So I have a two-assist, hoyerlift resident who is paralyzed on his left side. Everytime I go to do my rounds, I ask one out of two cna's for help changing this person. After coming from my meal break, I noticed that my resident had an accident. So I ask an aide to help me change him at 4:15 am. She says she will help me clean him up as soon as she can. After waiting 10-15 minutes, I'd had enough and ended up changing the resident myself. (which was a pretty difficult procedure) Although, after I was finished, I never told that particuliar aide I cleaned up my resident. Still waiting to see how long it would take her to assist me.
6:15 am passed, and this aide has still not come to see if I needed help. My shift is over at 7:00 am, and I actually wanted to check my resident again before I leave. At 6:20 am, I go ask my other nurse assistant co-worker for help changing this man. I get the same response. "Yeah, I'll help out as soon as I can."
6:40 am comes, and not one out of my two co-workers have shown to help me change this person. At this time, I'm thinking about reporting this to my assigned nurse and asking for help. I really didn't want to bother my nurse at the time because she was in the middle of her morning med pass. I'm thinking that this sitauation is unfair to the resident, to me and the nurse if she were to stop what she was doing to help assist me.
At 6:45 am, the first aide I asked for help finally showed up. It appears that she wanted to clean up all her people and finish her rounds first, leaving both my resident and I waiting two and a half hours before she were to dare help me. The clean-up procedure lasted less than three minutes. And even before I went to respectfully confront the issue, she was already out the door in a flash!
This stinks! Why should not only I, but my resident have to wait two and a half hours for help when there are two nurse assistants on the floor working with me? Should I have reported this to my assisgned nurse and/or nurse manager? I feel this was blantant disrespect. What should I do if this kind of incident were to occur again?
The point of my post, and I'm sorry if this didn't come through, is that your perspective of your colleague's availability is partial and filtered through your patient's needs. This is partly inevitable - as I said, I prioritise my patients' needs first, because I have a greater duty to them than to other patients on my ward, and to increase the likelihood of getting out on time - and partly a function of experience.
In general, the less experience, scope of practice, and responsibility one has the less one is able to see beyond one's own patient needs to the demands on one's colleagues and the unit as a whole. This makes it easier to see an intent that may not be there. You said that this was the first time you'd experienced this kind of wait. That indicates to me that your colleagues are generally helpful, team players.
I think labelling it "an incident" is overblowing what I have no doubt was an annoying experience. My concern is hat you may turning something that was merely different priorities into something personal - for example, you write that you were going to "confront" your colleague but "she ran straight out" - perhaps because she was busy?
You write that what you want is advice, but seem not to have taken on board the useful advice given to you by member - every post giving you a different perspective or a strategy (like "how would she know it would only take five minutes?" or "get everything ready first" or "offer help") has been met by a response that indicates you didn't understand what the posters were saying. What we mean is: your colleagues aren't mind readers. They don't know your patients like you do. They also have work loads and patient needs and pressure. If you want prompt asssitance you're more likely to get it if you reduce the time needed and the interruption to their own work, and if you reciprocate.
Finally, if you think the questions we've raised constitute an "interrogation"... really?
Thank you for your comment. :redbeathe
I'd like to say that 'yes', my co-workers normally are helpful team players. That is why this was such a shock that this kind of incident hapened. Also, I don't think that labeling this event as an 'incident' is overblowing an annoying experience... only because (yes, I looked it up ) the definition of an 'incident' is: An episode, occurrence or event.
I didn't catch where you were coming from when you were talking about experience. I have worked longer as a cna than her. I orientated her when she first started our shift four months ago. We as cna's at our facility have the same job descriptions and responsibilities whether or not one has worked as an aide for 1+ years or 20+ years.
I have taken into consideration every post that people have written here. Some were supportive and informative, while some felt judgemental with disagreeable questioning. Yes... questioning. That's why I felt for a moment I was being 'interrogated.'
If you have read all my replies, I have stated that I already had 'all my supplies handy' for the change. I have agreed in the future to 'offer help' to a co-worker when help is needed on my part at the moment. I also stated that after I was finished my rounds, I was answering a few of my co-workers call lights. Offering help to her and her residents. I just didn't understand the advice when it came to the statement: "how would she know it would only take five minutes?" I agree, my co-workers and I are not mind readers. So noone really knows. Does that mean that I should have to continue to wait for EVERY co-worker to completely finish with there job duties and responsibilities before I get offered a hand? That could take a lot more than 2 hours of waiting.
One reason why I found this whole 'incident' confusing is because I would never have my co-worker waiting so long for a change. Call me weird, but I just find it uncooperative, dismissive and on a small scale disrespectful. I would have apologized for having someone wait so long for support. That's just me, but she never apologized. So I guess that's why I did take this personally. I didn't mean to, though.
Well there are always some that don't work as a team and will give you a hard time. I had one co-worker that would yell at me at times. Didn't complain about it. Was good for 1 day I needed her help.
When 1 co-worker said she would not spot me while I was using the hoyer lift I said," okay, I the next time you ask me for help I will remember this and won't help you. She came and spotted me.
We live in a world of meism. Most are looking out for themselves 1st.
I am not trying to be mean when I write this but everyone has their own patient load that they have to care for.When I need help with a patient I first ask my co worker if you are not busy or when you have time could you help with a patient.I do not think they should drop what they are doing to help me.Having 12-13 patients by yourself is hard and stressful enough.You want to at least be able to get along with your co workers and respect their time to.:) Good luck in the future!!!!
My remarks about experience were less intended to be a comparison between you and your colleague than a way of bringing attention to the fact that your focus will, necessarily, be on your patients and your needs. It's difficult to have a corresponding picture of the demands on your colleagues, particularly if you haven't got a wider-focused role (eg running the ward as a whole). I know that my perspective changed a lot when I went from ahving an area to being in charge, and though my clinical area and scope are very different from yours, I believe the same idea applies.
All of that is to say that it's possible your colleague had pressures and demands you were unaware of, that helping you slipped her mind or got moved to the back of the queue.
The other thing to bear in mind is that even though you had everything ready, and even though it only took a couple of minutes, it's important to communicate that information - I sometimes find it hard to remember that information I think is generally known often isn't familiar to the person I'm speaking to.
I agree that a two hour wait for help is unreasonable. After fifteen minutes I'd have approached someone else, if possible, or asked the original person what I could do to free them up to assist me. I think that in almost all cases the best approach is to talk first with the person involved, whether it's to follow up on an earlier request or, as in this case, to follow up with a concern or issue.
I certainly think you need to speak with your colleague before going further up the chain. I know the first thing my manager always asks when approached with a staff issue is "What did s/he say when you brought this up?" and from experience you can feel very sheepish admitting your first course of action was to bypass the staff member in question!
Finally, I'm sorry you've perceived our questions as disagreeable, judgemental or interrogatory; although I can only speak for myself, my experience on AN is that most ofter when members ask questions it's either to clarify a point they're unclear about, or designed to provoke thought in the reader.
When I was a CNA I would do the easiest patients first, and save the hard ones for last. I would also pick the CNA that I knew was the most responsible and give her/him a time frame on what time I would need him/her. This usually works and sometimes if you ask them what time they can help you (as soon as I can doesn't cut it for me) works even better. If they are really behind and I know that I'm pretty much caught up, I would help him/her with that patient in front of him/her. Usually it will take you 2-5 minutes to help. That way they see that you're willing to help him/her finish up a bit. Even helping them with 2 patients isn't so bad if both of you are working together. They will appreciatethat you helping them. :) That approach usually works. If you stay quiet and don't remind them about your patient just to see how long it takes them to remember is a waste of time for everyone involved, I bet in most cases they forgot because they are busy. I had a patient request for a PRN one night and I said I'd be back. Well we had a STAT situation which takes presidence, and guess what? I FORGOT, when I went down the hallway again, I saw him and smiled at him and asked how he was doing. His response was "I'm fine, but I still need my PRN" I had completely forgotten, and I immediately apologized to him and let him know the situation, and he totally understood because he heard the alarms go off. But I had to be reminded because I did forget.
When I worked night shift as a CNA there was two of us on. She'd be responsible for half the patients and I'd be responsible for the other half, ON PAPER. But in reality we actually were a team and we would do the rounds together on all of the patients. At the start of shift one person would do all of the vital signs and the other person would pass out the water. I was usually there first to arrive so I would alternate passing out the water one night and then doing the vital signs the next night. Then the person who finished first would answer the call lights while the other is still finishing up their task. Then we'd get the ball rolling and doing the rounds. This worked best for us. We had this one CNA who hated doing vital signs so she would purposely come in early every night to start the passing out water and would leave the vital signs for me or the other girl depending on who was working. For me, I would alternate because I know taking vital signs is a pain in the butt with manual blood pressure checks. It got to the point that I finally said something to her and let her know that she needs to take vital signs sometimes and not just do the easy task all of the time. That still didn't work, so then I would show up at least a half an hour early and take over the water pitcher cart and just wait in the back until start of shift. It took that for her to finally get it.
Maybe you can start a trend like that on your unit. Being that there is 3 of you instead of two it can still work. You just have to adjust to the needs of your unit as each one is very different. Come up with a similar plan, and see how it works. Good Luck
The clean-up procedure lasted less than three minutes. And even before I went to respectfully confront the issue, she was already out the door in a flash!
Ev1987
347 Posts
Thank you for your comment. :redbeathe
I'd like to say that 'yes', my co-workers normally are helpful team players. That is why this was such a shock that this kind of incident hapened. Also, I don't think that labeling this event as an 'incident' is overblowing an annoying experience... only because (yes, I looked it up
) the definition of an 'incident' is: An episode, occurrence or event.
I didn't catch where you were coming from when you were talking about experience. I have worked longer as a cna than her. I orientated her when she first started our shift four months ago. We as cna's at our facility have the same job descriptions and responsibilities whether or not one has worked as an aide for 1+ years or 20+ years.
I have taken into consideration every post that people have written here. Some were supportive and informative, while some felt judgemental with disagreeable questioning. Yes... questioning. That's why I felt for a moment I was being 'interrogated.'
If you have read all my replies, I have stated that I already had 'all my supplies handy' for the change. I have agreed in the future to 'offer help' to a co-worker when help is needed on my part at the moment. I also stated that after I was finished my rounds, I was answering a few of my co-workers call lights. Offering help to her and her residents. I just didn't understand the advice when it came to the statement: "how would she know it would only take five minutes?" I agree, my co-workers and I are not mind readers. So noone really knows. Does that mean that I should have to continue to wait for EVERY co-worker to completely finish with there job duties and responsibilities before I get offered a hand? That could take a lot more than 2 hours of waiting.
One reason why I found this whole 'incident' confusing is because I would never have my co-worker waiting so long for a change. Call me weird, but I just find it uncooperative, dismissive and on a small scale disrespectful. I would have apologized for having someone wait so long for support. That's just me, but she never apologized. So I guess that's why I did take this personally. I didn't mean to, though.
Thank you, again. :redbeathe