Help, I'm in a situation that I really don't know what to do. I'm a new lpn, about a year and a half. I consider myself a very good nurse and very professional and very fair. However, the facility I am currently employed has a real problem.You see, the cna's think they run the floor, and no one is doing a thing about it. They have blatantly told me that these were "their residents, and they can take care of them better than I can" I have complained to the don and nothing is done about it. The other two nurses that work the floor with me have been there for years, as have most of the aids, and they have been allowed to behave like this. The other 3-ll nurses have complained also but nothing is every done. The don, I'M told is afraid of getting involved because the aids belong the a union and the nurses don't. The aids are constantly involving themselves in nursing conversations I'm having regarding care. They easedrop on conversations with nurses and doctors and family members. I think they even go through charts when no one is around. I was even told by our infection control nurse to be careful, that the aids will "report" you in a second, just to see a nurse in trouble or get fired. I was even told that the cnas had to sign off on bolus feedings, just to prove that the residents were getting their feedings. I put my foot down with that one and was called to the don's office. I now have a fellow nurse sign for them. I have never been in a facility where the cna's were so empowered. It's really scary. I'm really thinking of going into home care. Have already contacted an agency. Would appreciate some feedback with this one, Thankss.
In my defense, my outrage has clearly been w/ nurses looking down on CNAs. The misspell pointing out was to "turn the knife" so to speak, ot throw fuel onto the fire that posters like Tory and sleep fueled long before I came along...
So laugh at my misspell, I am certainly laughing at myself (knowing that pointing out bad grammar always gets one flamed!)
And channel you outrage at the producers of ER for not portraying nurses well, and gloss over comments like sleep calling CNAs brainless and stupid
I may be over- passionate, but I get chastised for being rude, and sleep's comments are lost in my ironic misspell
I guess the egg's on my face...You two certainly showed me...
I'll quietly go to my LTC job this w/e giving my CNAs the dignity and respect they have earned.
Hey, I was beginning to think you were working where I was. This same thing happened to me , I finally put my foot down and let me tell you ,there were only a few survivors. They are just mad because they want to be a nurse and don't have the brains to do it. I say tell them to take there Union and shove it. YOU!!!!!!! are their supervisor,they can be wrote up and fired for insubornation. YOU GO GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow this is your 3rd post and you are already being hateful... I'm sure we will never see a reply from you again.
It's people like YOU who make CNA's and LPN's hate their jobs and quit... I'm a PCA and guess what????????? I'm also in nursing school, so I have the brains... And actually most of the PCA's/CNA's in my hospital are also in nursing school... So don't make it sound like CNAs are too stupid to be nurses so they just wipe butts... Obviously you never worked as a CNA... It must be nice to have the holier than thou attitude...
thank you for the above outrage on sleep's post...
this is all I was asking for, nothing else...
my apologies to all on the misspell post, but sleep's post was so over the top I had to point it out...
ignorance like sleep displays makes me angry, and I wish it made more people angry, beacuse we may end up in a nursing home someday, and Karma is a terrible thing to mess with...
HAVING the brains is one thing, USING them is another. THat's the problem. People don't always USE them.
#1.. I don't think you were the one who called CNAs stupid... but if you were then you shouldn't have...
and as far as them having the brains and not using them... That also goes for RN's and LPN's, Resp Techs, Radiology Techs, Surg Techs, Doctors.. EVERYONE!!!!
#1.. I don't think you were the one who called CNAs stupid... but if you were then you shouldn't have...
and as far as them having the brains and not using them... That also goes for RN's and LPN's, Resp Techs, Radiology Techs, Surg Techs, Doctors.. EVERYONE!!!!
I never did call ANYONE stupid (read back and that's evident), by calling CNAs stupid would be calling MYSELF stupid, since i am a CNA.
As for your last line, that was precisely my point.
...Please someone back me on any of my many rants...
It is NOT going to be me.
I have encountered the question of NACs looking in patient charts several times. As recently as 2000 the State of Washington said it was a breech of confidentiality and fined several facilities for allowing it. With the implimenting of the even more stringent Federal rules I can not imagine it has relaxed any.
Patient charts contain financial, legal and insurance information. That information has NO bearing on an NACs ability to do their job.
a reminder to everyone to be respectful of each other on the bulletin board.
please refrain from personal attacks.
yeah.
let's show a little respect, eh?
why all the bickering? i believe in empowerment. we want to be treated well by the nps, the docs, etc., right? the lpns want to be treated well, respected, and empowered, right? and so do the cnas. for that matter, every human being wants to feel that he/she has worth. that their input has value. from the janitor, housekeepers, kitchen help on up.
let's lighten up, and look for the good in each face we meet and/or work with. everyone has something to offer. there are ways to addresse obvious "wrongs", but attitudes have no place in teamwork. attitude begets attitude.
like it or not, cnas, too, are coworkers. i will get from them that which i put into them. a little appreciation goes a long, long way.
my don empowered me. had she merely brushed me off as "another know-nothing pct", i would not be the rn i am today. she sought out my potential, and made me aware of what i had.
what a wonderful world this would be if we looked for the good in each human face.
...And even if there were HIPAA police, how should I stop a CNA who is reading a chart? Is not the facility then liable (as the CNA signed a confidentiality agreement, as well as took a HIPAA class). The RN certainly can't be held responsible...
You tell them to put it down/back. If they refuse you write them up. As the supervisor YOU are responsable for their actions, YOU are responsable for overseeing the actions of EVERY nurse or NAC on the units you accept responsability for.
Our charts don't contain any insurance or financial info, that's kept in a separate folder, locked in medical records.
They do contain legal info, since there is documentation in it, but this is how i find out what is to be planned for tomorrow (by reading the MD orders, so i don't accidently get soup for someone that shouldn't have anything by mouth, or grape juice for a diabetic who lies and tells me that they aren't a diabetic. Or look and see if this new admission tested positive for MRSA, so i can get out a PPE cart to set outside of the room. Or if they need a set of Kendalls, i can call and have them already waiting for the pt when they get up here. And that does have a bearing my abilitiy to do my job, if i give someone food who wasn't supposed to have it, and a procedure gets cancelled because of my error.
These are things that are in my job description, since i am now more qulaified to do a few more things than i could last year. And the nurse doesn't always have the tiem to sit and tell me "oh Mr. X is NPO" or even better, Mr. X is NPO, but the nurse leaving forgot to tell the nurse coming on about this because she was up to her neck in PRN meds at the last minute. There has been several times that a nurse found out from me that a pt. was NPO, and after double-checking it, see that i was right about what i said.
I can either look at the chart or i can use my granted access code to our computer chart system and retrieve this info. on what the pt. can or cannot have. Since i was given a computer code and password, and the only other ones on my floor that have it are the RNs and LPNs, i'm the only CNA seeing any of this.
I don't discuss it during work or my off timeon what i found. That for anyone is wrong. For example, i see in a chart that a pt. has MRSA, and the PPE is outside of the pt.'s door, if a CNA asks "what do they have" i say "you need to wear a gown, gloves and mask to go in there, and to thoroughly clean anything that comes out".
hogan4736, BSN, RN
739 Posts
Agreed, there is much irony in my misspell :roll
I even proofread my post 2wice!
In my defense, my outrage has clearly been w/ nurses looking down on CNAs. The misspell pointing out was to "turn the knife" so to speak, ot throw fuel onto the fire that posters like Tory and sleep fueled long before I came along...
So laugh at my misspell, I am certainly laughing at myself (knowing that pointing out bad grammar always gets one flamed!)
And channel you outrage at the producers of ER for not portraying nurses well, and gloss over comments like sleep calling CNAs brainless and stupid
I may be over- passionate, but I get chastised for being rude, and sleep's comments are lost in my ironic misspell
I guess the egg's on my face...You two certainly showed me...
I'll quietly go to my LTC job this w/e giving my CNAs the dignity and respect they have earned.
sean