I am working as a CNA while I am taking prerequisites for the nursing program. I figured not only would it give me a solid idea if nursing is truly the right path for me before I spend thousands on an education but it would also help me to gain experience for future employment (money doesn't hurt either). The quick CNA classes I took for licensing was enough to give me a good base but not enough for me to be fully ready to go. Most of this I had a general grasp on anyways so I learned by trial and error and really good CNA's in my first few days. Thankfully I am getting very good feedback from the patients, their families, and the staff. I was even told by the nurse supervisor that I should stick around so I could take over her job one day.
Anyways, I think I had glamorized the nursing profession so much that I thought they would be in with the patients and truly getting to know them and their needs but come to find out the nurses at our facility basically pass meds and change dressings and the CNA's do everything else! This is just from observation, I know they are doing a lot more like communicating with doctors and the pharmacy among many other things. The CNA's are getting to know the patients, anticipating needs, communicating their needs to the nurses, taking all the vitals, repositioning, bathing, changing, feeding, transferring, etc. Some of the CNA's are even having to help some of the nurses with procedures because they completely forget how to do it or do it incorrectly every time (for example one nurse always forgets to hook up a feeding tube before turning it on and the food goes everywhere and the CNA has to completely change the entire bed if she is not in the room to remind the nurse to hook it up). It is backbreaking but very rewarding. I love every minute of it even when I am elbow deep changing a dirty brief. I just thought the nurses would be much more involved.
Am I jaded with this facility or is it like this in most rehab and ltc facilities? I know it would be impossible for the nurses to do all the combined work and that is the point of having a CNA but will I lose touch with patients if I was an RN instead? Will I get to have both?
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I wouldn't dare assume that nurses aren't doing anything, I know they are swamped with paperwork and management duties. I've observed them and what they do and I have seen many of them not get lunch breaks and I myself have even added to their long list of patients demanding pain medications all at once. I also know that they have overwhelming responsibilities and liability all on their shoulders. I just assumed they would be more one on one with the patients and more hands on. I find it really sad that nurse duties are more paperwork than bedside tasks or at least the bedside tasks that they need to do are so short. Where is the patient connection? My job as a CNA compared to theirs is simple and a cakewalk although it is very hard on the back and feet but I also get to say " I will ask the nurse" instead of being held accountable for something. I get that their jobs are overwhelming and there is a lot I don't see but I just want to know will I be able to get to have a relationship with my patients like I do as a CNA when I become an RN?
Has anyone ever gone from a CNA to RN and missed it? How different is the relationship?
I hope I am making sense. This is in no way demeaning the nurses role and responsibilities. There is so much that I can't even comprehend until I am actually an RN and I hope I live up to those expectations.
Not all areas of nursing are like the LTC setting. You may spend more time with your patient doing 1 on 1 care in the ICU . . . while the CNA job there entails very little time to get to know your patient because you're running from nurse to nurse helping with that blood draw, the bath over there, the poop clean-up in room 2 and and so forth. You may find other areas of nursing are more to your liking than LTC because, as the nurse, you get to spend more time with your patients.
I work as a CNA in LTC. It's tough. While we, as CNAs, are overwhelmed with patients trying to toilet them, change their briefs, transfer them, feed them, etc... The nurses are overwhelmed by their med passes, CBG checks, playing phone tag with the pharmacy, waiting for x-ray, etc. and are just barely keeping their head above water... Until something out of the blue happens. Someone has fallen, now it's time to assess them and fill out an incident report, time to call family and the doctor, and now we as CNAs have orthos and neuros every 15 minutes. We had a patient yank out their wound vac thirty minutes before shift change and it was the crap-tastic finish to an otherwise horrible shift.
I work in a hospital. I'd love to have only 10 patients each night.
I ended up working 32 hours over the weekend and I ended up covering about 22 ( I was assigned 11) patients two nights in a row while every other CNA kept conveniently disappearing. I was changing, refilling drinks and supplies, turning, feeding, ambulating, bathing and assisting nurses with wound treatments for all of these people and finding my patients in completely drenched outfits and beds from the shift before all weekend long. It was grueling and I finally started to get a little on edge with some patients although I remained calm and collected. Thankfully all the right people are starting to notice and I am getting compliments from management, RN's, and patients... hopefully this will lead me to a better job with a little less demand. My favorite two moments other than them saying I could go home early was when a patient who used to be a CNA said that I have already ace'd nursing school and I shouldn't have anything to worry about because I am a wonderful CNA and when three nurses who were preparing meds looked at me and asked where I was assigned because they had seen me everywhere helping everyone. :) I love this job but I think I will burn out before I get out of nursing school because the demand on me is so high even with only 10-11 patients normally.
What all tasks are you assigned at your job and what unit/setting is it?
I work as a CNA in LTC. It's tough. While we, as CNAs, are overwhelmed with patients trying to toilet them, change their briefs, transfer them, feed them, etc... The nurses are overwhelmed by their med passes, CBG checks, playing phone tag with the pharmacy, waiting for x-ray, etc. and are just barely keeping their head above water... Until something out of the blue happens. Someone has fallen, now it's time to assess them and fill out an incident report, time to call family and the doctor, and now we as CNAs have orthos and neuros every 15 minutes. We had a patient yank out their wound vac thirty minutes before shift change and it was the crap-tastic finish to an otherwise horrible shift.
Having a great team makes all the difference.
Last night I had an isolation patient with c-diff but she had a colostomy and an ileostomy bag. I got absolutely no direction in how to care for her and had to improvise everything. Every two hours her ileostomy bag would come unattached and the whole bed needed to be changed. I would tell the nurse and her response, "there is nothing I can do the skin is deteriorating and we can't reattach it correctly so you will have to keep changing the bed over and over again".... I basically had to turn the bed into one giant diaper right before the end of my shift. It was kind of fun going full hulk hogan on my isolation gown but that kept the night entertaining.
I've been a CNA at a LTF for the past 2 years and it is exhausting work!! I'm currently looking for a job in a hospital as a CNA/PCT because I know that the work load isn't the same as in the nursing home I'm at. To be honest, it depends on who your nurses are. There are some nurses that I refuse to work with (I'm PRN so I can pick what shifts I work) because they do nothing at all. (One loves to sit and file her nails while oh so helpfully pointing out that so-and-so's call light is going off.) The nurses I work the most with are helpful and are very willing to lend a hand if their busy schedule allows it. CNAs do the most back breaking work while the nurses are stuck giving out meds and catching up on charting and doing paperwork. It's all dependent on where you work, the shift you work, and who you work with.
I highly suggest working while at school, cos you may get a chance to practice skills you learn and the skills you've already learned will come in handy while at school. Good luck!
I basically had to turn the bed into one giant diaper right before the end of my shift. It was kind of fun going full hulk hogan on my isolation gown but that kept the night entertaining.
Ruby Vee, BSN
17 Articles; 14,051 Posts
Not all areas of nursing are like the LTC setting. You may spend more time with your patient doing 1 on 1 care in the ICU . . . while the CNA job there entails very little time to get to know your patient because you're running from nurse to nurse helping with that blood draw, the bath over there, the poop clean-up in room 2 and and so forth. You may find other areas of nursing are more to your liking than LTC because, as the nurse, you get to spend more time with your patients.