Sometimes I Miss Being a CNA

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I miss being able to go in, do my job, and go home to my family.

I'm tired of all the responsibility and all the problems of being a nurse.

Anyone else feel like this or am I just having (another) midlife crisis?

I'm tired of being a responsible adult period, so I can relate. I'm tired of having responsiblities. I just want to be free to be me and play in the dirt.

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

GD, I know you're kidding, but dollars to donuts, someone's gonna come along and think you're implying that CNAs have no real responsibilities, and we all know that's not true, don't we. :)

So let me clarify that.

This has nothing to do with responsibility. It has to do with time. The things that give me pleasure as a nurse, the things that refresh my spirit as I go about my daily tasks for my patients, those moments are being stolen from me by staffing that cares little for the spiritual well-being of its patients and its staff.

The drive is faster, faster, faster, and do more, more, more. Ironically, they then talk about quality of life.

I've been a patient who's been in a hospital and family was unable to visit me and care for me. I've been wet, dirty, uncomfortable, in pain, hungry, and too sick to know who I was or how I got there.

In other words, here's what the patient sees. Her only contact with the world is a brief 3 minutes of assessment and pill-popping during a very frightening hospital stay, where she is being treated for god-knows-what. There's a sign on the wall telling her that the bedding will only be changed three times a week. She's had surgery, and cannot even get up to the bathroom without assistance.

She's so weak, and dopey she can't lift a finger, can't talk on the phone, can't eat because everything tastes weirdly metallic. In fact, she still has dried blood from her surgery on her, or the wound is draining great guns because the doc was a little too anxious to get her DC'd and pulled the JP too soon.

I'm not talking added responsibilities here. I'm talking about basic care, basic patient-nurse interactions being stolen by pencil-pushers who have no idea what we do, nor the intrinsic healing that occurs when a nurse interacts with a patient.

I miss getting to know my patient, I miss feeding that emotional strength to them with a smile and a sincere conversation, I miss the delight of rediscovering how truly unique we all are, how amazing we all are.

That's what I miss.

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Oh Angie, you're right. People misinterpret posts sometimes. I never meant to downgrade CNAs work. I just identify with your opening post, as how it relates to my own life.

I AM tired of being a responsible adult, truthfully. But I'm not tired of nursing.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

I can understand what you are saying. At times, I miss being a patient care associate at my job at the clinic. Now, each time something happens, my old peers look for the 'nurse' (me) and, since I am new with these responsibilities, I don't think that I know more than they do. They get to leave without worrying about what was left behind to do, can even curse someone out (not saying that I advocate for this type of behavior), without worrying about the same ramifications that I would because I may need the same person I screamed at. My feet actually hurt more (maybe because I am older than I was a few years back), and at this point, I am more mentally than physically drained. Your feelings are not abnormal. Are you a new nurse? That may be some of it as well. I have been one for 7 months.

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

Not new, just old enough to recall when it was different. Before the days of DRGs.

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Specializes in Nurses who are mentally sicked.

Try to work for those agencies....I found out it is easier. Less responsibility in some sense... Unlike being a staff nurse, you have all those responsibilities attached to you "physically and mentally." In our ICU, an agency nurse never has to be in-charge, she/he just has to finish her owe work and go home. It is only my opinion. Good luck!!!

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Specializes in LTC, cardiac, ortho rehab.

im an lvn and i never was a cna, but from time to time, i would think that being a cna would be alot easier. i would see my CNAs on their break and watching tv while im running around with my treatment cart trying to treat various skin tears, decubitus ulcers, post cabg, abd surgery, wound vacs, and a bunch of other stuff. i became a nurse to help other people out, but with 50 patients per shift, i cant even have a 5 minute conversation with one patient.

yeah sometimes i wish i was a cna with less responsibility, but i love the fact that im a nurse, and my calls help people.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

As my boss would say "that's why you get paid the big bucks".

I hate when she says that.

Seriously, I know the feeling. But then if you went back to being a CNA, you'd want to put you hands in situations where they didn't belong, or offer your two cents about things. :)

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Specializes in Alzheimer's Disease, Geriatrics.

I'm a CNA now for a home care agency but for a couple of years before med aid school and then nursing school. I worked in an AL facility as CNA and then Med aid, and I loved it. I worked in the Alz neighborhood and the time that i spent with them and the things that you learn from you residents that you will never learn from anyone else really sticks with you.

Tell me how and when else you would get an opprotunity to explain oral sex to an 87 yr old woman? Keep in mind this is at 11:30pm. Gotta love it.

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Specializes in Nursing assistant.

These post are insightful and very revealing. I think the frustration may be that basic care tasks have been segregated from the nurses responsibilities, and instead of being freeing, it has doomed you to endless paperwork and distanced you from your real focus: the patient receiving care. You may actually feel like you are doing assessments blindfolded, or at least by word of mouth.

I am a proponent of nurses having small enough assignments that they can do the whole thing, soup to nuts...

The patient would really benefit, but on the downside, I would be unemployed. Bogus.

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Specializes in LTC, Home Health, L&D, Nsy, PP.
I'm tired of being a responsible adult period, so I can relate. I'm tired of having responsiblities. I just want to be free to be me and play in the dirt.

You bring the spoons - I'll bring the old coffee cans! :D

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Specializes in Rodeo Nursing (Neuro).

While I was in school, I was encouraging a friend of mine--an aide--to get into nursing school. Many, many advantages for a young, single mom. Her big concern was that nurses don't spend time with patients, they spend time charting. In my vast wisdom, I opined that there are just some nurses who would rather spend time on their butts, charting, than on their feet, caring.

Hey, I didn't know I was lying. Give me a colostomy to empty over charting, any day! At least when you empty a colostomy, you've done something. Good lord--charting is endless! And boring!

But I do work nights, and sometimes they let us keep enough nurses to run with 4-5 patients. Six is our max, and five is our goal. Four is real nice, although you have to hope you don't get your admission at the worst possible time, because you're sure to get an admission. Anyway, I do get to help with a bath, now and then, and usually have time to chat with patients a little. Sometimes I work in the epilepsy monitoring unit and have a good deal of time for pt contact, even with six. (EMU can be 95% boredom, 5% panic. Pts are supposed to seize, but sometimes they get carried away with it.)

I do have a strategy for avoiding midlife crises, though. I'm letting my extended adolescence carry over into my second childhood. (Thus, the 50 y.o. Buffy fan.)

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