Have you ever had CNA's/MA's who dont want to work?

[exodusgo]

Have you ever had ancillary staff who doesnt like to do the basics of their job? That is the boat I am in. I am a traveler and don't usually get involved in staffing issues but the MA's at the hospital I am contracted at really take the cake. I work nights and I am lucky if they round on patients twice during an 8 hour shift! I think I have just about tried everything, from asking nicely to offering to help them to giving them a list of tasks to do on their shift. I have also discussed the issues with the manager of the floor but that was a waste of breath. I wrote them up a few times but that didnt really do the trick either. Now I am just riding their buts every two hours- reminding them of the time/duties etc. (I feel like an oversized cukoo clock when i have to stop taking care of my 9 patients and charge nurse duties to tell them it is 2 am and time to do 2 o'clock rounds and then have to stop every 5 minutes over the next 1/2 hour or so to keep on them till they finally get up) I know there are awesome MA's/CNA's out there, and I was once one myself so I feel like I can understand how hard their job can be but this hospital's aides are the worst I have seen across in the Mid-West, South and East coast. Hopefully everyone else out there is having better luck than I am...

[grinnurse, RN]

Today I wanted to strangle our aid!! All she did was gripe and moan about her husband..............or soon to be ex..............blah, blah, blah while I had d/c and admits out the butt!! I didn't take a break until 1400 and yet she was griping about how she had gone out to smoke several times but hadn't gotten her 15 minute break yet?????????????????? :angryfire :angryfire I was so hot!!!!!!!!!! Never could find her on the floor cause she was always out smoking!!!!!!!!!!!!!! UUUUGGGGH!!! She also thinks that somehow she became a nurse overnight!! She told one of the new admits that she was going to have to be trached!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Imagine the thoughts of the pt and her parents when informed of this!!!!!!!!!!!! Have to figure out how to set her straight tomorrow!!

Sorry but I had to vent. Gosh I am usually such a nice person but today felt like a doormat by her.............any ideas on setting her straight?

[chadash]

Been a CNA a long time and worked very hard. Can't imagine hiding! My family cannot afford for me to go to Nursing school (waited to long, too many obligations), but I have read and read text on pharmacueticals, medical surgical nursing and wow!, and I have more and more respect for what nurses do. It is great to be able to take some of the physical load off of the nurses, so they can give thoughtful care to the patients. I really see my job as a nurses "assistant"; that is, my job is to assist you guys.

Been in LTC and home health and hospice, and am now planning on applying for a NA job in a burn center. What type of work does a NA do in that setting?

[pink2blue1]

I am a CNA (Also in nursing school) and I can tell you that we do have some CNA's that will go off and hide and just try to get through their day and then there are others who work hard. Unfortunately for our hospital they just eliminated all of the 7p-7a CNA's so our nurses have no CNA's at night. They also eliminated some of the day time ones as well. With the ratios being 5 to 1 for the RN's they need more licensed staff and that is how they justified getting rid of the CNA's Now on our floor, with 31 patients the RN's get 4-5 and the CNA's get 10 patients to take care of, however we split the floor and do all the 8AM, 12 noon and 1600 vitals. It is hard work, but I see the RN's working harder so I try to make it as easy as possible for them.

Sorry that you are having a bad experience with the CNA's

Shannon

[camkib]

I have worked as a CNA for exactly 4 days now. The work is very difficult, but I am trying to do my very best. I have never worked as a cna before now and I know there is a learning curve so I try not to be too hard on myself. I'm working very hard and earning next to nothing...as I have worked as a bank teller for more than I am earning now where I was able to dress in pretty clothing and count money in a comfortable chair all day while listening to music. But what I am finding most difficult about being a CNA is the way that I am being treated by "some" of the nurses. Most of the nurses ( maybe even all of them) do not know that I have just graduated nursing school and that I was hired for an RN position. They have no idea that I am only working as an aide until I pass the boards. I have noticed eye rolls and snide remarks. I have noticed sarcasm and condscension. I have seen this with the LPN's as well as the RN's...and I have only been working for FOUR DAYS! On the other hand, there are a some nurses who have been a great help to me. I know that right now my job is to "assist" the nurse, but I am also a new (inexperienced) employee. It's OK to check your patient's blood glucose now that you've found the accucheck monitor when I've been looking for at least one of the two glucometers all morning and now I'm being interrupted from doing vital signs (that you wanted 10 minutes ago) to put someone on a bedpan as I'm being paged to help someone else up to the bathroom

But the crazy thing is....I know that once I become an RN I will have a list of things to complain about in regards to CNA's. We just can't win. So let's just come together and complain about the doctors. :chuckle

~Camkib

[SierraC]

I work as a Student Assistant (which is really a NT) PRN for the summer on a Med/Surg floor. I have anywhere from 6-13 patients working day shift. I took the job for the exposure to the patients, nursing care, etc.... I hate every single second I'm there. The job is horrible, the pay is horrible and you work your ever loving butt off for 12.5 hours straight only to get yelled at for not doing something (and I get yelled at by everyone from the housekeeper to the DON). There is no TEAMwork there and it's sad. I see the staff turnover there and I now know why....The regular techs hate me because I'm PRN and I'm also a student. They do horrible things to me like hide the vital machine, refuse to help me turn and change a large patient, refuse to help me answer my call lights "because that's not their room". I very rarely get a lunch....I sit in the break room and get screamed at by the U/S that my call lights are going off. Because there is no TEAMwork, I have to stop what I'm doing (lunch) and go and answer my lights. I usually find at least one other tech standing at the nurses station when I leave the break room. I complained, it got me no where but more hateful attitudes. I keep sticking it out though... I have just 2 more shifts and I'm done there because school is starting....

Now for my regular job (the one I work 24/hours a week at) I work as an ER tech with some seriously awesome people. There is no "thats your job" it's everyones job from the time the patient comes in to the time that they leave to take care of them. We help each other out with every single thing. Things are deamed "my job" are done by every single person there. This gives me hope that not all jobs are like my PRN job :) I think that's the key though to a good tech in any department....if they don't feel like they are part of the team, they don't care about their job.

I worked as a CNA for many years..went to school and got my RN...worked with many CNA's who really did not care...but i really believe you have to take responsibility for yourself...there will always be people in all disciples who do not have their heart in it and who do not take the job of caring for people seriously....as a cna ...i watched an RN walk into a pts room as i feeding her dinner( she was on her side) and insert a suppository into her rectum without even saying anything to her...and the poor pt said (who was blind)..WHO WAS THAT!!! I worked for a hospital for 12 years that paid me really well...i was making 15 an hour when i left there....I don't buy the excuse that cna's are underpaid and overworked ...where can u make that much money without a college education?.i worked my ass off....but left there everyday knowing that i made a difference and was at peace with myself

[maxcat]

I just completed my CNA certification and passed the test. I have not worked as a CNA yet but I did 30 hours of clinical work on a med/surg floor. I'll be honest-all the CNA's at that hospital were either nursing students or taking prereqs to get into school. Not a one of them was a deadbeat and they worked their butts off. I will say that I have hesitated to apply for a job at that hospital because I wasn't too comfortable with the attitude of the RN"s towards the CNAs (us, as students, and the CNA's we worked with). It was as if they didn't exist. No one said hello to us or acknowledged that we existed, even if we shared patients. No information was really shared between the 2 groups. It was as though the RN's thought we were some kind of uneducated trash because we were CNA students-when they did speak to us the unspoken message was "you're a peon and an idiot". I have a master's degree with professional experience in another field and am considering nursing as a second career. But I"m not sure I want to work as a CNA first if I have to be treated like crap by my co-workers. The job is hard enough with out the attitudes.

[psalm, RN]

...I worked as a Nurse Extern between the summer of my 2nd and 3rd semester of nursing school. I loved it! I learned so much and the nurses were great. I learned and believed that I was the nurses' eyes when I turned or ambulated a pt. I was her nose when I went in the room for anything, be it bed change, bedpan, I&O, dressing change, accucheck, I was his ears in the hallway or at the desk, if anyone was calling out, crying, moaning, shouting. I did VS and I did assessments (co-signed by RN). I was the safety squad, for the restrained pt. or dementia pt, the environment, etc. And the best part, we were a team! Because all that I did, my RNs did also. They taught me to really assess a patient, and her environment and work as a team. Thank you MidMichigan Medical Center, Midland, Michigan for that summer of 2001.

As a nurse of 3 years and working on a med/oncology floor on nights we don't have as much team work and I see both nurses and CNAs sitting around...and both nurses and CNAs working hard for pt. care. I try to encourage my CNAs to be my eyes, etc. I try to encourage them to read all the areas of the Kardex they need to concern themselves with, but I still get asked at 0400, oh, do WE have any q4 VS? So I say, well, did you check the Kardex? It is sometimes easier to enable.

...and this may be a rite of passage for you as you are a new nurse. I have found that wherever I was the new person, some of the CNAs would test to see how much you as the new RN were willing to do. Then if you called on them to do their job, they would complain to the NM, well, she thinks she's too good to do aide job. She was in the room, she could have taken the pt. to the bathroom, etc. Well, sometimes the nurse can, sometimes she/he has to pass IVP or do a treatment a CNA can't legally do.

...and if a pt. asks for water when I am giving an IVP, and there is no water in the room, I will politely ask if they used the call light, coz I COULD do it but it might take a while because I have meds, treatmenst, etc. to do. So sometimes I will use the call light while I am in there and ask for whatever the pt. wants or needs and say, this is jackie, I am giving the pt. an IVP, she needs...............could you please bring it to her room? AND if I am in gloves, gown & mask in an isolation room I will use the call light for supplies that I need (inserting an IV or catheter and pt. pulls out IV or urinary cath unsuccessful and need another kit) Seems like no matter what we do it is not enuff or we are going to be complained about.

...so do your job well, be professional, be kind, be a role model of what nursing is. Your pt. comes first, don't be an enabler and make sure there's chocolate and caffeine on the unit. God bless. Whew this was a cleansing! I feel better, hahahaha!