Going from PCA to RN on the same unit?

[vegnurse21]

I'm a PCA but will be an RN (hopefully! lol) in July/August. I'm in the float pool at our small hospital that I want to work as a psych nurse at. I get sent there a few times per month, and the evening staff knows me pretty well and I get along with all of them. On the med/surg floor that I am on most of the time recently had a girl go from a PCA position to RN after she graduated. She got a pretty big head and was constantly telling us to do menial tasks that she could've easily done herself. Most of the time she was ordering us to take a BP/temp, or get a blanket for so and so while she sat at the nurses station chomping on a cookie or ice cream. I know that this is basically the job of the PCA, but it isn't fair for her to ask this of us when she is 100% aware that we are running our butts off the entire shift since she's been in our place.

Now, I know that as an RN I won't be getting a big ego because of it. I am grateful that I got the experience working as a PCA so I know how busy they are. I would have no problem getting a blood sugar or taking a set of vitals when they need to be done for some special reason other than routine. I just don't want the usual PCAs to go from liking me to hating me because I'm suddenly an RN and would need them to maybe do something for me if I'm busy.

Do any of you have experience with this? I love the hospital I work at, and really don't want to go to a different facility for my job.

[ERNurse752, RN]

Sounds like the girl you're talking about is sufferring from RN-itis.

As long as you ask for help, instead of order people around...and as long as you don't ask anyone to do anything you wouldn't do yourself...and as long as you're not chomping on cookies/ice cream/etc when you ask someone for help...you should be ok.

That's not to say some of the PCAs won't still resent you and get snarky or talk behind your back, so just be prepared.

I think it's always beneficial to be able to stay in the same hospital or system where you were a student...it's more familiar in every way imaginable, and that helps decrease your stress as a new GN/RN.

Good luck!

[crmson_lady]

I am also a PCA/US on the resource team (float pool). I will be moving up to RN in May/June. I will be on the main unit I work every other weekend. I've had some worries about moving up and being able to delegate to PCAs that I've worked with for so long. However I've worked long enough as a PCA to know how stressful it can be and that the RN or LPN can do some things for their patients when a PCA is busy. I hope to keep a level head and remember we all can help the patient, instead of leaving it to one person or set of people.

I think as long as you remember you can handle tasks too, then you should be okay. My school taught the following for RNs: if you ask a PCA to do something for a patient, then don't go sit down at the desk to read a book or chat with others. You should be willing to help or do it yourself unless you are just extremely busy and can't spare the time. At the hospital I work, the nurses have 5-8 patients whereas the PCAs have 9-10 on day shift. So it helps everybody if the RNs & LPNs do some things to help when the teams are difficult or almost completely total care.

[christvs, DNP, RN, NP]

Hi, I've been an RN for 8 months now on a med/surg/tele unit & while I was in nursing school I was a PCA in the float pool at the same hospital for a couple of years. As a PCA I worked the 7-3 shift & now as an RN I'm working the 3-11 shift, so I haven't worked with the same shift of people, for the most part. However, when I was orienting as a new RN, I was on 7-3, so it was a little weird delegating to the PCAs, since I was one of them not very long ago. The PCAs I work with are pretty cool, but do sometimes try to "hide" in an empty pt room so we don't see them. That stinks when I'm running around like crazy trying to do meds, assessments, deal with pt's pain, nausea, abnormal VS issues, get doc calls, deal with family questions, treatments, AND do a lot of the helping pts to the BRP, getting boxes of tissues, etc...I have no problem delegating now but it's very hard to delegate when you need help when the PCA is hiding somewhere. So sometimes I think it's easier to do things myself, rather than look all over the unit for them. It's not fair though, because it can get very overwhelming at times & I have no problem doing VS, blood sugars, etc when all my RN work (meds, treatments) are done on time, but when it's nutty, I need the PCAs to do their job too, and it can be very frustrating when they are nowhere to be found. Some of the time they are chatting on the phone & even after we overhead page them, it takes them a while to get off the phone & help the pt, so that frustrates me that the pt has to wait (and I'm usually in the middle of a med pass for someone else & I am tied up) so aughh, I hate that. Sorry for the long vent! Anyhow, I think no matter where you work as an RN, you'll see similar trends: you'll have some very helpful great PCAs, and others who will frustrate you.

[AngelsRN]

A little different for me but when I became a GN/RN I stayed on the unit I worked on as a Unit Secretary, although it was discouraged by some. I asked some of the RN's I trusted for their opinion --- at this point it has worked out soooooo well for me - I wanted to be in a comfortable environment where I knew where things were and I knew people - I figured being a new nurse would be hard enough. It is different for a PCT though, although there are some similar issues. If there are RN's you trust and work well with, ask them what they think. I was fortunate to work with awesome RN's who taught me a lot while I was in school.

Plus . . .I know how hard PCT's work and if I can do my own blood pressure before giving a bp med, I will and I know they appreciate it. Small things go a long way.