FED UP CNAS!!!!

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ANYBODY THATS A CNA PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY YOUR SO FED UP!!!!:down: BECAUSE I AM!!

Specializes in PACU, LTC, Med-Surg, Telemetry, Psych.

*I despise being talked to like a disobedient, stupid child by folks 'over me'.

*I despise messed up families who are peed off at the world and just waiting for me to do something wrong to put someone unemployed.

*Speaking of which, durn! CNA is the only job I know of where even the janitors and kitchen can tell you what to do. Between all the support staff, the patient, the families, admins, nurses, compliance, education.. sheesh..makes you feel like everyone's whipping boy. That's no autonomy!

*I despise doing all the heavy work and yucky work for people that make many t many times my salary so they can get to do all the cool stuff.

*I despise fear tactics like "lucky to have job" stuff being hurled around to make you fear joblessness for even if you have valid reason to need off while big nurses, admins, and doctors get free reign because they are 'revenue producers'.

*While I am forgiving of patients that can not help it, I get tired of being a punching bag and claw toy by violent patients.

Shall I go on :)

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To all families:

When I am passing ice water, DO NOT call me the "water boy."

This is not a sports team. I am not (nor is any other CNA) a water-boy, water-man, water-girl, water-woman, water-person, water-bed, or any other term with the word "water" in it.

It was funny the first time I was called it. It has gotten OLD after several years.

Know that the little laugh I am giving you is a FAKE one.

In my mind, I'm really wishing I could slap you.

{{{{;)}}}}

PS It doesn't get any funnier 5 minutes after you do it the first time. Nor does it get any funnier 10 minutes after that.

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one of my friends in my cna class went out to look for a CNA job. guess what? she went to the place to find out if they were hiring CNAs, and they told her they had a position open for a receptionist at the place, and as a CNA. my friend asked what the difference was. their reply? "the receptionist makes 2 dollars more"

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Specializes in Mostly geri :).

Ok, puhleez have a good reason for not empying the trash :)

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Specializes in PACU, LTC, Med-Surg, Telemetry, Psych.
Ok, puhleez have a good reason for not empying the trash :)

Yep, as a CNA you have to dump the trash in patient/ resident rooms as well. Housekeeping does not do garbage. What other field is out there where the janitors do not have to touch trash? In fact, if you get busy or forget, the janitor or nurses looking to toss tube feeding stuff will be happy to remind you.

Not that I would want my patients and families to have to smell dirty diapers. Just saying.

As a CNA you are:

Janitor

Room Service (without the gratuity folks at resorts or hotels get)

Feeder

Geek Squad for TVs

Poop Removal

Fall Guy if there are complaints.

Actual toucher of patients.

Dime a Dozen (many places they do not even want the actual cert - in fact they can pay you less if you do not)

Lower Working Class wage slave.

Yes, nurses have to do paperwork, meds, etc. I know this is a job in itself and I respect that. I have met some awesome nurses who are life savers!

But truth is, MOST places, if you are a CNA you get crapped on literally in more ways than one. Some folks are cool, but the LARGE MAJORITY of the medical community looks down on you because you are expendable, they have a higher social class, and what you are associated with. Some are cool and understand because they went thru it. Most have no respect for you because of perceived lack of ambition and can make unfair judgements against your character.

I really wish CNA could split off into it's own field away from being under nurses. But, since there is no money in it other than agencies, I doubt this will happen in our lifetimes.

.

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I'm tired of every facility I've worked at spending money on all of the wrong things. I don't understand how we can afford to repaint the entire building, mount a brand new huge flat panel TV on the wall (in the front lobby of all places), and install a massage therapy room and spa that will NEVER get used -- all the while I am brushing my residents' HAIR with DISPOSABLE TOOTHBRUSHES, trying to figure out if I have enough briefs to keep my residents dry through the night, and doing my best to make hand lotion function as a barrier cream because we are out of supplies (which according to management the CNAs are "misusing" -- I'm sorry but 3 briefs per DAY is not enough!!).

Management had the massage therapy and all that crap put in because they say the residents need to be pampered and relaxed and unstressed. True. But seriously? I'd like to see management try to feel relaxed and unstressed while they're covered in their own excrement. All the massages in the world aren't worth crap if you can still feel your own poop and pee irritating your behind!! :madface:

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Specializes in Med-Surg/urology.
I'm tired of every facility I've worked at spending money on all of the wrong things. I don't understand how we can afford to repaint the entire building, mount a brand new huge flat panel TV on the wall (in the front lobby of all places), and install a massage therapy room and spa that will NEVER get used -- all the while I am brushing my residents' HAIR with DISPOSABLE TOOTHBRUSHES, trying to figure out if I have enough briefs to keep my residents dry through the night, and doing my best to make hand lotion function as a barrier cream because we are out of supplies (which according to management the CNAs are "misusing" -- I'm sorry but 3 briefs per DAY is not enough!!).

Management had the massage therapy and all that crap put in because they say the residents need to be pampered and relaxed and unstressed. True. But seriously? I'd like to see management try to feel relaxed and unstressed while they're covered in their own excrement. All the massages in the world aren't worth crap if you can still feel your own poop and pee irritating your behind!! :madface:

OMG don't get me started!

How in the world do you explain why my facility purchased all new furniture & paintings for the walls, but yet we can never keep the basics: gloves,wipes,briefs, FOOD(they've rationed the food sooo much now b/c there's not enough to go around:uhoh3::uhoh3:)!!

These people's families pay $5000+/month for them to stay in this place..where's the money going!!!

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Specializes in Mostly geri :).

Ok, can't remember if I've mentioned this here before but it is tacky to spray a resident with Febreeze instead of giving them a bath and telling them to keep it a secret. Yeah, one moron actually did it................

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Specializes in Nursing Assistant.

Wow. I'm in CNA class right now and reading these stories has me baffled....to say the least! I do question facilities that don't have the supplies needed to care for the residents....can that not be reported? Those residents have the right to quality of care and if they are laying around in dirty briefs because you have a limit to how many can be used in one day, that is insane! As for being the "janitor"?? Is this normal for the CNA duties? I know a CNA changes the bedding and keeps the room cleaned up...among MANY other tasks, but do they mop floors as well? You would think our main focus would be in "caring for the patients personal needs" and ADL's. Is there any facility that is more focused on patient care and less on janitorial duties than the other? Thanks for all the stories and for any advice!

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OMG :eek: You people have got some crazy jobs!!! I'm an LNA in a nursing home and we have had NONE of this...

One thing I do have to add though... I think it should be manditory for all nurses to be an LNA for a certain amount of time BEFORE becoming a nurse!!! :D

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I'm so sick of the "helpless nurse syndrome." Not all nurses have it, but the ones that do have it usually have a severe case of it. Tonight a nurse actually took a resident's blood glucose, saw that it was low, freaked, ran RIGHT PAST the drink cart outside the resident's room (which had orange on top, with the lid even off and some plastic cups right next to it!!), came and found me, asked me to pour a glass of orange juice for this resident STAT.

I wanted to pour an extra glass of it just to dump in her face.

I know the whole spiel about how "I [the nurse] can help you with your stuff but you can't help me with my stuff so I need to get my stuff done first." Yeah, I know. What makes me mad is that they say that, but then they are the ones that have already taken 4 breaks @ 15 minutes each, yet I've been here the same amount of time and gotten NO BREAKS AT ALL.

If you're not my nurse or my CNA partner, don't come and ask me to toilet someone on another assignment while I'm busy on my own. Like your residents are more important than mine. And when I ask how the resident transfers, don't tell me you "THINK" they are an assist x1, etc. Your "THINKING" isn't helping me at all. Either you know it or you don't. It's my back that's going to be hurt if you're wrong (that is if I decide to even help or not).

Also can't stand the residents that act like every other resident's personal guardian. The ones that feel the need to incessantly repeat that the person sitting next to them wants a cup of coffee. Yeah, I'm not deaf nor am I stupid. I heard the resident the first time when he/she asked for coffee. That's why I told them I'd be right back with it. That's why I have a cup of coffee IN MY HAND. I know they want to look out for their friends, and I respect that, but some of them just take it WAYYY overboard.

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Specializes in LTC.

^Yup. I understand that a nurse has to do a lot of things a CNA can't, but I get annoyed sometimes.

I used to work with a nurse that would call you to take someone's vitals before she gave a med. All the stuff would be right there and she would stand there doing nothing while you got them. Not crushing the meds, signing the MAR, or anything. Just standing there with her arms crossed. What a waste of time.

I was doing vitals one day and the machine said a resident's BP was sky-high. Thinking the machine was just wonky, I showed this same nurse the reading and asked to borrow a manual cuff. I got the same reading. She scoffed and said, "there's no way" and followed me back to the resident's room to take her BP a 3rd time. She stood there and watched me take the blood pressure and when I said it was still the same she finally took it herself. I was like what the frig? And yes, she got the same reading that the machine and myself (x2) got. And then another time I found a resident was having stroke symptoms. She stood there while I took the BP, which was difficult because the resident was jiggling her arm and I couldn't hear anything. And the stethoscope was one of those awful heavy ones with huge bell. Instead of holding her arm still for me she stood there while i took the BP twice and then she got impatient and pretty much guessed at what it was.

And then another time a resident asked her for a blanket which was folded up at the end of her bed. She told this person to put the call light on because that was an aide's job. Again, what the frig?

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