What an Aid Hates

Nurses General Nursing

Published

As an aid on a busy step-down floor, I am appalled at the lack of manners of many nurses and doctors. I hate the way they walk by you--in your way--and it's their fault, and you say "excuse me," and they just walk by without commenting, as if they have a divine right to exist and aids and below are just dirt that need not even be acknowledged or treated like humans with dignity.

MDs are the worst for this, but I give them a pass because I figure they're so spiritually handicapped that they can't help being that way. I don't expect much from them. I think of them as I would any psych patient. But nurses? I expect more from nurses. They should be the experts at compassion. They should be spiritually evolved enough to at least have manners.

I'm sick of being made to feel like a piece of dirt at work, because I am not. Aids, houskeepers and cooks are super, super important to patients! They are not dirt. I'll be an RN any day now (when I get my NCLEX results), so I have to overcome this now. I can't just solve this problem by escaping up into the status of an RN (see what I mean! I said escape "up." I freakin programmed!). I have to get some new software downloaded into my mind and spirit before my results come. Thank God the Post Office isn't delivering today (because I was expecting my results today). If I get my results before figuring this out, I won't think about it. I won't solve it. The problem will disappear.

HELP!!

Acosmic

Hey Acosmic. Guess what? Even new RN's are treated this way. Not by many, but by some. Blow it off as best you can, and if you get the opportunity, show them the same lack of courtesy. They'll never get off their high horse, but who honestly cares what someone so morally inferior thinks? :rotfl:

But here's the thing, Caroline: I don't want to be like that. I don't want to show them the same lack of courtesy they show me. Because while it stings to get treated that way, and while part of me wants to retaliate in kind, another part doesn't want me to become them. If I am kind to them, even though they are rude to me, doesn't that make me bigger than them? Or does it only make me weak?

Acosmic

I am still laughing about old gold tooth! So very many faces flashed before my eyes when I read that! :rotfl: :rotfl:

I'm waiting for someone to acuse me of stereotyping. But I'm not: she really is old and she really has a gold tooth. It's just a fact. Some things in life are just too aprapos.

Acosmic

Specializes in rehab, antepartum, med-surg, cardiac.
So true about the crappy attitude of the RN's and MD's i hate around 90% of the staff at my hospital i dont make eye contact or talk to the 90% when they tell me to do something i dont even acknowledge them i just give them a blank stare they wish they could fire me but im a volunteer.:chuckle

:coollook: What you are referring to deals with the culture of the organization. If the attitudes of 90% of the staff of anyplace you work is that negative, your first step should be out the door and to another place to work. In order to be an effective volunteer for an organization, you need to be able to enjoy what you are doing and it sounds to me like you aren't enjoying it at all. The mission of the organization should mean something to you personally. Staying around only makes you miserable and affects your ability to be helpful to those you are there to assist.

Know what?

I've been on both sides of the coin here....

as a CNA, I was treated as the most horrid piece of trash that walked the face of this earth, so I know where that's coming from.

I was also treated with respect from some other nurses who were wonderful to me. They would ASK me to do something, not spit the words out like some do.

Then, as a nurse, I have been respected by CNA's and hated by CNA's. I help when I can, do what I can, but if I am busy, I can't just drop everything to put a patient in bed while you take a smoke break......

Just tonight, I was on the phone with the pharmacy, and a CNA wanted me to come unhook a G-tube so she could take the resident to the restroom. I said that I couldn't right then, I was on the phone and you'll just have to take the feeding with you....

the CNA mumbled something about "It's not MY job......" and I said, "It is tonight!"

She is rude, disrespectful and hateful to me every chance she gets, and I have tried to be kind and talk to her and help her. Nothing helps...

Honey, I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is good and bad in everyone. Overlook the buttheads and enjoy your working relationship with those who know you are a fine person...you'll never please everyone, no matter how hard you try, so don't bust your backend trying to!

Good luck to you!

:)

Specializes in critical care; community health; psych.
But here's the thing. One day, you're going to be the nurse and what are you going to do differently? Some aids really are immorally lazy. Some really are beastly in the care they give pts. What are you going to do so that you will have a clear conscience? How are you going to keep from eventually looking down on the aids? Nursing student aids are not the same kind of aids as professional aids. It's easy to appreciate a nursing student aid, I'm talking about old gold-tooth. How are you going to be different? Please tell me, because I need to learn.

Acosmic

Yes, you have a point. I know the type. We really have very few of them. Our professional aids are mostly very conscientious and caring but the one or two that are truly lazy and don't belong in the field give the rest of us a bad name. The thing is that these aids that have been so lax have been allowed to continue in their employment for years. Everyone, nurses and aids alike, know exactly who they are and no one wants to work with them, period. Just as there are lazy and uncaring PCTs, there are lazy and uncaring nurses.

As a nurse, I intend to get to know my assistants; which ones I can feel comfortable about and which ones I really need to watch. The good ones are worth their weight in gold. The bad ones really need to get the boot.

Maybe most of the nurses or doctors aren't purposely being rude to you. Maybe they have their minds on a 100 million other things...like, maybe their patients who are sick or in pain...maybe they're thinking about all the charting they have to do in case a patient or their family ever decides to sue & they have to CYA in documenting...there could be all sorts of things that have their minds elsewhere. Sometimes, there's just so much work to be done in a short amount of time and everything has to be done RIGHT NOW that they don't have time to stop & smell the roses and happily greet everyone within their path.

Forgive me if I don't sound understanding. I do. I have also worked as a CNA when in nursing school and have seen all sorts. After becoming an RN, I can understand a lot more about why they may have appeared like they were on some kind of arrogant high horse. True, there are SOME who really are that way, but not all. While I was a CNA, I guess I was lucky. I really wasn't treated badly by nurses or doctors. But then again, I gave respect to those who held a higher title than myself and they showed appreciation for my good work with the patients.

By the way, I've noticed a couple who've not yet passed the NCLEX with RN in their titles already. Have you since passed the test?

Specializes in Emergency Room.

i was a tech for a long time in the same department that i am a nurse so i was naturally a little apprehensive about how the techs would perceive my new role as a rn. i had some techs say things such as "so you're our new slave driver now" or "don't change because you are a nurse". these things were said half-jokingly but they still bothered me because i knew that my responsibility as a nurse was a lot greater than a tech and i knew i would need their support. and i also didn't want to be known as the tech that "changed" once they became a nurse. i don't get the same treatment as the other nurses because the techs assume that because i was a tech i don't need help with "tech stuff". it is very frustrating because as new rn's know, the responsibilty is overwhelming while you are trying to develop a routine. i am well liked at my job, but i had to realize that i could not please everyone and nor could i make others understand my responsibilty. rn's get treated like crap too and i know it may not seem that way from a cna/techs point of view but when you become a nurse you don't have time to worry about other people's attitudes. some people just don't have manners. some of the most ignorant, disrespectful people i have ever encountered at work were physicians. i don't take anything personal, because it only makes things worse. control what you can (your behavior) and whatever you can't control(other peoples behavior), let it go.

Specializes in Urgent Care.

I agree about the comment of training the CNA's properly.

I am a medical assistant, and I am doing my CNA now, which is necessary before starting the ADN program. I found out that we are learning vitals in a 2 hour lab session. Once we do a few BP's and pulses, from then on they will use the dynamaps at the hospital. How can you get a good ear for hearing BP's if you don't practice the skill? I know the nursing homes around here use BP cuffs.

We also did isolation and didn't even have to show our technique to the instructor. We had a partner who read through the steps as we did it. Not the best training if you ask me.

Good meds for all RN's!! And I mean prescribed...

I am studying for my RN and God willing will be done by next June. In the meantime I plan on working as a CNA and getting all of the experience I can. Luckily, I am one of the "older" folks, who finally decided what I want to be when I grow up. I have learned through my trials and tribulations that just because someone has more education doesn't mean they need to be treated any differently. CNA's, stand up for yourselves. Everyone can have a crappy day (especially in this profession). You are people too. Plus, what's the worst that could happen?

"Sure Dr's act like God, but where would God be without his angels?"

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