Has anybody else switched from an RN job to a CNA job?

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I feel crazy for thinking this and feel the need to look for other peole with the same thinking. I'm done with nursing ages ago but it's the only field I have skills in so I stuck with it. I know that there's always the option to switch fields within nursing but that's easier said than done. I'm just tired of the demand to be a robot/saint on a field that I couldn't care less about anymore. I just want to save some money and pursue an engineering field. I've taught about doing nursing assistant work because they have less people to deal with and it feels more socially acceptable for them to dump whatever to nurses. I'm also considering being a cleaning staff and the like. I just can't be a robot anymore.

18 minutes ago, Kitiger said:

On 9/28/2020 at 3:08 PM, dragonheart said:

In accordance with the Nurse Practice Act, you cannot perform duties below your level current licensure.

 

All of it falls within the nurses scope of practice. That's the point. You will be judged as a nurse, expected to give the level of care that a nurse is capable of giving, but you will not be allowed to do those things as a nurse. 

What about nurses who were doctors in other countries, but are nurses in the US? Is that the same thing?

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
10 minutes ago, DesiDani said:

What about nurses who were doctors in other countries, but are nurses in the US? Is that the same thing?

No, as they are not licensed as physicians in the US.

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Specializes in Nurse Consultation.

Please go to the Nurse Practice Act  and /or call the appropriate  Board of Nursing.  

In the course of conducting facility licensure and  investigations, I have had to contact the Board. The Board has also conducted  training for nurses conducting healthcare facility surveys with respect to this question .

If one elects to no longer hold an active RN/LPN license, then there is no restricton on electing to seek employment as a CNA/CMT.

Yes, there is the requirement to hold active certification.

DesiDani already answered question posed about persons practicing as nurses who were doctors in other countries. 

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Nursing can be a tough gig. Lots of responsibility, but little authority. Staffing ratios are often dangerous. Moral distress is all too common. However, I think you can find something within nursing that works for you. 

Do you prefer working at the bedside or away from the bedside?  What parts of nursing do you enjoy?  What age group do you prefer? 
 

There are a myriad of opportunities in nursing. Not all of them are at the bedside. Spend some time looking at job postings and see if anything outside of bedside excites you. Teaching, staff/patient (diabetes, lactation, etc) educator, case management, research, sales, management, etc. all come to mind, but there are many others if you look  

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Specializes in CNA.
On 9/19/2020 at 1:43 PM, hazyblue said:

I feel crazy for thinking this and feel the need to look for other peole with the same thinking. I'm done with nursing ages ago but it's the only field I have skills in so I stuck with it. I know that there's always the option to switch fields within nursing but that's easier said than done. I'm just tired of the demand to be a robot/saint on a field that I couldn't care less about anymore. I just want to save some money and pursue an engineering field. I've taught about doing nursing assistant work because they have less people to deal with and it feels more socially acceptable for them to dump whatever to nurses. I'm also considering being a cleaning staff and the like. I just can't be a robot anymore.

I'm not sure if you've ever worked as a CNA. Some RNs have not, although I think every RN would benefit from working as a CNA. The RNs I've had who have been a CNA before, they work with their CNAs as partners. I've noticed that a majority of my RNs who haven't worked as a CNA, their CNA is simply there to serve them.

When I worked on Neuro, my nurses had about 4 patients, maybe 6 on a "bad" day. On an average day, a CNA has about 10 to 13 patients. Our nurse manager told us we'd have a 6 patient ratio to each CNA, and that never happened. They couldn't retain enough CNAs to do that. (Neuro is a hard unit).

My nurses called me more than the patients did, sometimes. They expect you to do what they want/need, never caring if you're busy.

Anytime my nurses could give me more of their work, they did. I don't know why you think CNAs can dump their work on RNs. I've never seen any CNA dump their work on an RN. CNAs are not allowed to delegate our tasks to anyone. But RNs can delegate to CNAs, and some really abuse it. And our pay is half of theirs.

An RN makes $26 an hour, a CNA makes $13 an hour, at Forsyth Medical Center. If you want to save money to go to school? Then be an RN. You don't want to be a robot? Don't be a CNA.

I was expected to have all of my vitals and blood sugars on time, and have the patients clean and orderly, about 80 percent were incontinent.  (Usually cleaning up a 2 person assist patient alone), and keep the confused ones in bed. While spontaneously becoming a sitter for the occasional patient that was given Ativan, seroquel, or haldol. In some patients, those meds aggravate their confusion, to a point of mania and paranoia. It also increases their fall risk. How am I supposed to to sit with this patient all night, and also do the rest of my responsibilities?

Think about this for a minute. If you have 13 patients, and you have 1 hour to get vitals, help the toilet, clean up 10/13 incontinent patients, get a room ready for an incoming patient, take a patient to CT or MRI. 60 minutes divided by 13 patients, is about 4 to 5 minutes per patient. How do you do all of that, safely?

I worked third shift at a nursing home. I was supposed to have 13 residents, I had 26, 4 nights out of 5. 23 of them incontinent. Nurse split on my unit and memory care, so I'd have at least 8 fall risks. 

All of the reasons you listed for wanting to be a CNA, I had the opposite experience. 

I love being a CNA. I enjoy helping others. Being a CNA is so hard!

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Specializes in CNA.
On 9/28/2020 at 3:20 PM, JadedCPN said:
On 10/11/2020 at 10:47 AM, Kitiger said:

On 9/28/2020 at 3:08 PM, dragonheart said:

In accordance with the Nurse Practice Act, you cannot perform duties below your level current licensure.

 

All of it falls within the nurses scope of practice. That's the point. You will be judged as a nurse, expected to give the level of care that a nurse is capable of giving, but you will not be allowed to do those things as a nurse. 

Geez, now I know why some nurses simply refuse to help their CNAs! It's not that it is beneath them, it's because they believe it's performing duties below their current licensure......

I want to thank you for saying that is all within a nurse's scope of practice.

I know many nurses who refuse to provide simple hygiene to their patients. One of my nurses left a patient of ours covered in the PEG tube feeding (sorry I'm suffering from insomnia, and I can't recall what the name of it is.) Anyway he left the patient lying in it. The patient apparently had disconnected the tube on the outside. My nurse fixed it on his round, but left him filthy, and didn't even bother to tell me. When I was doing my rounds an hour later, I thought it was leaking! It was everywhere! I hurried to my nurse (who was playing Google maps adventure on the computer) and he said that the tube was fine, patient pulled it out, he fixed it, left him for me to clean up...  I feel like if you are in the room, and it is your time to round on our patients, and you refuse to clean them up, you are neglecting them. And putting them at risk for skin break down. The patient was also restrained, so no way he could try to clean it up. If he feels he is above doing it, then he really should have called me, when it happened.

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