Describe good and bad CNA's you have seen

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Do you remember any experiences with CNA's and their residents that were very good and heartwarming or any that were bad? Can you give some examples?

Thanks

I don't have anything bad to say about CNA's where I work. I do have a problem with some of the younger one's who have to be checked on every single shift to make sure they did their work. Daily repeated reminders should not be necessary for adult workers. However, they do very well under the circumstances.

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[ You can't teach common sense .

No, you can't. Common sense isn't all that common. It is actually a gift. I've heard these questions from staff: "Since the resident fell at the hospital and not here, do we still have to do neuro checks"? Concerning a resident on 15 minute checks: "But family wants to take her on LOA, what do we do about the 15 minute checks"? Or 3 hours into 2nd shift, a CNA wants to report they just found So and So "full of sh*t and I'm tired of first shift leaving that for me to clean up".

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Specializes in CNA.

I am currently a CNA working in a nursing home and going to college to get my RN degree. I have been there now for a little over a year and I love my job more than I ever expected too. When I decided to go back to school later in my life and chose the medical profession, I thought it would be a great idea to work as a CNA, get hands on experience, work along side LPN's and RN's and see more or less what to expect as an RN....it has been the best decision I've made in my life other than marrying my husband 15 years ago and having our two beautiful children.

Unfortunately this job has it's pro's and con's just like anywhere else you'd work....there is this one woman a few years older than me who has been a CNA for 20 years so you'd figure that she knew her job pretty well. She started working at the same nursing home I'm at the same time I did and was working at another nursing home also. Her performance at first was really good and she began making friends quickly. I, on the other hand, am very quiet so it took a few months to open up to my co-workers.

We worked on different halls so I never worked with her until recently when my schedule changed for college classes and after our 3rd or 4th month there I began hearing rumors, nurses complaining and every once in awhile at break she would be there and tell me all about the drama going on (which of course she made everything sound like she was the victim of). I listened but never said much...I don't like getting into the middle of things especially when I don't know both sides of the story.

The rumors were about her work ethics; not stocking, not cleaning and mopping, not wiping the residents after voiding (she just removed the soiled briefs and put on another), not using gloves when she did wipe them, sleeping on duty (we work 3rd shift), not answering call lights and ignoring personal alarms, turning off bed alarms for a particular resident who is up and down 30-40 times per night because they're confused and think they have to "pee" all the time which allows this resident to get up on their own and may fall and getting done with rounds within 10 minutes for a hall that has 24 people then not helping the other aide who is still doing rounds.

After hearing all these rumors and accusations it was hard for me to not automatically judge but I didn't until I found out the truth. It's been a couple weeks now since my schedule has changed and I see alot of those rumors surfacing. Just the other night I found myself aggrivated after stocking my entire hall and bathroom, sweeping and mopping the bathroom and both dining rooms, thoroughly completing my rounds (my rounds tend to take me anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour depending on the hour), turning one of my residents every hour, doing paperwork, 15 minute checks on a couple of my wanderers, helping to redirect sun-downers who think it's day time and time for them to go to daycare or calming a very special lady who is up all night crying for no reason at all, attending misc. call lights and personal/bed alarms whether on my hall or not while this other aide has done nothing but sit in the back activity room either reading a book or snoozing away.

What aggrivates me most other than feeling like I'm doing everything is that once day shift comes in she automatically pops up and acts like a saint so no-one on day's see's her as this lazy aid who does nothing. In fact, even when they notice that she hasn't stocked or cleaned her hall bathroom she just comes up with some kind of excuse as to why she didn't "get around to doing it", but you'd figure if this has been going on for a few months to a year that her excuses wouldn't be valid anymore. *Sigh*

It really hurts my feelings that I work so hard but no-one acknowledges it and when it comes time to clock out they're all giving her praise while I smile and think to myself "if they only knew". About the only great thing I can say about my job are my residents. Each and every one of them is different and even though I'm on the Alzheimers unit, they all know me and recognize me when I come into their room and I find myself thinking about them outside of work; wondering how they're doing especially if one may not be doing too well. There's so much more to this story that I could add such as resident care but I've already written alot as it is lol. Thanks for letting me vent!

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You need to talk with your charge nurses and the manager of that unit and then the DNS/DON if you don't get relief. WHen I was an aide, I always talked with my supreriors on this stuff, this is real life caring for real people, not who pops up and supposedly does work all night. I always was supported by my nurses when they already knew what was going on, as I am sure your nurses already know.

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Specializes in CNA.

I have talked to my nurses and they agree, a couple of them even gripe about this aide to me like when they ask her to do vitals and she gets an attitude and rolls her eyes. The problem that I'm understanding from what everyone is saying so far is that a couple nurses have gone to the DON and she does nothing except have the CNA supervisor on 1st shift "take care of it" and the aide is friends with her so nothing is done about it. Another rumor has it that they can't just fire her so they're allowing her to continue working this way until they can have a "paper trail" but I don't know. There's been nights that have just erked me so badly that I wanted to call state to have them show up unannounced. This aide has been caught sleeping 3 times since my schedule change 2 weeks ago and one time she was so conked out that the nurse had to pull the pillow out from under her head to wake her up! A report was written and taken to the DON but of course nothing has been done about it. The charge nurse on day shift has heard so many complaints in the past year I think she's just ignoring them now lol...you'd figure that would be a sign of this aide's work ethics but I guess not. I could care less if this aide doesn't do her side work, it's the resident care that she doesn't provide that bothers me and needless to say I am glad even in this rough situation that I am an aide before becoming a nurse...I get to see first hand how some workers in the profession to care for others lack that important factor, caring...sad :(

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I have talked to my nurses and they agree, a couple of them even gripe about this aide to me like when they ask her to do vitals and she gets an attitude and rolls her eyes. The problem that I'm understanding from what everyone is saying so far is that a couple nurses have gone to the DON and she does nothing except have the CNA supervisor on 1st shift "take care of it" and the aide is friends with her so nothing is done about it. Another rumor has it that they can't just fire her so they're allowing her to continue working this way until they can have a "paper trail" but I don't know. There's been nights that have just erked me so badly that I wanted to call state to have them show up unannounced. This aide has been caught sleeping 3 times since my schedule change 2 weeks ago and one time she was so conked out that the nurse had to pull the pillow out from under her head to wake her up! A report was written and taken to the DON but of course nothing has been done about it. The charge nurse on day shift has heard so many complaints in the past year I think she's just ignoring them now lol...you'd figure that would be a sign of this aide's work ethics but I guess not. I could care less if this aide doesn't do her side work, it's the resident care that she doesn't provide that bothers me and needless to say I am glad even in this rough situation that I am an aide before becoming a nurse...I get to see first hand how some workers in the profession to care for others lack that important factor, caring...sad :(

I would try to talk with a supervisory RN/DNS/Staff Development nurse and put your complaints in writing. You may not know exactly what the sanctions are, maybe this person is on final warning,and to the line staff it appears that nothing is being done, in fact, there is a whole lot, in the personal file, which isconfidential so line staff of course would not know what those facts are. People come to me all thetime and complain "Nothing being done about..." and then if it's about another employee, then I have to say" Well, that is confidential, and..." and if it's about care, then I do an incident report for the allegations and investigate. YOur DON/DNS deserves to know, in writing, about the staff who are sleeping and the nurse that isn't redporting that or supervising on that shift. Run it up the chain of command if the DON won't act, then go to her/his boss.

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Specializes in CNA.

What you said makes sense and is true. It may be that they are in the process of a final warning but none of us know. I think I will go ahead and put the complaints in writing like you suggest and see what happens. I am unsure who our DON's supervisor is but I can find out. Thank you for your help and allowing me to vent :)

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