Let me start by saying I am a CNA and I'm not talking about all CNAs. I have a problem with some coworkers and even some CNAs in the forums here that just complain all day about how hard our jobs are and how the RNs don't do any thing, we do all the hard work they just pass meds, sit, and chart. Even heard someone say we should get paid as much as the nurses smh
1. We all work hard, CNA, LPN, RN, etc
2. There's more to being a nurse then passing meds and charting, and they do their fair share of work doing things we as CNAs don't have the knowledge and skill to comprehend and do
3. CNAs are paid horribly and deserve more, but to say as much as a RN is ridiculous, c'mon lets get real
4. If you feel this way shut up and find away to get more education and move on like I am
Again I'm a CNA, I'm overworked, and sometimes there are lazy nurses but all the whining and ridiculous comments are annoying. Sorry for the little vent.
While I have worked with good CNA's ( and I salute you!), I have mostly worked with the type that 'hide'.
At one facility, they would literally sneak out to the parking lot! And, when I caught one, and tried to call her on it, she mouthed off on the floor, outside patient rooms, for an hour! Nothing would calm her down! And when I say 'call her on it' I mean simple said it wasn't right. There was no disciplinary action to follow this incident once reported to day shift management.
It hasn't been better at other facilities.
My view is this: legally, we RN's assume the liability for the shift because we are the higher rank, according to law. Great, on paper. Except, the CNA's I have worked with tell me "You're not MY boss" if I try to correct something on a shift. Of course, this is an evening shift when there is no management to back me up. So, when they refuse to work safely on the shift, I am stuck with a very scary situation and way too many patients to care for alone. Regardless of what management will or will not do to back me up after the fact in the morning, during the incident I am liable for an unsafe shift.
So, I have left the world of nursing where CNA's dwell and taken a job as a school nurse.
Best part of my job? NO CNA's!
Now, the desk and actual lunch break are pretty sweet too :)
(But, not the paycheck lol! Can't have everything I suppose!)
With the patient ratios these days, I don't think there are many lazy RN's out there. If one is actually found sitting, it maybe her only break in days
I had asked her before the shift start if she could give me a hand . She said yeah.... but when the time came to help me she had an all around bad attitude about me asking ( mind you the residents care plan carefully states that there is to be 2 workers in the room when changing or getting the resident up oh and not to mention I can't physically turn a almost 300 pound person by myself). I even told her if it was a huge deal I could see if someone else can help. All I got was a snotty reply “ I'm going to be down here anyways". I would fully understand that if another resident was in trouble and she had to leave , but I don't understand why she had to give me such a poor attitude about it, a simple yes I can help you or a no I'm busy would have sufficed. Oh and the other nurses don't have a problem helping with anything like that.
I worked in an ultra busy ICU and we had 1 CNA for 8 pt.s. They only had to bath half of the patients and assist us with turns. Of all of the CNAs we had only one was a good worker. They all had bad attitudes and the poor me syndrome. They were constantly going to smoke, taking 1 hour long lunches, and basically hiding from us. They treated our patients poorly and had little regard for our lines when turning. It got to the point that we told out director that if she couldn't get them to do any better then fire them and we would work without them. I left that position in part of being sick of dealing with lazy people. I have moved on to another hospital that utilizes externs and no CNA's and I am much happier bc these people want to be there.
It's a choice. Not to toot my own horn, just trying to make an example, but when I was a CNA, I took it as an opportunity to grow as a human being by showing compassion and humility assisting people with their most intimate care. It's like a sacred honor to be the one trusted to look at someone else's hoo-hah on a daily basis. For that duty to be treated with disdain because "the RN is lazy" is just messed up. Look at yourself and what you were hired to do, and what your duty to the patient is, not what other people are or aren't doing.
One time, when I worked in an LTC, I was doing my rounds and I heard a blood curdling shriek. I ran down to the room to see what was going on. It was a new resident. It was her first night at our facility. She didn't know where she was, and she wanted to go home. *I* was the one who was there for her, who held her hand and had to tell her she *was* home. I turned on the light and looked at the pictures on her wall and asked her about the people in the pictures. Eventually, she calmed down and was able to lie down and go to sleep. Because of ME. The CNA.
Of course, I had no "training" in what to do in this situation. I had to rely on what my instincts told me as a human being.
I had another lady that would call me several times a night to help her to the bathroom. She always talked to me about her house, and how she wished she could go back there. *I* was the one who held her hand and listened.
Another time, I had a resident fall and sustain a head lac while I was getting her up. EMS came and took her to the hospital. When all the fuss had died down, her room mate looked at me and said "Can you get me out of here, too?".
When I was being oriented, the CNA told me "He hits.". I found out that he only tried to hit when you went into his room and tossed him around like a wet blanket instead of treating him like a human being with dignity.
Being a CNA is its own sacred duty. Being a CNA gave me the foundation for my practice as an RN, and I cannot stand aides who would rather focus on what the nurse is doing than focus on their own practice and the human being that is in front of them.
I don't understand how you can look at yourself in the mirror knowing that you gave more of a crap about what the RN was doing than what the human being in front of you needed.
Thank you. Being a CNA was my introduction to working with the whole human being, and I will never forget it. For people to relegate it to "dirty work" and to care more about what the RN is doing than to care about how *they* are interacting with a fellow human being just ****** me off to no end. I have ZERO sympathy for whiny CNAs. None. Do your work, or get a job flipping burgers. That is a *human being* in front of you! Act like it! Gawd, do you really care who is doing peri care on your Grandma? NO, you just care that it's getting done, and with her dignity intact.
Specializes in critical care, ER,ICU, CVSURG, CCU.
I'm going to tread lightly on this post, but I can't just let it go. My response is assuming that you work in a hospital acute care? If not, ignore. I'm not sure if you do understand what bedside floor nurses do, seeing that you want to be "challenged" and don't want to become "complacent." What looks like only paperwork and passing meds is much more than that. And therein lies the problem with what the OP said and for nursing students' perspectives with what very little exposure they get to real world nursing. It is very clear to me now more than ever that many non-nurses have absolutely no clue what we do when they look at us working.
thankyou, you said it far nicer than I was fixing to
. It seems that since they are entrusted with so much responsibility (and they are) they should be better compensated. I think in that case the job would become more desirable the competition more stiff, and ergo the quality of worker much better. Otherwise, yeah, you might end up with a lazy, bitter, obese tech who ignores granny and spends too much time complaining. In essence, a facility gets what it pays for.[/quote']
They should also have to go to school for more than 2.5 wks. education = earning power and like u said u are spending a lot time with the patients CNAs should be armed with more education. I've heard some doozies (old wives tales etc) that CNAs have said to patients and the patients trust that they know what they are talking about. :/ Go to school and become a nurse CNA should be a stepping stone. If u want to grow and earn more in the field u just have to keep learning and schooling. I have my AAS Nursing and I know it won't stop there. Next on the agenda is my bachelors. In this field the more education u have better job/pay you get. Personally, if they did away with CNAs I wouldn't complain I loved doing total patient care but hospitals and LTCs won't hire the number of nurses it would take to do that. You need a 1:2 1:3 ratio tops.
I think part of the issue is the "that is CNA work" statements. Everyone works hard at their own scope. All for the good of the patient. Yes, I am sure it is annoying for some that patient has to go to the restroom every 1/2 hour, call bells going off over and over, transferring and lifting....having patients that are helpless, demented, demanding...
But alas, nurses have that kind of a day too. Dress a wound, (have you smelt a really infected wound? It ain't nothing nice) take down dressing, MD wants to see it. Medicate a patient, then medicate again all at a standard of assessing, re-assessing...put in a cath, get a urine sample....(again with the smell thing) give an enema, on top of pain, on top of function. Don't let a patient fall, be in pain, document EVERYTHING.....
CNA's are amazing in what they do. It can be "dirty" work, and to be able to do it while keeping the patient's dignity intact is a good thing. But we are right behind you to continue on in the shift doing equally as "dirty" of work.
Lazy workers are lazy workers, and it doesn't matter what title they hold. If you have a gift to be able to care for a patient well, then it really doesn't matter if you get paid $10 an hour doing ADL's and other various patient care tasks--or making 10 bucks an hour saying "welcome to ____________ (insert name of fast food place here). We are ALL smelly and sweaty at the end of the day if you are in direct patient care, or up to your eyeballs in kirchen grease.
They should also have to go to school for more than 2.5 wks. education = earning power and like u said u are spending a lot time with the patients CNAs should be armed with more education. I've heard some doozies (old wives tales etc) that CNAs have said to patients and the patients trust that they know what they are talking about. :/ Go to school and become a nurse CNA should be a stepping stone. If u want to grow and earn more in the field u just have to keep learning and schooling. I have my AAS Nursing and I know it won't stop there. Next on the agenda is my bachelors. In this field the more education u have better job/pay you get. Personally, if they did away with CNAs I wouldn't complain I loved doing total patient care but hospitals and LTCs won't hire the number of nurses it would take to do that. You need a 1:2 1:3 ratio tops.[/quote
I agree with alsmot all you said. More education is needed. But if we did away with CNAs I can't think of an LCT that wouldn't be totally screwed. At places I've worked, one nurse has 40 patients. He/she does not have time to shower, change and assist with all patients' ADLs. And most of the 40 patients need their diapers changed. That's a lotta work for a nurse! There is no way in heck this, or indeed most facilities, could pay enough nurses, even LPNs, to do total care. CNAs start at a very low hourly (In my state $9.00 is quite normal), and yes, at some facilities, they can work up to over many years the low-end pay of a new LPN. But by then usually their backs are blown out or they have moved on to something that also requires low skills, little education and doesn't involve diapers and back pain. In the case that we need CNAs (and we do), we should set the bar higher with more education (as you said). Of course pay them a bit more, enough to make it worthwhile to be good, to stay at a job, to improve, to feel self-respect, to attract the best possible workers possible, to make the field competitive! Otherwise, the facility hires any CNA off the street provided they are certified and have eluded an abuse/felony record. And like I said, they get what they pay for. And at $9.25 an hour (what most CNAs start at in a major facility near me) they really don't get much and the turnover rate is less than 90 days.
Many of you are sitting here complaining about so-called lazy aides...yet what are you doing to remedy the situation besides posting on the internet? Have any of you confront these lazy aides about their behavior or talk with management?
In the amount of time I see nurses complaining about aides, he/she could have done it themselves or talk to the aide about their behavior.
MotherRN
192 Posts
While I have worked with good CNA's ( and I salute you!), I have mostly worked with the type that 'hide'.
At one facility, they would literally sneak out to the parking lot! And, when I caught one, and tried to call her on it, she mouthed off on the floor, outside patient rooms, for an hour! Nothing would calm her down! And when I say 'call her on it' I mean simple said it wasn't right. There was no disciplinary action to follow this incident once reported to day shift management.
It hasn't been better at other facilities.
My view is this: legally, we RN's assume the liability for the shift because we are the higher rank, according to law. Great, on paper. Except, the CNA's I have worked with tell me "You're not MY boss" if I try to correct something on a shift. Of course, this is an evening shift when there is no management to back me up. So, when they refuse to work safely on the shift, I am stuck with a very scary situation and way too many patients to care for alone. Regardless of what management will or will not do to back me up after the fact in the morning, during the incident I am liable for an unsafe shift.
So, I have left the world of nursing where CNA's dwell and taken a job as a school nurse.
Best part of my job? NO CNA's!
Now, the desk and actual lunch break are pretty sweet too :)
(But, not the paycheck lol! Can't have everything I suppose!)