This week a good friend of mine, who has been a CNA for almost a decade sat down and shared some words of wisdom with me. She told me that many nurses abused their CNAs and made them do things that the nurse could have easily done, but they felt compelled to ask my friend to do it because they seen that she wasn't busy for a whopping 5 minutes. She told me to never over use the CNAs and to never forget that they're hard working and need to be cut some slack sometimes.
None of us want to be used and abused, so I wanted to come on here and ask others what their honest opinions are on when it is appropriate to delegate tasks to a CNA?
I am a new grad and was hired in the ER, so I am not sure whether we have CNAs in the ER, but I do believe we have techs who have similar scopes of practice.
Before I became a RN, I was a nurse apprentice, which is exactly like a tech. I never felt abused by my nurses, but I do hear other CNAs often talk about feeling like they're taken advantage of.
So with that being said, what are some appropriate tasks to delegate to your CNA? Should you only delegate when you're busy doing something else, or are there tasks you always ask the CNA to do?
I am so grateful for CNAs and bless their hearts for all the work they do and all the help they provide to us and our patients. We are all a team and I want to make sure I am asking them for help during appropriate times.
