why are cna's treated like they are stupid and replaceable?

[Purple Princess]

it seems to me that CNA's, esp. in long term care, get treated as if they don't know how to do anything, are overworked, unappreciated, and underpaid. This one nurse about drives me up the wall. You come to her with a patient related concern and she'll look at me like I'm busy you take care of it. No I cannot hang another feeding, do a dressing change, or insert a catheter though I've been taught how. ( previous nurses training). She walks like a waddling duck. A lady accidently slipped and I was taking her to the toilet. It was an accident and I wish I fell, I felt that bad. My partner was busy at the moment and this nurse was RIGHT there! I asked her if she would mind helping me stand this lady up, she goes oh I thought so, so was going to help you!!! This is the type of nurse that would actually make a mess in the process of giving a pt their meds and say gosh that's the aides job to clean it up. I never ever expect the nurse to do my job for me but if they are in the same room and can't even help their own patients, there is something wrong with that. She doesn't like lifting either, I wonder how she passed her physical for nursing school. No other aide in sight, asked her one day to help transfer someone( would have either injured myself badly or dropped him) nurse sitting on her butt and " oh I guess so" with a sigh! The nurses are suppose to help!!! maybe as a cna I am biased and only see one side of it. Other nurses assist at times but she thinks she is too good to do anything else, but now I'm in nursing school and once I get out I hope I don't ever treat my help this way. Maybe I'm expecting to be treated with respect because I work very hard to care for my patients in skilled care, but we are always short staffed, and the fact that I have a college degree in nursing/ general studies, while I'm not a nurse in the eyes of the law I am a caregiver that continually nurtures each and every one of my patients, in a way when a patient hollers for the nurse they don't decipher between me and the LPN or RN. we are all nurses to them providing patient care.

[chadash]

Guess my pie illustration just doesn't cut it.....

[chadash]

Nursing assistants need more supervision, education and direction from the nurses. I don't see this built into most organizations. Too much is assumed.

[Kitkat23]

KitKat: we just lost a very good CNA at work and all over a scheduling problem. Just like you she was worth her weight in gold for the frail and helpless people that she cared for. WHAT A SHAME!

Hi there. Do you work in LTC too? Are you a nurse or an aide. Why did that good aide quit? Great CNAs are hard to find. A few CNAs I work with are rough, rude, and lazy and don't give a damn about the residents feelings.

I worked with one lazy aide today and she refused to wash up her patient when his ostomy bag started leaking all over his clothes. She snapped, "Can he wait after supper?" right in front of the nurse and his family. She was written up and I ended up doing the care on the poor man. The family did not want that lazy aide in the room and I gave her an easy resident to put to bed.

The rude and lazy aides are here for the money and that's a shame. :angryfire

[TheNewDino]

every state is different for hourse and class time requirements. though i agree, the lpn is not a step above cna. if you look at it like a ladder. i don't know what it is called, but a year after being a cna (in maine) you can take the cna something-or-other class that alows you to give meds and do more nursing tasks (just like the cna class it's also 8 weeks, 150 or so hours long with clinicals starting halfway through); that would be a step up from cna. i would say lpn would probably be the next step, but that doesn't mean it's an easy one.

~michelle

are you serious????? lpn's go to school for a year and learn alot in that time. you can become a cna in 4 weeks. don't get me wrong, i am not bashing cna's by any means, but i do think lpn's deserve a little more credit!

[CrazyMom27]

My thing is I do like most of my RN's I work with and we are one CNA to GYN L&D floor, which isn't bad because we're not usually that busy. Howerever what makes me mad is when I'm swamped and an RN is sitting behind the desk talking about family affairs and a pt comes to ask for something and this person rudely turns to me and says "so and so can you go get this pt ..." granted it's quater to 7 and i'm typing in my notes so I can go home. I am a person who jumps for anything and anybody even when there sitting there browsing the net. But like i said i like most my nurses and thats my job @ pay of 8 dollars an hour. But there is this one such nurses that thinks she is my boss and is very ugly acting and treats me like i'm stupid and insignificant except for jumping to her needs. My question is that our job to be there gofer, there slave, because that's the way i feel, even by my supervisor sometimes. So i've learned to keep my mouth shut and do my job, and learn who i can coversate with and who i can't. What bugs me the most is I would love to be a nurse but not everyone can afford to work, and go to school and now take care of a family. I have all my general study classes under me it's a matter of getting into a program.

[CrazyMom27]

You're aides are lucky then. I think I've taken two fifteen minute breaks in the last two years. The only time I ever ask a nurse for help is if the situation needs attention ASAP and there is not another aide available. The nurses do their jobs, I do mine.

Not all of us are so stupid as to think that a band aid is an emergency. I worked with this one nurse who every time I reported something like a skin tear, jumped my butt because she thought I was asking her to stop what she was doing and take care of it. No, she was too stupid to understand the difference between demanding action and simply reporting something. I learned the value of the Post-It note with that one.

Amen, I've learned to stop saying a whole lot during shift change because i'm looked at as if i'm stupid. So If it's not life and death I pas it off to my Next NA and let her know to keep an eye on it if it gets worse to notify nurse.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Although this issue remains relevant and interesting to this very day, please keep in mind that this thread was started in early 2005. This discussion is 3.5 years old. Therefore, any advice being given might not be useful to the OP (original poster) any longer.