do you feel like the CNA's run the floor?

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I am a new nurse of about 2 years and work on an acute med-surg geriatric floor. It is an 18 bed unit and we work with 3 RN's and 2 CNA's. THough this ratio seems fair, myself and the other nurses constantly feel like we are doing everyones work. When we do ask for extra help from the aides, it is usually accompanied by an attitude or a smart remark. The nurses on my floor feel as though it is unfair that we have to sacrifice our nursing time with our patients to do aide work. (We do perform these duties anyway, but can not do both jobs for the whole shift). The aides seem to do oly the minimum to get by per their job description. Has anyone else encountered this issue?:angryfire

PS: When this issue was brought to attention to administration, we were told that they cant change anybodys personalities and do the best we can.:uhoh21:

Specializes in Nursing assistant.
Chadash,

I think that inservices are a great idea!!!!!!!! Techs do need MORE education in certain areas of our job:>)

Absolutely! Ignorance is not bliss!

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I also am in nursing school and have worked as a tech on a med/surg unit for 4 years. There is a majority of nurses that will be sitting right next to the call light system and will not answer it. It's as if they don't hear it. I will be busy on the floor and hear it, then finally I will go to the nurses station and there will be 3 nurses sitting there. That is so annoying! I don't know about all these other techs that everyone else is talking about, but I know when I'm working, I stay nonstop most of my time. And not just doing aide work, but also doing the nurses work...inserting catheters, NG's, drawing labs, entering physician orders, dressing changes, and so on...which is not under the responsibilites of a tech. This whole topic just disturbs me because I witness it everyday.

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I also am in nursing school and have worked as a tech on a med/surg unit for 4 years. There is a majority of nurses that will be sitting right next to the call light system and will not answer it. It's as if they don't hear it. I will be busy on the floor and hear it, then finally I will go to the nurses station and there will be 3 nurses sitting there. That is so annoying! I don't know about all these other techs that everyone else is talking about, but I know when I'm working, I stay nonstop most of my time. And not just doing aide work, but also doing the nurses work...inserting catheters, NG's, drawing labs, entering physician orders, dressing changes, and so on...which is not under the responsibilites of a tech. This whole topic just disturbs me because I witness it everyday.

Huffman, if these are not part of your duties, than you should not be doing them.

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Specializes in Nursing assistant.
I also am in nursing school and have worked as a tech on a med/surg unit for 4 years. There is a majority of nurses that will be sitting right next to the call light system and will not answer it. It's as if they don't hear it. I will be busy on the floor and hear it, then finally I will go to the nurses station and there will be 3 nurses sitting there. That is so annoying! I don't know about all these other techs that everyone else is talking about, but I know when I'm working, I stay nonstop most of my time. And not just doing aide work, but also doing the nurses work...inserting catheters, NG's, drawing labs, entering physician orders, dressing changes, and so on...which is not under the responsibilites of a tech. This whole topic just disturbs me because I witness it everyday.

It disturbs me that they may have you doing things out of your scope of practice. You actually insert NG tubes and the like? What is your education level, it must be beyond CNA.

I do feel for you, have seen this too. I know as a CNA in LTC, though I never had the procedures you do, I would never ever sit down just because the pt load was out of this world, and there were plenty of hungry, wet, confused and lonely folk. It was, hit the floor running, and don't stop. And there were those kind of nurses too. But, while sitting at the nurses station, are these nurses yacking or working? The paper work they do is out of this world, so looks can be deceiving.

But, again, if they have you doing procedures that you should not be doing, somethings really wrong...

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

Even as a PCT i was not permittd to instert Foleys or NGs. Dressing changes? Heck no! How could the nurse comment on the condition of a wound if i were the one who saw it?

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I also am in nursing school and have worked as a tech on a med/surg unit for 4 years. There is a majority of nurses that will be sitting right next to the call light system and will not answer it. It's as if they don't hear it. I will be busy on the floor and hear it, then finally I will go to the nurses station and there will be 3 nurses sitting there. That is so annoying! I don't know about all these other techs that everyone else is talking about, but I know when I'm working, I stay nonstop most of my time. And not just doing aide work, but also doing the nurses work...inserting catheters, NG's, drawing labs, entering physician orders, dressing changes, and so on...which is not under the responsibilites of a tech. This whole topic just disturbs me because I witness it everyday.

Then alot of the problem is your fault.

You shouldn't be doing their work for them.

As they say....those duties are beyond the scope of your practice.

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Well I am a CNA and I don't care what anyone says, I do the minimum. That's is not saying that I don't work hard because I do, but I won't break my back, or take a fall for running back and forth either. My stand is that I am on my nurses lisence meaning whatever my work is she is also resposible for, but I find that not many nurse find it this way, and some will even try to get me to do their work for them. And I don't put up with it. If I got paid more I'd be willing to go an extra mile but I don't. And I don't want to hear crap about how it should not be about the money, with my position it it. If I go to work and break my back, I have nothing to give when I get home and nothing to show for it, now if I got paid more and went to work and broke my back I would have something to give when I got home, such as extra savings. I know a lot of nurse work hard and at the same time a lot of them don't, but whomever I am working with doesn't change my stance. I work my hall the way that I want, I have had it out with my nurse, and my administration tice since the start of this month, over what i will and won't do. You'd think I'd been by now, but they on't let me go, as a matter of fact I turn in my notice to quit a couple of weeks ago and I had my manager near begging me to stay. That is because I do my work, it may be the minimum but it gets done. I have had no bed sore, mouth ulcers, slips, falls, "lost patients", I never once had to change a complete bed, and my patients rooms are always fresh, I have had 3 of my pts to go from fully inco to partialy inco, and one to go from fully inco, to cont. I do more than enough. Now the way that I get that done is my way, and I am not willing to change it. I will toliet a person, tell them to say until I get back and move on to the next, and the next without a problem. And none of my pts are amb. Now if some of those patients started to wind up on the floor then of course I would change my routine, but mine don't, because I let them know if I am asking you stay until I get back you need to. I have too many full care pts to sit in there with every one of them while they discharge. And if a patients happens to need something while I am with another they can wait. Unless the are falling, have fell, can't breathe, are about to pass out, they can wait. And if my nurse doesn't like it she can get up off her stick and go do it herself, which I have to sometimes emind her of. Do CNA's run the floor, well I run mine, simply because I will allow no one to order me to do anything, and esp anything that will run me into the ground. And another thing I hate being called an Aide, it sounds like I am a tool to be used how someone wants to use me.And any nurse working with me wil get an earful for it. Asking from extra help from me will get you an attitude because I do too much already. I never ask for help because I can do it just fine on my own, but I will do it MY way, and it someone doesn't like my way I always suggest they do it themselves. As the old saying goes "If you ant something done right, do it yourself".

I'm a CNA working on my nursing degree and also getting ready to start Med tech training this week and I must say that I would hate working with someone like you! You are the kind of person that gives other CNA's a bad name. I am proud to say that I go out of my way to do extra things. We don't have a nurse on duty during my shift at my facility (ALF), but we do have Med Techs that do all the med passes, insulin injections, calls to doctors, etc. I treat them as though they were a nurse. They have a lot of extra work, yet are still able to help me if I need help lifting a resident, pass trays, etc. It's all about TEAMWORK. I've been blessed with my job because everyone works together so well and that in turn makes us all happy. We're always there to help one another. It may not be right that minute, but we're always willing to help one another. If I get finished with my rounds early, then I'm more than happy to help the Med Techs in any way that I can.

I won't ramble on, but I just had to say that your attitude stinks! :madface:

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I won't ramble on, but I just had to say that your attitude stinks! :madface:

:roll

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I am grateful for everything our techs do! They are awesome. They do occasionally give me attitude, but hey, they're allowed a bad day too! It's not a consistent thing. It only bothers me when I go around asking other nurses if they need help cuz I am slow and the techs are really busy, but if I need help, the techs give me attitude and put me last on the list. Honestly though I don't think there is "tech work" and nurses work". True, they can't do much of what I can, but if I am in the room, I will check the blood sugar, empty the foley, start the bath, whatever! There are things they do I truly can't do, either......like ordering supplies, I am clueless about that stuff! But I could not do a bath or get most people to a chair without help, so cheers to the techs!

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Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

let's undo some of the accusations here. it's a good topic but is straying into a flammable zone. let's debate the topic.....which is do you feel the cna's run the floor.

i can tell you when i was a na back in the dark ages of my freshman year of college, i knew i did all the work.

uh huh and then fast forward to rn status and i knew i did all the work. don't ass-ume that kind of thing ok. be nice, respect the other posters and work out a way to solve this in each of your facilities. we did.

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99 percent of a patients time is spent with the cna. They are not the only people who can be lazy. I have seen RN's that are lazy also. It depends on the person not their title of employment. Rn's have to have cna classes also now, because it is not me, me, me, it is everything I can do for the patient. I have also seen Rn's wth a s---ty attitude also. Working together is the key. No professon is better than the other, because it's about the patient not you or your problems. If you do not like the work ethics of the institution you are working at then switch work places, but do not give other professions bad names because your unhappy with your work place. CNA's should be paid more because they put up with a lot from the job and other co workers who think their job is better than theirs. Teamwork and the patients needs are the keywords to any health profession.That's why I want to be a RN, so I can give something back and change people's lives with a good attitude and smile. I got tired of seeing RN's in hospitals who have a better than you attitude and are rude to patients.

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99 percent of a patients time is spent with the cna. They are not the only people who can be lazy. I have seen RN's that are lazy also. It depends on the person not their title of employment. Rn's have to have cna classes also now, because it is not me, me, me, it is everything I can do for the patient. I have also seen Rn's wth a s---ty attitude also. Working together is the key. No professon is better than the other, because it's about the patient not you or your problems. If you do not like the work ethics of the institution you are working at then switch work places, but do not give other professions bad names because your unhappy with your work place. CNA's should be paid more because they put up with a lot from the job and other co workers who think their job is better than theirs. Teamwork and the patients needs are the keywords to any health profession.That's why I want to be a RN, so I can give something back and change people's lives with a good attitude and smile. I got tired of seeing RN's in hospitals who have a better than you attitude and are rude to patients.

It seems to me that you're doing your share of generalizing...

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