care of a patient who had just had a rectal tube removed and had BM on his bed and his bum and one of her patients (as suspected TB case who shouldn't be near other people without a mask) caught me in the hall and asked if he could have some coffee. I asked B if she could get it because I really needed to take care of my patient and B was just sitting at the nurses station with her feet up. Later she pulled me aside and started waving her finger and telling me she didn't appreciate me telling her what to do and that she knew that guy was standing in his doorway but she was letting him wait because he'd been too needy. I told her I didn't "tell her what to do" but asked if she could get it and she had the option of saying no and besides that, this patient shouldn't be standing in the hall without a mask on and if she would answer his call lights instead of making him come to the door we wouldn't have that problem. I know we all have patients who are needy and who seem to stay on the call light all the time, but with a TB patient you have to protect everyone else as well, and don't ignore someone when they're standing at the door staring at you and saying "Miss, Miss?"

But like you said, I don't want to be tattling. Ugh. It's just gotten to where I dread going to work on days when she's there.

Followyourbliss - I definately learned what NOT to do from her! Things like that do make us better at our jobs. Goodluck with your training!

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Specializes in Wound Care , Foot Care,and Geriatrics.

thanks for your encouragement with my training,i really appreciate it!every day i learn so much,some stuff i get right away...and other things take more tries...like prioritizing ressies,fiull care,you know getting on new briefs when there is ahhhh a smelly situation already on hand lol,but you know the smiles i get from the ressies is so worth all it.hey do "you"guys in the states have "bathing teams" where all you do is bath ressies? take care follow your bliss/color]

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

What is frustrating about these people is that they usually retain their jobs. I am quite sure that many nurses have reported them for years, but nothing has happened to them.

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Specializes in LTC, home health, critical care, pulmonary nursing.
thanks for your encouragement with my training,i really appreciate it!every day i learn so much,some stuff i get right away...and other things take more tries...like prioritizing ressies,fiull care,you know getting on new briefs when there is ahhhh a smelly situation already on hand lol,but you know the smiles i get from the ressies is so worth all it.hey do "you"guys in the states have "bathing teams" where all you do is bath ressies? take care follow your bliss/color]

we have a shower team. it's great for people like me who don't particularly enjoy showering. when one of them calls off we do the showers. it works pretty well, and we're not frantically running around having 6 showers apiece to do as well.

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If you can, keep us updated on this situation, Lana, if you're comfortable with that. I'd really like to know how your employer works this out, whether she'll respond to a meeting with the NM w/o complaining or making up stories about everyone else or whatever your NM might decide to do.

I feel for you and a person like this really pulls teamwork down, along with the morale of everyone.

Let us know if you can, OK? For your sake and everyone else's who has to work on that floor, I hope a solution can be found and this person follows whatever recommendation is made.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Cardiothoracics, VADs.

Is there a group of people who have experienced her behaviour so that you could go to the NM as a group? This would shift the focus off you as a "tattletale" and move it more to an issue of poor patient care.

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Specializes in CV Surgical, ICU.

I shadowed a girl much like that. (when she bothered to show up) She got herself fired, thinking she'd catch an unemployment check. She was too stupid to know how that works.. After her I shadowed two great aides and learned the right way to work in the facility ^_^

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If a CNA is not doing a certain aspect of her job, and falsifying records about it, then she should be reported to the nurse. Her behavior is negatively affecting the care of a resident. I understand the feeling about being a tattletale, but this behavior could possibly escalate into more serious things, such as stating a resident was fed, when she was not, or lying about a resident's weight to hide a weight loss. (I've actually read about this happening.)

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