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.
One more thing.. even after going to LPN school I think all nursing student should be required to do so many hours of CNA work just to show them what it's like.. it would greatly help some nurses in their leadership skills over the aides
One more thing.. even after going to LPN school I think all nursing student should be required to do so many hours of CNA work just to show them what it's like.. it would greatly help some nurses in their leadership skills over the aides
In NC, some of the schools (for RN) do make that a requirement: you must possess a nurse aide certification to be considered for the program; you do not have to work as a CNA but you have to have the certification. Too many people go into healthcare (that have no experience) with an "idealized" notion of what is it.
In NC, some of the schools (for RN) do make that a requirement: you must possess a nurse aide certification to be considered for the program; you do not have to work as a CNA but you have to have the certification. Too many people go into healthcare (that have no experience) with an "idealized" notion of what is it.
I'm in NC and CNA certification is a requirement here to get into the Nursing program where I'm going to school. I just passed my CNA exam last week and am so happy! I'm hoping to get a job sometime in July (after wer get back from vacation).
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.
I fully understand your point here....I work with LVN's every day...some are great..and others are very annoying...the good ones will help you when you call,and the others...they call you every half hour to do something,and dont come to do THEIR job..but want you to do it for them..like "can you please go to Mr. Smith's room and get his blood sugar reading(which the patient keeps a record of himself every day,but the Charge Nurse is too lazy to walk herself over and get it herself).But when you call them..they are too busy to help you.So I know exactly what you mean..I go through it every day.Ughhh!!! :angryfire
wow, i didn't know that some schools require the cna thing.. i think that's very cool the good ones will help you when you call,and the others...they call you every half hour to do something as far as that statment goes.. i work with nurses who are absolutely ridiculous... they call a cna clear from the other end of the hall to do something as simple as wiping a face when they are right there to do it.. that, to me, is stupid.. if u don't have time to do something that small and efforless you need to work on your time management skills... then there are always the ones that say "i don't get paid enough to wash dirties" (actual statement i heard a nurse make one time) well if u they arent paid enough to do it, then why is a cna paid enough to do it? lpn's are not any better than cna's and arent above aide work.. but they do have other priorities to take care of first
That's a shame. I was a tech/cna for 5 years..unfortunately cna's are very replaceable and the hospital knows that. Good CNA's however are hard to find. The hospital also knows that, but the hospital doesn't care. Cuz IT is gonna whether IT has 2 good CNA's or 2 worthless CNA's. I don't know if you're in nursing school but if you are keep your eye on the prize and don't be like the nurse you're talking about. And if the abuse is bad go where you're appreciated. ICU and Kid's ER's are usually pretty good places to work. Secretarial jobs are kind of slack but you learn a lot of nursing duties by reading and re-reading MD orders. i feel your pain...i shouldn't cuz i'm not a cna anymore but the pain just lingers...dammit make it stop
How about a nurse passing pills and is all the way to the end of the hall. She locks her cart and walks to the desk and calls the aide to go to the room at the end of the hall, aid meets nurse in hall and walks with her back to the res. room and asks resident what is needed and nurse says oh I wanted you to fix her call light so she can reach it. :angryfire or nurse calls aid to desk and asks what are you doing? Aid tells nurse and nurse says oh just making sure you are working. Or aid asks nurse to help with hoyer lift resident, aid already has pad under res. and hoyer over res. ready to lift and nurse says when you have res. hooked up and ready to move to chair call me. (she is saying this after she got in the room)
This is one nurse out of a thousand and she was being a special b**** just for that aid. (which was me) done things like this to me until I had, had enough and went to management with her. I followed protocol on that and went thru the chain of command. But it turns out that the management would think it was funny if we (me and nurse) had it out face to face. So the charge nurse puts me and the nurse together in the same room and says Sue tell her what you have been telling me. (this not being the way it is supposed to be handeled) I think the charge nurse thought I might back down and say that I was not really that upset with her actions. when charge nurse first started this meeting I thought I might back down also, then I just charged right in there and told the problem nurse everything that I told the charge nurse including that I had said I thought she was worthless. That her bullying tactics were not going to work. If she continued with it I would skip the chain of command and take our problem straight to DON (which problem nurse was on probation for this crap already). I think she picked on me because she thought I would have never stood up for myself like that. The charge nurse and the witness nurse had to pick their mouths up off the floor before they left the room. I figure none of them thought I would do anything about it. Never had a problem out of the nurses after that.
I do respect the nurses I work with and I tried to respect that problem nurse but I don't believe that any one should be treated like that. Since that happened (mid 90's) I have come to respect the problem nurse and we have even become some what friends. We still work for the same company but in different areas.
Thank God I'm going for LVN.....and keeping my eye on the prize...also have put in a few applications at the local hospital.I just can't stay where I'm not appreciated.
Some of what I have read are extreme. Just remember that while a nurse can do certain jobs, the CNA cannot. If a nurse gets caught up as I did once, helping a CNA by doing a bath for her, the nurse gets behind, and the CNA cannot help the nurse pass meds, assess, document, return phone calls, etc. If I can do a "CNA" job quickly, I do it. Wiping a face, or changing a sheet takes less time that finding the CNA to do it, and should be done by whomever finds it. Don't think it's just CNA's who feel disrespected. I've had an MD empty a foley from CBI into the container, leave it on the floor, filled to the BRIM...and came out and asked me to measure it. No, wait...TOLD me to measure it. I went in the room, measured, emptied, and documented. When I got back out I asked him to not fill it all the way up like that, it made it difficult to maneuver without spilling. He laughed. I didn't.
By the way, I was a CNA once too. I decided I wanted more, and went back to school. I love being a nurse, but as with any job, there is more than meets the eye.
I'm a CNA in a hospital on a med-surg floor. While our nurses truly love and appreciate all of us (They fought for us recently when the CEO wanted to get rid of us) They know what an asset we are to the team. However since the nursing ratios changed and nurses now have 5 alone, we don't do tem nursing anymore. So on my floor there are 31 patients and 2 CNA's. Most days there are 2 CNA's, but there are days we have only 1. We work 12 hour shifts like the RN's and they give us an assignment of 10 patients. the Charge asks the RN and of course the CNA's get all the heavy or total care patients. CNA's on my floor are responsible for doing vitals on half the floor if there are 2 of us and the whole floor if there is one of us. Then we have to chart them all. Of the 10 we are assigned to we need to bathe, change the beds, do I&O's, you know the usual stuff. But even though we are assigned 10, the RN's always ask us to help with the others and we do. I guess in every place there are good RN's who appreciate us and then there are the ones who don't think to highly of us and still more others that claim they don't do "aid work"
One thing that gets me is that in my LVN program, it;s required you be a CNA to go through the program. Obviously not working, you just have to go through CNA school and get your certificate. A few of the girls in my program say they aren't working now as a CNA because "They can't stand doing bed pans and all that gross stuff" Well i say Wake up! You will have to do those things as an RN! Unless you "don't do aid work" LOL!
I think CNA is a good path to becoming a Nurse if you want to and I am glad that i have been doing it for 3 years now
I read most of the replies about how good the CNA's are doing and should be paid more, and in my opinion that is true, but more nurses should feel that way and speak up to help the CNA's. I am a CNA and a full time RN student and I worked in a Nursing Home, and our DON always said how important we are and how much help we are to our face. Just one on one conversations, but when the time came in meetings we were never doing enough and it was never right. She never took the time to lend a hand, and when a patient asked for something she always came looking for a CNA.
I know she told me she was an LPN at one time and knows how CNA's are treated,(this was to my face) but she must have forgot because she put us all down if it benefited her.
I had to quit because the closer it gets to my graduation date the more hassle I was getting about working and studing on the job. When at first(when noone thought I would make it), it was alright.
I hope everyday that I don't forget where I came from, and I promise to help when I am needed, and that means standing up for the smaller, under paid workers.
From my personal experience, I am soon to be an RN (one semester left), I work in LTC, the LPNs that I work with have a complex in general against RN students (we even have a med student who will be MD in about 4 more years working there and they have the same complex against her). From what is being taught to me in school in regards to LPN and CNA 1. LPN is just a step above CNA 2. Make the LPN and especially the CNA your best working buddy . . . they can make you or break you 3. definitely in the LTC setting, listen to the CNA, they deal with the patient more than you do and see more than you see. It is a shame that there is the "inferiority/superiority complexes". We all need each other to do our job effectively. And for the nurses who don't like to help and are too good for it; they better watch out because a former CNA will be their supervisor one day :rotfl:
I cannot believe that you are being taught that an LPN is just a glorified CNA and even more appalled that you would actually repeat it. You have a lot to learn and it may be one of those people who are "one step above a CNA" that teaches you one of the most valuable lessons that you will ever have the opportunity to learn. I really am at a loss of words right now and so very upset that RN student are taught to look down on the LPN like that. No wonder there is such animosity and disrespect within our profession.
aprilleverett
23 Posts
One more thing.. even after going to LPN school I think all nursing student should be required to do so many hours of CNA work just to show them what it's like.. it would greatly help some nurses in their leadership skills over the aides