Of the five nursing homes I have worked at four of them had favoritism that fall into three categories; the kiss ass, birds of a feather and based on merit.
The favoritism that the greatest impact was the kiss ass I encountered when I just got my certification. The kiss ass was always at the station with the nurse. She was 20 like me did not do much of anything after getting her group up besides bonding with her nurse and usually being somewhere else when her patients needed something. I was the one that answered her call lights and did care on her patient's.
At first I did not care too much because I wanted to prove myself and developed positive relationships with her residents, I even accepted that her 15 minute breaks ran closer to 1/2 an hour. After a while things got worse as she developed a habit of going in my rooms and reported me if my beds were not made by about 11 am or if one of my patients had a wet diaper. I would be walking out of one of her rooms because she was too busy looking for things to report to the nurse, and find the nurse ready to scold me. I did not know how to handle this.
The first day I spoke up for myself I answered her one of her call lights and her patient needed to be changed because she had bm. I went to the station and told both this CNA and the nurse that Mrs who needed to be changed. About a half an hour later the same patient calls and asks who was gonna change her, not that long into this girls 15- 30 minute break. I could not tell the patient no, after roosting on a turd for that long. I tell her nurse and she shrugs it off. I began keeping a record of how long she took her breaks, how many times she reported me when I was busy with her patients and how many times I answered her call lights or how long she ignored them before I answered them. I turned it in before I moved to the pm shift.
My last AM shift I worked, I did see her come out of the DSDs office bawling. Dont know what was said but she went home and qe had ro regroup.Yes that was that bad, and my lack of back bone did not help the cause. And the nurse? She did not do anything about it. That may seem extreme, but it was my fault too for letting it get so bad.
My moral and enthusiasm for my job took a dive. I moved to another town and encountered two types of favoritism at another 1 star facility. The birds of a feather is when a supervisor and one or more CNA's of the same ethnicity, age or years of service together flock together. I am not going to identify there ethnicity or age, or else's this will become an argument about how I am over generalizing nursing home staff based race or age.
After the resident's had their dinner and were lined up at the station the three of them would smoke, chain smoke. On east wing there were 70 beds,sometimea full sometimes not, but our little Vietnamese buddy, my self and my sister got to man the floor. This was back in the good days when merry walkers, lap buddies and tab alarms were widely used. We also has some wanderers and many patients that wanted to go to bed at the same time. Then there was an issue of infection control and a CNA that was alwaya MIA .
I did not let it go on too long before asking to moved over to the west wing. The west wing was where they put their CNAs if they were not serious about keeping them. I had heard rumors of a nurse over there being so strict that CNA s walked off the floors because she constantly checked up on their work and hounded them.
Her favorite cna was the CNA that could do it all. Vitals in within an hour, rooms tidy, waste baskets lined, residents up on time, call lights answered promptly and rounds done before she left. She always had a roll of bags in one pocket and barrier ointment in the other. Being the favorite of that Ukrainian nurse was earned by merit and did not award any privileges except that she would talk to you instead of at you, she also would use her CNA s as examples to other CNAs that did not perform so great.
This nurse's favorite was not trusted by the others and could often been seen talking with that nurse by a patient's doorway. It took me almost a year of being followed around and hen pecked by that nurse before I was trained enough to earn the respect of her favorite CNA and not long after that I was a favorite, along with my sister. So I was in a click of nurse and her favorite's and became resented by my coworker's for being a pet. We brought and shared food and the other CNA s were left out. Then some things happened and I moved to another town and worked in the first nursing facility where nurses or supervisors did not play favorites with their CNAs.
The place was so mismanaged that the cnas ran the building. I am not going to overgeneralize all CNAs, but a lot of them need to be supervised for good reasons. I left that place and got hired at a facility where I became the favorite of the most hated CNA I have ever encountered and got my lesson in speaking up for myself and not picking up the slack of my coworker's. This lead CNA was so picky that I felt like walking a few times. I got in her good graces and was put in charge of a team of CNA s that were unmotivated, sassy, rebellious, cut corners, did not practice infection control and were always behind. The turnover rate was high and that dump seemed to only hire new CNA s out of the training program. Out of the bunch I could identify four that I could trust to do the job well, only two that were fast and one that did it with enthusiasm and a smile on his face. Now i had a favorite. He was the only CNA that would work with me when I was on regular duty that did not have a bad attitude. But the company was on a never ending quest to increase profits and the demands i was expected to place on the staff became too unreasonable. By the time not having enough towels to do peri care on half the patients became a regular occurrence i decided that i had had enough.At that facility it was the team leader's job to supervise the CNA s. So I left and never want to be in charge of another CNA again. Unless they were just like my favorite CNA.
These days if one of my coworker's is deliberately ignoring a call light I let them know rather than wait for a nurse to do it. If I feel like answering does not affect my work I will get it to interact with patients. If I notice a pattern of a light not being answered I will, regretfully admit, time how long it has been ignored and take the patient an old fashioned hand bell. I do not do another's work if I feel like they are putting it off for me, if they are busy, even with charting, I will answer lights because most of us are team oriented. The work load is so light it is embarrassing. And even one nurse's favorites on a shift I don't usually work, work with integrity, they can't help their nurse talks to everyone else under her rank in a condescending manner. Nobody takes her seriously when she opens her mouth, unless it is to give instructions, she can not seem to control or filter what and how it comes out.
My experience with favoritism has come full circle. Double standards have been dished out by two nurses, I have been the favorite of one nurse and one supervisor and have shown favoritism for one of the people I have supervised. I have had my own favorite nurses and am sure I have done extra for them. I invite you to share your own experience of not being the favorite, being the favorite and having a favorite.
What you may have interpreted from my post is that being favored had a negative impact on my job just like not being the favorite. If you still want to pick a beef don't read anymore of my posts in the future because I feel like ranting about how one of the profit driven nursing homes I worked for exploited its patients, tried to cover a scabies outbreak that left half its workers itching and allowed cdiff to spread to most of it's rehab patients before busting out the isolation gowns.
hookyarnandblanket
318 Posts
Being a CNA is not about being the most popular person on staff. Being a CNA is about doing our job to the up most of our capabilities and making sure people are dry, comfortable, pain-free, clean, hydrated, and above all, safe. Working in a nursing home or hospital is not about a popularity contest; it is true that many places carry on that high school atmosphere, but you will find those traits anywhere you work.
I can guarantee you that the families of your residents do not care who is friends with who or who tattles on others. They only care that their loved one is safe, clean, dry, and as comfortable as possible. I have been one of those family members. Perhaps making patient care, no matter if the resident is yours or not, your top priority instead of worrying about who is kissing up to who, who is taking too many breaks, and who is the favorite, you will find that your job will be more internally rewarding and you will be happier in the long run.
Constantly trying to keep tabs on your coworkers will earn you a reputation of someone who cannot be trusted to do excellent patient care or detailed work. Such a reputation for being someone who is out to show coworkers' flaws will not build camaraderie with your fellow CNAs nor will it refect well when seeking references. This field requires teamwork, and a part of teamwork is putting personal feelings aside and put patients and residents first.