Help for a disappointed CNA....does it get better?

clee1 · Mar 18, 2006

Hello!
I recently completed CNA training and took a job as a caregiver in an assisted living facility. Not fantastic work, but it was okay. I then got a job as a CNA on a med/surge unit at a hospital....and HATED it. I was so dissappointed, because I have wanted to be a nurse for a while now. However, I am wondering just how much similarity there is between being a CNA and being an RN, which is what I want to be eventually. (Actually, I'd like to get a BSN or MSN even.) The only things I did as a CNA were manual labor chores--making beds, lifting patients, serving food. Not that these aren't important tasks, but I was really hoping for something a bit more....cerebral! I want to have to use my brain when I work, too. I like pharmacology and would much rather assess a patient from a medical standpoint than simply help a patient brush their teeth.
If I do become an RN, will things get better? Or do nurses mostly do the same things as CNA's? Help and advice, please! Thank you!

CNAs do all those things that a nurse used to have time to do.

These days, while a nurse might change a bed, give a bath, change someones depends, or help them brush their teeth, that is a very rare opportunity for them. They are usually too busy with meds, charting, and a multitude of other duties that a CNA cannot do.

If the hands-on "grunt" work is not your cup of tea, my reccommendation is to get into nursing school ASAP.

psalm, RN · Mar 18, 2006

...use your tasks now to get used to assessing the pts. How is the pt. eating, trouble swallowing or chewing? Moving pts, does the pt. have any mobility to help you in repositioning? Can he/she move from side to side while you make an occupied bed? Are the teeth and gums intact and healthy, the breath not malodorous? A good CNA is worth his/her weight in M&M's so don't dispair. You are appreciated and this WILL help you as a student nurse. God bless!

BethyC123 · Mar 18, 2006

Thank you for the advice. I am finding that when I get to work one on one with a patient for a while, it gets better. I imagine that most nurses find that to be true, also. It is easier when the census is lower!

Jackie53, your advice about using the time to assess the patient is excellent. I hadn't really thought of it, but now is the perfect time to practice those skills. However, I am still looking forward to the time when I won't have to make quite so many beds!

Gompers, BSN, RN · Mar 18, 2006

To answer your question - yes, it does get better.

You sound like the type who might like ICU nursing - often have only one patient, or maybe two, per shift so you really get to focus on every aspect of their care.

I was a CNA while I was in school, working on various med-surg floors. If I based my views of nursing on that experience, I'd have quit school long before graduation. I'm ashamed to say that I hated almost every moment of being a CNA. Just hated it.

Now that I'm a nurse, and I've spent the last 7-8 years working in the field of my choice...I can honestly say that I've LOVED almost every moment of being a nurse.

So yeah, once you find your niche, it DOES get loads better.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Mar 18, 2006

RN work is definitely more cerebral! The higher your education, the more your role as a case manager will be and less of a hands on basic care giver. I have never been a fan of promoting CNA jobs for nursing students. While you learn how to give basic nursing care, as you've found out, that is only a very small segment of RN nursing. There is much more to being an RN.

rosemadder · Mar 23, 2006

The similarity between a nurse and a cna lies in the fact that you are caring for another person's needs. A cna (in a fast paced hospital setting) normally spends more time with the patients and has opportunity for providing more emotional support. If you truly enjoy providing comfort and care to your patients then you will make a great nurse. I have found that many nurses think that when they get their license they will no longer be doing CNA duties and many nurses don't...I have worked on Med-Surg with nurses who would sit at the desk and let three of their lights go off rather than get up and go get their patient off a bed pan while their CNA ran around madly trying to meet needs. These are usually nurses who think CNA duties are beneath them and these are nurses whose patients lack in truly being cared for. I would never ask a CNA to do anything I wouldn't do and I would never sit while an overworked CNA tried to adequately care for the basic needs of my patients. Yes, as a nurse you will not be required to do as many CNA duties but as a GREAT nurse you will find yourselves helping your patients get all their needs met.