Don't flame me for this

[future_RN, CNA]

I am a CNA with a few years of experience, and am also in Nursing School right now.

I have followed the advice of many and left my comfortable job as a tech in a freestanding, acute psych facility and am now working in a hospital that I've been trying to get into for awhile to better network and hopefully open doors for me when I finish school. I say my job in psych was comfortable because it was a relatively small (180+/- bed) facility, I knew all my coworkers, loved the patient population and constant new faces, and the physical labor was not as tough as other CNA jobs I have had.

I love being a CNA. Many people always say "how can you do that job?" and "Do you have to wipe people's butts? eww." But as all of us know, though 9/10 times it is a part of our day, wiping butts is about the easiest thing I do during the shift. I work on a VERY busy tele floor (as most are), and I love the patients and my coworkers are fine. My manager is the kindest, professional, structured, and fair boss I've ever had.

However, one thing I do notice is that a lot of the male nurses seem to call my phone and ask me to do things a lot more than the female nurses do. Maybe it is just my unit, maybe it is just the ones I work with. (Not all of the ones I work with of course). I get many calls while I'm in the middle of changing patients, feeding them, taking them to dialysis or downstairs to wait for their ride, etc. "Can you go give room ___ a cup of water." "Can you give ______ a blanket." "Can you take the stool specimen I already collected in the room and send it to the lab." "Did you check the blood sugar on room ___?" When I'm on my break and the blood sugars aren't due for another hour

I understand delegation and am always compliant. I am not the type to ruffle feathers, I'm not scared of confrontation but I never want an uncomfortable work situation, and I'll do anything to help someone out. But some things are easy fixes. If my linen cart is right outside the room that so and so needs a blanket in...... Meanwhile I'm rolling a 250lb isolation patient and doing a complete bed change by myself (not complaining, it comes with the job).

Don't take this to heart, I am also a male, so as to say I'm not gender-bashing or whatever. Maybe its just my unit, maybe not. Has anyone any input on this?

[chacha82, ADN, BSN]

I can't answer call bells asking for a cup of coffee while trying to figure out a PCA pump, so I'll ask a tech to answer the call bell if I see them available. They don't like it when it's not their assigned rooms either, but the chain of command needs to be followed in order for the system to work. A nurse can do an aide's job; an aide cannot do a nurse's job. I'm not saying grabbing a cup of coffee is beneath me, but my priorities are elsewhere.

I wish I could like this x 10. The whole delegation thing is useless if I am doing tech work and my work. It is not efficient for nurses to do nurse work and tech work if there are techs on the floor that shift. I worked with one who, when paged to do something, would snap back with "But I'm in room xyz!" Right...when you are finished with that task, you need to move on to the next one. Instead it got punted right back to us, which was a problem during med pass.

[Workitinurfava, BSN, RN]

Big adjustment from most likely a very light medical psych facility to a very heavy medical tele floor. I just left a similar floor for psych because I didn't think it was a good fit for me. I started in psych but some things happened with my health so I stepped away but it was a better fit for me. Figure out where you fit best at some point so you can have some sort of peace of mind. Tele foors are super busy and fast paced.

[cocoa_puff]

Did we work on the same unit? The newer male nurses on my unit did not want to do any personal care on their patients, and were constantly calling the CNAs, even to get the patient a cup of ice while the CNAs were in the midst of patient care. That really bothered me. If I have the time to grab whatever for a patient, I was not going to bother the CNA who is busy. The time it would take me to call the CNA to tell them the patient needs a blanket, I could have grabbed a blanket for the patient myself.

As a side note, I did not notice this with the more experienced male nurses on my unit. Some of the female nurses did this too, but not to the extent that the newer guys did. Delegation is one thing, but CNAs are an important part of the team and should be treated as such.

[future_RN, CNA]

Well, I don't know you from Adam's housecat, BUT, many people with Asperger's syndrome report being told they are "so blunt" often in their adult lives. Just throwing that out there. I have an autistic kid so that kind of stuff is always on my radar, can't help it.

I don't understand why this was commented.

[future_RN, CNA]

Did we work on the same unit? The newer male nurses on my unit did not want to do any personal care on their patients, and were constantly calling the CNAs, even to get the patient a cup of ice while the CNAs were in the midst of patient care. That really bothered me. If I have the time to grab whatever for a patient, I was not going to bother the CNA who is busy. The time it would take me to call the CNA to tell them the patient needs a blanket, I could have grabbed a blanket for the patient myself.

As a side note, I did not notice this with the more experienced male nurses on my unit. Some of the female nurses did this too, but not to the extent that the newer guys did. Delegation is one thing, but CNAs are an important part of the team and should be treated as such.

No the more experienced nurses don't do this as much. There is an art to delegation for sure, and like most things, it probably comes with time.

[EKUGRAD, BSN, MSN, RN, CNS]

You are not "off the clock" on breaks. These are paid time to provide workers that don't become fatigued. Each facility has a policy on where and when breaks occur.

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

Teaching new nurses to be comfortable with delegation is ALWAYS a challenge when precepting new nurses and I do find that female nurses struggle more with giving direction and female CNAs struggle more with receiving it directly. Take note of what you respond well to so that you can implement it into your practice as a new RN.

[K9lover, ASN, RN]

Being forced to take a phone everywhere including breaks and having no break cover; two of the 1000 other reasons I fled acute care. My only regret is not having done it 10 years sooner...

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

You are not "off the clock" on breaks. These are paid time to provide workers that don't become fatigued. Each facility has a policy on where and when breaks occur.

15-minute "rest breaks" are paid. "Bona fide meal breaks" are unpaid. Unpaid = off the clock. Either he gets his meal break completely uninterrupted and in his choice of locale, or he gets paid for it. What can't happen is he is interrupted and not paid.

So anyway, if the facility claims to provide an unpaid meal break, employees are NOT required to bring their phone, regardless of "policy" or expected practice

[3ringnursing, BSN]

It sounds to me they find you a competent hard worker and are going to the person they know will always get the job done no matter what. That knowledge makes their lives a bit easier, and gives them one less thing to worry about among a minutiae of never ends tasks in nursing.

Despite the obvious praise in this situation that does little to appease the one who may be getting the lion's share of the work load and requests.

A nurse friend of mine has a saying, "Hard workers end up getting punished" due to the very reason I already mentioned that could be singling you out amongst your peers. Hard workers will always be asked to do more than their less motivated peers because it's easiest for the person assigning tasks - often times those workers don't complain, do their jobs fast, unsupervised, and deliver exceptional quality in details.

Fair? No. A sign you are a star amongst your peers? Most definitely. This will serve you well in your future nursing career, and I bet you will go as far as your dreams lead you.

Good luck to you, hard worker - you are of a rare and endangered breed. It's refreshing to encounter people like you.