Hate being a CNA; will I hate nursing?

sproeber89 · Mar 22, 2010

A major part of nursing is CNA work, at a hospital they often don't have CNA's always on duty. You will end up doing the toileting, ADL's, etc. Plus, you will be a better nurse if you are able to do that part of nursing too. The greatest nurse I've ever met was when I worked in a nursing home. She was done with her work and she said "Hey...what can I do to help you out?" It's very important to be involved in every part of nursing. What better time to do a skin assessment than when washing up the patient or toileting them?

mmgirlsmom · Mar 22, 2010

I guess anything is possible but those things are all part of patient care. Although I am not a nurse currently I am almost finished with my prr-reqs and am due to start the nursing portion of the BSN in the fall. I currently do not work in a nursing support position but I did work as a PCA (aide) and I absolutely loved it, knew it was where I belonged and I could not see myself doing anything else for the rest of my life and that is when I decided to return to school. I left my PCA job and returned to my previous field for fianancial reasons. If I could have continued to work as a PCA and make it financially I would have done it in a second.

If you do not like interacting with patients in this way I don't know how much you would really like nursing but that is just my opinion. I think people in general, go into nursing with a love for it like no other. Yes people will get burned out, overworked....but as I have heard a million times and "I" truly believe that nursing is a calling and it isn't for everyone and I have feel I have "been called". Good Luck, maybe with a little more time you will come to enjoy being a CNA.

Fngrpntsnotasin · Mar 22, 2010

Believe me that's not the only thing CNAs and Nurses do. Question is do you see the importance of patient care? turning & repositioning, peri care, ADLs, so on and so on IS real medical care. You don't have to love it but it helps. No offense but it seems a bit shallow to assume that that's all CNAs do.

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Mar 22, 2010

Did you do your CNA work in a LTC facility? CNA work in LTC varies greatly then in hospitals IMO From what I saw, the CNAs in the LTC were way over worked and underpaid and I thought to myself I would NEVER want to be a CNA because of that.

When I did clinicals at the hospital it was such a different environment and I thought to myself, I would totally not mind being a CNA here. (at least at my hospital) Nursing encompasses some of the CNA role, especially if the CNA is busy with another patient or low staffed, but it's primarily a different role.

I would wait until you do hospital clinicals in nursing school to get a better feel of things or go and shadow a nurse.

allnurses Guide · Mar 23, 2010

Was the reason you hated it because you felt hair-brushing and sheet-changing didn't provide enough intellectual challenge or because you don't like providing hands-on care to people? Or is it that you do not like geriatric patients?

If it was lack of challenge or not being interested in long-term care patients, I don't see that as a problem. If you don't care for doing close person on person care, you should rethink it. You may not be brushing hair, but in ICU you will be doing procedures that involve "hands on". Some nursing specialties are more technical or research oriented, but you've got to get through nursing school first, and there really is no way around clinicals. Best wishes to you.

danceportal · Mar 28, 2010

I am currently a CNA..I got my certification a few months ugo and just recently started working as a CNA. I got accepted into nursing school for the Fall..

as far as your question goes...when i was taking the course for CNA certification i was bored...thinking that all I will be doing is taking care of geriatric patients....most CNA courses teach geriatrics methods because they tend to be more difficult to take of....so i thot i would hate being a CNA...

once i started working at a hospital (wide variety...not always geriatric)...it wasn't that bad at all..i mean..there are things like bed baths and stuff...but you jus whiz past it so fast..and it's actually one of the last things u think about afterward...most of ur time as a CNA at a hospital would be just checking vital signs, checking blood sugar..more hands on clinical type stuff....

i kno how u feel...but i think being a CNA is completely different from being a nurse...nurses focus more on the patient care...meaning their pain scale...and treating their surgical dressings, etc...once u become a nurse...the "brushing hair" and stuff will be a CNA duty...

That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Mar 28, 2010

I hated being a CNA because I always felt that my hands were tied. I couldnt do anything. If there was ever a problem it was always, go get the nurse. Now that I am the nurse, I dont mind doing that kind of stuff at all.

andrewprincesspeach · Mar 28, 2010

I do understand on how you can hate being a CNA. I am one also. But for me, its more of the hours of work that i dislike. I have to work full time and i have no time for nursing school. My boss will not let me move over to part time. So i have to work 3 twelve hour shifts. It is disgusting.

danceportal · Mar 28, 2010

yeah! i work 3-12hr shifts too! i haven't started nursing school yet so i dunno how difficult that would be to manage...

yeah..the hours get to me too...after 12 hrs...whether it be a night shift or day shift...ur whole day is literally gone... :/

heron, ASN, RN · Mar 28, 2010

I will be starting nursing school in the fall and I just completed my CNA certification, which is required before starting school. I hated it. Part of it was a crappy teacher, but I have no interest in brushing hair, changing sheets, and that kind of thing. Am I going to be a crappy nurse? I want to provide medical care and real help, not just watch old people die slowly.

Yup ... and where did you get the idea that brushing hair and changing sheets is not "real" help?

queenjulie, RN · Mar 28, 2010

Thanks for all your replies. What I really hated was the hopelessness of it all--boring, repetitive work that had no hope of helping anyone. We did our clinicals at a LTC facility that was only DNR patients. Very few meds were given out; we were just waiting for them to die. We has three deaths in the six days I was there. I want to actually heal people, and that definitely wasn't doing it. I worked as a volunteer in a same-day surgery center for a year and loved it--people came in sick and went home a few hours later, virtually healed. It was instant gratification. Does that change your opinion of how I might like nursing at all?