Do YOU answer call lights in a hospital?

icunurse42066 · Sep 12, 2008

i wish that an aide or an assistant would try to give me a verbal asskicking!
assistants..know your place!

:down:

loriangel14, RN · Sep 12, 2008

If you didn't answer a call bell then you would deserve said verbal asskicking from an aid.

lpnflorida · Sep 12, 2008

I was aghast by the statement" know your place"

the statement by the prior person referring to verbal asskicking,,, is to me a feeling, does not mean that person did not/or would not make her feelings known , without it being a case of insuborniation.

Hate holier than though, cast system , mentality.

I remember a time in nursing when RN and LPN were frowned on for going to coffee together, not to mention a CNA's....

thankfully those times of the almighty hierarchy are behind us. We all need each other to work in todays hospital environment.

Any healthcare environment needs to work together with all team members.

loriangel14, RN · Sep 12, 2008

And she has only been a nurse for a year. Yikes! What an attitiude. She wouldn't last long where I work.

locolorenzo22, BSN, RN · Sep 12, 2008

An assistant's place is by my side. Not below me so I can stand on em, and I would NEVER consider myself "too good" for CNA work. Unless I'm in the middle of med pass, an admit, or rounding with a doc....I always answer call lights. If I can't help a patient, I'm gonna go find out who can...or the info I need to make them better.

Thankful.....maybe you should be thankful that the CNAs you work with haven't tried to give you that verbal buttkicking....cause I would. If you were standing there watching a light go off and timing the aide...then you obviously aren't busy enough to be deserving that paycheck you are so thankful for.

Coworkers like that are the reason that many good CNAs find themselves leaving the field due to burnout....the environment with NO teamwork or support is toxic. Take a good long look at your practice. The previous poster probably just would have made their feelings known...without "going off" on you.

DoeRN · Sep 12, 2008

I'm curious, at my hospital only one in every five nurses I would say answers call lights, and one in particular will stand, literally stand, infront of their patients room waiting for a CNA to walk around the corner wondering why the call light is still going off. She will then point at the light then at the CNA and ask them what took them so long.
I asked her one day why she feels the need to do this rather than answer her own patients call lights. "Not my job to do the CNA's.":eek:
So I ask this community: Do YOU answer call lights when they go off or wait as long as possible before the noise makes you go see whats up?
I used to be a CNA so you can be damn sure I answer them unless I am busy with another pt at the moment. CNA's are underpaid and over worked and thats the truth.

Then people wonder why there is such a high turnover with assistant staff . Well at least where I worked. I start work as a nurse at the end of the year. I worked in an ICU for a while as a tech/secretary so call lights were rare. But I will be working on a med surg floor as a nurse and yes I don't think it will be beneth me to answer a call light. I worked as a secretary a while back on another med surg floor and a lot of the time the patient wanted the nurse for pain meds, questions about care etc.

DoeRN · Sep 12, 2008

i wish that an aide or an assistant would try to give me a verbal asskicking!
assistants..know your place!

Wow!!!! Know your place :argue:? That was not nice.

There are other jobs besides being a CNA or an assistant you know. I worked in a hospital for a number of years and have seen many of them leave because of attitudes like this.

Xbox Live Addict · Sep 13, 2008

OK, I have to say it, "No I do not answer call lights, it is beneath me and I didn't go to school to become a RN and answer call lights!!!" Just kidding of course. Yes I do answer call lights. Working in the ICU we do all of our pt care, no matter what it is. I did have the unfortunate experience of witnessing an episode one evening. I was working the neuro floor at my local hospital one night and a pt's BR light went off. I was in the middle of admitting my third pt of the night (I had only been on shift for about 3 hours) and I looked up and the CHARGE nurse and another nurse were running down each hall looking for a CNA. I asked them who they were looking for and both said they were looking for the CNA to get Mr. So and So out of the BR. They walked by the room 3 times looking for a CNA!!!!! Needless to say I let them both have it and went and got the pt out of the BR myself. Only after I got up did they offer to get them out. I told them "No, you go back and sit at the desk and prop your feet up 'cause that's all your good for!" I got called into the NM office the next day, but they are the ones that got reamed out for it!!

In LTC it is different; the staff is mostly made of CNAs, 2 to a hall (usually) with a LPN or RN over 2 halls, so those nurses are responsible for 50 patients EACH. If I'm in the middle of an insulin or medication pass and the hall starts looking like a Christmas tree and those call lights are not getting tended to, you bet I'm going to make it my business to find out where my CNAs are at, especially if there's been a lot of socializing at the front desk or out back in the smoking area. Some residents require a full 20 minutes to toilet, and during a heavy med or insulin pass, uh-uh. The CNAs are going to have to bust their buns getting those lights while I'm busting my buns getting those meds and insulins passed. To say nothing of what happens during the train wreck that is a LTC admission.

To be sure, most of them really do the best they can. I'm more inclined to be helpful to these aides, especially when their teammates have let them down by not showing up. But the ones you have to chase around are useless, and in the time you spent chasing them down, you might as well have done it yourself, and been further along with your own work.

Xbox Live Addict · Sep 13, 2008

Wow!!!! Know your place :argue:? That was not nice.
There are other jobs besides being a CNA or an assistant you know. I worked in a hospital for a number of years and have seen many of them leave because of attitudes like this.

If I'd had to work with nurses like that when I was a CNA, I'd have bailed too. "Knowing your place"... most managers who said something like that at work would be explaining themselves to THEIR boss.

SunnyAndrsn · Sep 13, 2008

Agree...Earlier this week I had one of my CNAs come to me and say "I'm overwhelmed, I need help." So, I went and helped her. All she needed was help getting a resident in bed so she could get started on a bed bath. Once she got started, she had her bearings and felt like she could finish on her own.

I had other work I needed to do, so I asked another CNA who was finished putting his ppl. to bed if he could help the other CNA finish up. He did, and she was thrilled when she was done with the bed bath to find the last few in bed.

What I was happiest with though, was that she felt I was approachable and could ask ME for MY help.

A little off topic to the original question, but yes I answer the lights as I have time. Often, it's something quick, like I dropped something, can you turn the light off, can I get more ice, etc.

An assistant's place is by my side. Not below me so I can stand on em, and I would NEVER consider myself "too good" for CNA work. Unless I'm in the middle of med pass, an admit, or rounding with a doc....I always answer call lights. If I can't help a patient, I'm gonna go find out who can...or the info I need to make them better.
Thankful.....maybe you should be thankful that the CNAs you work with haven't tried to give you that verbal buttkicking....cause I would. If you were standing there watching a light go off and timing the aide...then you obviously aren't busy enough to be deserving that paycheck you are so thankful for.
Coworkers like that are the reason that many good CNAs find themselves leaving the field due to burnout....the environment with NO teamwork or support is toxic. Take a good long look at your practice. The previous poster probably just would have made their feelings known...without "going off" on you.

athena55, BSN, RN · Sep 13, 2008

Hello All:

When I worked in a VA (as a civilian) I answered any and all call lights that were on, even if that patient wasn't assigned to me.

I also went around to the patients who weren't NPO (and that includes the staff, MD's etc) and made a list of who wanted tea and I made the tea. Also, during the last bit of rounds (I worked evenings) I would ask my patients if they wanted an "old fashioned back rub". About 60% said "yes".

Would you believe that the next shift on (night shift) would "rag" on me about my "odd habit" of giving out tea and back rubs. Why were a few upset with me? Because the patients would then ask them for a back rub or a cuppa.

I was always amazed when they would go on and on about how I was spoiling the patients, making their job "harder", how they didn't have the time to do all that "fluff and nonsense" blah, blah, blah....Sigh.... I tired to explain that it was just basic bedside nursing but my words went in and out

I know times have changed. But I am sure once in a blue moon those few RNs that I write of could find an extra 10 minutes to give a few rubs with lotion to some person's back. What a grand way to check out their skin integrity, or talk to the patient about their procedure, day, pain level etc...

And on that heavy med-surg floor we often had only ONE CNA!

Hey, when I was a newbie in the ICU (had just graduated from nursing school) who do you think taught me about critical care nursing? The nursing assistants who had worked in that hospital longer than I was alive. I am who I am because of the nuturing I received from the staff in that ICU: the RNs and CNAs.

athena

CT Pixie, BSN, RN · Sep 13, 2008

I don't work in a hospital. I work LTC but yes, I DO answer call lights, be it that I am sitting at the nurses station charting and I answer from there or walking down the hall and a light is going off.

I ALWAYS stop in the room to see what the pt needs. If I can do it, I do. If the pt needs a bed pan, I will put them on the bed pan. I might not be able to stay the whole time and take them off immediately but I do tell them to ring when ready. If I can, I find the CNA assigned to that pt and let them know that so-and-so is on the bed pan and to keep an ear out for the bell to take them off.

If I am done early with my duties (rare but does happen) I will walk down the halls during the CNA's rounds and pop in and ask who needs help changing a pt, turning someone etc. My CNA's seem to 100% respect me, they do not ignore my requests, the do everything I ask of them, and better still, they are willing to do more than their job description entails.

Even if my CNA's didn't treat me the way I treat them, I would still answer call lights. Its not about the my job vs your job mentality, its about the patients and THEIR needs..just my :twocents: