If I hate being an CNA, will I hate nursing?

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Specializes in Ortho, Neuro, Detox, Tele.

It's true....I admitted 11 patients to our floor this past Monday...and we're booked up......my patients did NOT get the level of customer service that I usually provide...mainly just due to being overworked and stressed about the acuity of the patients we did get...

there is usually NOT enough time to do everything...but you do what you can and as long as it's not life-threatening...it'll be ok.

MassED, BSN, RN

2,636 Posts

Specializes in ER.

Being a CNA in a LTC facility really is difficult, but it's a good thing for you to go through to realize how hard CNA's have it. It is much better as a RN - still some difficult parts to the job, but you can find your niche. Once you find where you like to work, it becomes a joy to do the work, not like working in a LTC facility. Good luck!

No i don't think that you will hate being a nurse as you do a CNA. I've had my CNA license since 1996 and i've worked in various facilities and now I currently work in a home setting with Quality home health. I am also going to school full time with the end goal of becomeing an LPN. I do love my work as I love the feeling of seeing the smiles on my pt.'s faces when I help them do a difficult task that other wise would be difficult or impossible for them to complete on there own. And I just know that I'm going to love being an LPN even more. Like one of the previous posters said before it may be just a matter of finding your area that you like working in the best. Nurseing is a very rewarding and fulling experience with lots of growth potential and is a forever changing field. I wish you all the best of luck with what ever you choose to do in life.

MassED, BSN, RN

2,636 Posts

Specializes in ER.
i worked as a cna and i hated every second of it! i even worked in a really nice place and hated it (med surg type floors). i just don't like that type of job--it is just very physical work. comparing a cna to an rn is like comparing apples to oranges. it ain't the same, not even close. i quite my cna job after a month. i wouldn't recommend it to anyone and i wouldn't do it again.

i now work as a nurse tech and i love it!! i get to do nursing skills (foleys, ivs, ng tubes, blood draws, etc) and it rocks. i still help clean patients and turn and stuff but there is just a lot more to it. i mean some of the cna duties are nursing duties. i work in an icu and we don't have any aides that work there so the rn and the techs have to do it all, no one loves wiping butts but it's not what you do all day long either.

so no, please don't think that because you hate being a cna you will also hate being an rn. once you start nursing school and get farther along in your program (meaning once you learn more and more skills) you will see the difference. you might enjoy cna type work though on an ob floor.

i have a friend who wants to work in ob when she is done and works as a cna on that floor and she loves it!

you really have to find your area of nursing. if i worked as a nurse tech on a med/surg floor i would hate that because i hate med/surg, i like the icu. also your patient population is a factor. i work in the picu and that is the patient population i like and enjoy working with.

if you don't have to work i wouldn't even bother working if you hate that job. after your first semester of nursing school hospitals are going to start recruiting you and you will be able to start working as a nurse tech or something similar and that may be a better route for you to go.

maybe you can work as a nurse tech, many states have done away with this. i worked, after my first year in nursing school, as a nurse tech in a rehab. it was ok, it was money after all. but the state of washington did away with that position and title. so you'll have to look into that. there are other cna titles also that have varying degrees of responsibility, again depending on where you live. some can insert foley's, some can't. some do phlebotomy, depending on your training and certification level.

MagnesiuM

106 Posts

Hopefully, when you become an RN, you remember how hard the CNA job was, and you help your aides and work with them as a team, instead of running the opposite direction to look for a CNA any time someone needs to go to the bathroom.

I've had nurses walk out of a room after being asked by the patient if they can help them onto the bedpan, spend ten minutes looking for me, only to tell me to get them on the bedpan because they are too busy to do it (now that they wasted ten minutes looking for me to do it for them, that is)!!!! :-O

if you hate being a CNA because it's hard being on the bottom rung, it's back-breaking in LTC, and it's not mentally challenging, then i think you'll be much happier as a nurse.

if you hate being a CNA because you can't stand the idea of touching someone's bottom with a gloved hand, or find helping someone to the bathroom to be the most miserable thing in the world, then maybe you'll hate many traditional forms of bedside nursing......but that doesn't mean nursing isn't for you!!!!!

there are nurse careers which don't involve mega amounts of incontinence.....

so take heart! if you care, if you love it even when it's tough, and if you can put your patients first over everything else, then you'll love nursing :-)

MassED, BSN, RN

2,636 Posts

Specializes in ER.

bottom line is that being a CNA, like being a nurse, is a humanitarian job. You need to like helping and caring for people. You want to make a difference, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. Every little task makes a difference.

Specializes in TCU.
Hopefully, when you become an RN, you remember how hard the CNA job was, and you help your aides and work with them as a team, instead of running the opposite direction to look for a CNA any time someone needs to go to the bathroom.

I've had nurses walk out of a room after being asked by the patient if they can help them onto the bedpan, spend ten minutes looking for me, only to tell me to get them on the bedpan because they are too busy to do it (now that they wasted ten minutes looking for me to do it for them, that is)!!!! :-O

If I had a dollar for every time a nurse came hunting me down to get a resident on/off the bedpan/toilet, I would be rich LOL (I have a combined total of 15+ years as a CNA, mostly LTC).

queen777

208 Posts

Specializes in med surg, geriatric, clinical, pool.

You worked as a team? Lucky you! At my first job, my supervisor told the other nurses NOT to help me because they "were doing my work".

I thought to myself, "isn't nursing a team effort?"

And I ended up straining my back and then she would not let me fill out an incident report.

I could go on, but I won't. The thing is, they don't tell you any of this in nursing school! And they don't teach you how to look out for yourself because others won't!

Want to know more? Just ask me.

queen777

208 Posts

Specializes in med surg, geriatric, clinical, pool.

If I helped every pt who needed it, I would never get anything done. And as you know those in LTC go to bed early.

queen777

208 Posts

Specializes in med surg, geriatric, clinical, pool.

More of the good stuff huh? What good stuff? All you are doing is exchanging one responsibility for a whole lot more responsibility. And you will be the one that everyone comes to if something goes wrong.

Once I was working in a TLC, a man comes back from being out all day and wants me to straight cath him while I was in the midst of making sure a diabiatic was not "leaving" me!

Yep I got written up. Be ready to do it all.

Simpleplan

120 Posts

I am a graduate nurse still working in a CNA capacity. It is very frustrating and my hat's off to you. It's not easy being the lowest person on the totem pole. It's frustrating having other CNA's talk down to you and make you feel stupid because you don't tuck a bed corner like they do. It's especially frustrating when you have a BSN. It's really just one CNA. She's been working as a CNA for 5 years and is actually pretty good at what she does. So, I listen to her advise and ignore her put downs.

I know when I was on my last semester in nursing school and I was functioning as a nurse, it was nicer, due to the fact, that you have more control. I do worry when I go home though. I think about things I could have done better. I think about things I didn't know. I like it. Nursing is challeging and I like that. I think if I ever get comfortable in nursing, then it means it's time to move on.

MassED, BSN, RN

2,636 Posts

Specializes in ER.
I am a graduate nurse still working in a CNA capacity. It is very frustrating and my hat's off to you. It's not easy being the lowest person on the totem pole. It's frustrating having other CNA's talk down to you and make you feel stupid because you don't tuck a bed corner like they do. It's especially frustrating when you have a BSN. It's really just one CNA. She's been working as a CNA for 5 years and is actually pretty good at what she does. So, I listen to her advise and ignore her put downs.

I know when I was on my last semester in nursing school and I was functioning as a nurse, it was nicer, due to the fact, that you have more control. I do worry when I go home though. I think about things I could have done better. I think about things I didn't know. I like it. Nursing is challeging and I like that. I think if I ever get comfortable in nursing, then it means it's time to move on.

you are a GN with your BSN? Let that CNA know that - tell her and she ought to knock it off. I think, despite you not appearing to be "comfortable in nursing", you could move on anyway and you'll find a better environment - just keep searching. Is this a LTC facility? Why not be a CNA in a hospital (less patients sometimes and more CNA's to help) until you're working as a nurse... just my thoughts. BTW, you can get into a facility or environment that challenges you and feel a little comfortable (which is a good thing). Becoming comfortable is not synonymous with complacency :twocents:.

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