HELP! I DON"T WANT TO GO THROUGH CNA first...

AfloydRN, BSN, RN · Feb 8, 2007

I was also a CNA while in nursing school. I think it helped me organize and prioritize my work. I was always done in clinicals before the people who had no medical experience. They usually asked me to help them. It's just poop- trust me that's not the worst thing you will ever do as an RN.

AlabamaBelle · Feb 8, 2007

If Pediatric nursing is your niche, welcome to the awesome world of pediatric nursing! Just remember, though, that children do come in all sizes and that some of those children will need help with "poopy" issues among other things. Unless you go into neonatal nursing, you could have a larger patient. Our top weight has been 102k for a 13 year old and an unfortunate 6 year old.

FWIT: my sister really wanted to be an L&D nurse, but threw up with her first smell of placenta, with her instructor nearby!

Good luck and nursing is the best!!

Cindy, RN

dorselm · Feb 9, 2007

Lookingforward,

I know exactly what you are feeling and I felt the exact same way. I did not want to be a CNA and still don't! It's not even about the poop! They just don't pay you enough to do the grueling work that you have to do everyday! Not only that but where I work they are always short-staffed. I already am a compassionate person and that's why I got out of the corporate world and into a field where I could help people. I never thought I'd end up in a LTC facility but that's just where I am now. I hate it. The only thing that keeps me going are the residents. I love most of them but you have some who are very stressing and highly demanding. They want to be bathed when they feel like it and if you get them up too early they complain and if you get them up too late they complain they are the last to get up. Everyone wants to be fed, bathed, toileted and dressed before noon. I have between 10-12 pts on the 7-3 shift and I work on the skilled floor. We get people coming and going all the time. Today, I had 2 ladies being discharged at 10, 4 people who had to go to pt(physical therapy) by 10:30, one man who was being tranferred, bed and all, to the 2nd floor, and one man who was a constant complainer who had to be up fed, bathed dressed and all by 11:30. The student LPN's had my 9th person and today I didn't have a 10th. So this morning I had to have 6 people fed, bathed and dressed by 10:00. The two ladies leaving had to be packed up and their beds had to be stripped. After all were cared for, I had to pack up the gentleman who was moving to the 2nd floor. I had to take his belongings downstairs and prepare his room. I had to move his tv downstairs and then I had to move his bed downstairs and lastly I had to move him downstairs. I had to then do my charting on him. Mind you, I still had the 4 beds to make for the people who had to go to pt. Before I did that I I took my 1/2 hr lunch and then I had to come back and help pass out lunch trays and feed those who couldn't feed themselves. I then had to clear the lunch trays and put people who went to pt in the morning back in bed, change them and have housekeeping disinfect the beds of the ladies that left this morning. Then I had to put fresh linens on them. I had to do the charts on the other 6 pts that I had and I had to help another aide lift her patients. I don't take morning or afternoon breaks because there's just no time. My back and feet ache severly by the end of the day. It's crazy. But I feel good about doing this because it I will have a little experience when I go to nursing school. So hang in there and don't worry. You get through this and you'll have some good clinical experience that will definitely help you with school! Best wishes and pm me if you need to!

lookingforward · Feb 9, 2007

whew!:pumpiron: i got tired just reading your response! it is exactly what i imagined if not more! it is the job that most nurses do not want to do (in a sense) and gets the least pay! i'm not trying to sound mean or anything. i admire your courage and perseverence(sp?) and i wish you the best always. i appreciate the time you took to respond to me, for it was beneficial in my understanding what a cna actually does. i feel this position should get way more pay! in the end though it will have given you expertise in the nursing field. when i had originally posted this, about a week ago, my head has been chewed off and spat back by some people who feel differently and/or mistook my honesty and interpreted it as not being compassionate about the "older population" truth is that compassion is the reason i wanted to be a nurse in the first place,it's just my heart is set on doing peds or in neonatal...only time will tell. hats off to you my new friend! and thank you for your honesty!

rags · Feb 9, 2007

lookingforward ~

I think your post was very nice and from the heart. I'm glad you gave us the insight with out the defensiveness that seemed to seep into the earlier ones.

Yes, you can do PEDS without needing to experience geriatric nursing first AND you do not need to work as a CNA to be a compassionate RN! I think the message people were trying to get across was simply that it is yet another tool that has been found by many to be beneficial for a lasting enjoyable career.

I honestly believe you received the flak you did simply because your earlier posts scared current nurses. We have worked with new grads that don't feel they have anything left to learn and that certain things 'may not apply to them' and as a nurse that can be very scary. In the work environment you are not the only one taking care of a certain pt and you have to feel you can rely on your friends (co-workers) to be safe and compassionate as well.

My best advise to you at this point is to absorb everything you read in this stream of posts and remember to except the hands on experience and real life learning that nurses you will be working with offer as advise. That education you receive AFTER school is invaluable!

Good luck to you and I hope nursing is everything you have dreamed of it being.

rags

Dadyzangel86 · Feb 9, 2007

Hi,

I am CNA right now. I actually used the CNA track to get my foot in the door and I love what I do. I knew exactly what I woul be getting into when I started this. Nursing is a job that has a wide range of patients from neonatal to geriatrics. When you decided to be a Nurse you said to yourself you enjoy taking care of people. Children are people and the elderly are people. The way you treat them is the way that someone will treat you. I am in Nursing school right now. I work three days a week as a CNA and the experience I get everyday is irreplacable. You cannot put a price on the experience you will receive. If you cannot handle being a CNA, I truly do not believe that you can be the best Nurse that you want to be! Good Luck!!

~Briana!

serousanguineous · Feb 9, 2007

yowza.:stone

If you thought that the point of my post was that I "enjoy" poop you are sadly mistaken (lol) hehe-neither do I dream of cleaning it - unless I've had a particularly "crappy" day and I'm having a nightmare ROFLOL

I'm sorry that that's what you got out of it.

a couple days ago I had a little old man who decided to decorate his room with feces , as well as himself, can't say I "enjoyed" that at all- but I did have to deal with it as his nurse.

In nursing school to become an RN that's the first thing we learned- bed baths, briefs, bedpans, etc.

I'm pretty sure that's what everyone starts with in nursing school... so if that's the "consolation" that you're looking for- that we all do that.. then there ya go- but if you wanted us to tell you that you won't have to deal with it ever again... can't help ya.

TazziRN, RN · Feb 9, 2007

lookingforward ~
I honestly believe you received the flak you did simply because your earlier posts scared current nurses.

Actually, no, she didn't "scare us". What she did through her vehemence was give the impression that she thinks nursing is never dealing with poop or anything else yucky. What we experienced nurses tried to do was get the point across that if she thinks it's only CNAs who deal with cleaning pts up, she's badly mistaken and that if she truly wants to be a nurse she needs to get past that thought. I agree that you do not have to be a CNA to be a good RN, but it can help make the first year easier for nursing students, and it gives a good understanding of what the CNAs tasks are.

I don't remember if this was mentioned anywhere but with her complaining about not wanting to take the CNA course, she sounds like she wants a nursing license her way, without going through the not-so-nice things to get it. If that's the requirement for her school then she just has to suck it up and do it.

TigerGalLE, BSN, RN · Feb 9, 2007

well at least when you become a nurse you will respect your CNA's... Because you will know how hard they work. If you treat them good as a RN.. They will treat you good...

Julie frm Dallas · Feb 9, 2007

This is really not to put any profession down but I've dreamed of being a nurse for soooo long, now only to discover that before entering my LVN program, I have to get the CNA title first! I am horrified of having to do some of the tasks described! This is not whaat I dreamed of all these years, I was thinking more along the lines of changing newborn diapers, not old folk diapers! CAN ANYONE BRING ANY CONSOLATION?

I am a CNA, it's something I told myself I would NEVER do. Well, we all know how that goes. Anyhoo, I didn't care much for it at first but I think after a while you become sort of, desensitized to poop. At least I did. It's really not that bad. My cousin is a BSN at Baylor and I once jokingly told her I couldn't wait to finish so that I never had to wipe butts again, she quickly told me if that's what I thought, to get out now! :chuckle

nurse_drumm · Feb 9, 2007

To be quite frank here, the best nurses I work with were CNA/LNA's first. No question about it. You never forget your roots.

topbinder · Feb 9, 2007

it will sound like a broken record, but there are skills for nursing that you'll value later. I'm an np, and still have nurse's of all license and training who don't have good basic skills. So i frequently stop what i'm doing to teach them the basics they should have brought to the profession. Good luck on your education and welcome to nursing.