CNA's Not Wanting to Listen to Student Nurses

avahnel, ASN, RN · Feb 24, 2009

As a student, I have never to delegate anything to a CNA. I only have one pt to take care of, and even with AM care, meds, ect. there is plenty of time left over. I have needed help before, and asked politely, and humbly for help. I made sure the Tech knew that I respected their expertise in this part of the job, and that I appreciated it. I find that you get further with honey than vinegar.

ChristineN, BSN, RN · Feb 24, 2009

I think that unless there are certain tasks that a CNA can do that you aren't allowed too for some reason, I don't see why you should be delegating. You might need help moving a pt, but you should be doing the vitals, AM care, etc. Once you become a nurse, there will be plenty of time to delegate, but in order to delegate, you need to be able to preform the skills yourself.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Feb 24, 2009

I would leave the CNA alone. This person probably has many years of experience, knows his/her job throughly, and may feel belittled by an inexperienced student nurse who is attempting to push his/her weight around by delegating tasks and giving orders.

How would you feel if the tables were turned and someone with no experience attempted to delegate to you?

In addition, student nurses tend to not have more than a few patients. There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to complete the "CNA" duties along with the "nursing" tasks.

SnarfGirl · Feb 24, 2009

I always help the CNA's out...as a student you have more time than they do. . . I had one come up to one time and say "YOUR patient has post op vitals and I AM NOT doing them for you" I was like..."uhhh, ok, no problem I wasn't going to ask you to" She actually stared at me for a minute and I thought she was going to say something mean. Then she said "wow, that's really great! Thanks...students usually try to make me do everything" We worked great together the rest of the day. I've learned in 4 semesters of school that they are much more willing to help you find stuff etc..if you are willing to help them out. That being said, sometime they are just mean....Our instructor always says it's because they are jealous...I don't know about that....but good rule of thumb is to always be polite and help them out! Good luck!

prettyNpurple · Feb 24, 2009

In the hospital I work at our med/surg floor it gets about 4 student nurses 2 for East and 2 for the west side of the floor...I've come to notice that the student nurses are to give their full attention (such as administering meds, baths, I&O and such) to only the patient/s they have been assigned to, therefore I would think having the help of a CNA would be kinda like cheating no? since applying your basic nursing skills are included too! but on our floor we CNA's dont hesitate to ask them if they are in need of our assistance :)

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Feb 24, 2009

This is something that you should discuss with your instructor and ask how your instructor would like you to handle.

jjhunt · Feb 24, 2009

I think I gave the wrong idea that I was "telling" the CNA what to do. I just meant that being in my 4th semester, out instructors have asked us to be sure and delegate some duties when and "only when" we need help. Sorry if I made this sound like I was telling the CNA's what to do. We can't do out job without good CNA's.

jackson145 · Feb 25, 2009

I'm in my last semester & one of our 'critical indicators' for graduation is delegation. Each week we have to demonstrate at least one incidence of delegation (as well as teaching, advocating, etc.) on the floor we are working on.

I think I dread it more than anything else I've had to do at clinicals. You just know it isn't going to be well received. Doesn't matter though, gotta do it if I wanna graduate, right?

netglow, ASN, RN · Feb 25, 2009

Yup, so do we. We started out the semester doing serious CNA support on top of our pt. duties. Now we will delegate so that we can complete our interventions/chart on multiple pts. BTW I seriously busted my tail with helping CNA at the beginning. 4 were full care pts. with diarrhea. So. Also, a little kiss-butt would be to jump to a call light for someone if you have time.

apocatastasis · Feb 25, 2009

As a nursing student in the third semester of an accelerated Master's program, I take issue with some of the opinions in this thread.

We have never had less than 2 patients, even on my first day of clinical. If, as a student, I'm responsible for 2-3 patients [on an oncology floor where the RNs themselves only have 4], and I'm swamped for whatever reason, I have no issue whatsoever with asking a CNA to give a bath or to take vitals for me. If that's what it takes, I can do it, and I *do* do it; if we weren't there, they would still be responsible for it... the hospitals do not factor us in when they staff their units. If I have the time, I'll do it all myself, no problem... or if I have a bit more time and I just need help because the patient is large or whatever, I'll ask the CNA to help me.

If a student is going to be given the same practical responsibilities as an RN, then that is going to include delegation, whether the RNs agree with that or not. We may have less patients, but we are also less experienced, and, at least in my program, we have the same amount of paperwork to complete and a lot more hoops to jump through with instructors.

Altered · Feb 25, 2009

Why should the CNA "listen" to you? Why can't you integrate basic care into your care plan? If you ARE required to finish the program learning how to delegate, you should be able to figure out how to work with ANYONE and EVERYONE.