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

mohkull · Mar 3, 2007

i dont agree

harley007 · Mar 3, 2007

I work in a Cardiac Cath. Lab. Many nurses think aside from a fair amount of blood, it is all high level monitoring and intensive type care. This is true but it is also giving one on one care for a usually very nervous patient undergoing a serious procedure. It gives you the opportunity to really make a positive difference to each patient's care and experience. Well, yesterday we had a unstable patient "crash" on us. I shocked the patient several times, gave numerous IV push meds, hung drips, alternated in on CPR and did all the exciting code things some people think are so cool. Sadly, the patient didn't survive. His family was going to be allowed a final visit, in the lab, due to the suddenness of the death. What is the last thing I did for this individual? I gently cleaned up the BM he had during the arrest so he would be presentable for his family. I found that action just as important as all the high level care because I think it affects the patients dignity and his family's last impression of their loved one. Sure it may be naive to think this not part of nursing but it is the most important part - giving basic physical care to somebody in need.

Xentec · Mar 3, 2007

I'm learning alot from this post as a future PCT(CNA,phlebotomy,EKG)

Now the smells are a big fear, and i got a kinda big nose lol. But really my greatest fear has to be a 20 something REALLY hot looking snotty little girl thats an RN, and to good to wipe a butt. I honestly know ill have problems with an RN like that, because i have serious issues with non team players.

How do you deal with someone like that?

pinoyrn · Mar 4, 2007

I think that the reason why nurses feel a sense of camaraderie and kinship is because we ALL, as nurses, went through the hardship of "nursing fundamentals" which to me is like BOOT CAMP. As an RN, you have to be able to do the duties of a CNA and an LVN. Otherwise, how can you be their supervisor?

joeb1, ASN, BSN, RN · Mar 4, 2007

anyone can become good nurse with or without cna experience, as long as their heart is there. now, that said, i think rquiring cna before nursing school is a good thing. i myself worked 4 years beforehand as a cna. as far as the less-glorious parts of the job, i worked peds right out of school, and my first cath i did for a voiding cystogram was on a female 3 week old infant. i looked down and she peed around the catheter, in the process my face was hit. suffice to say it was my first "taste".......even in peds/nursery, we have our times. even seen a few doctors baptized, so you can be sure that unless, as a nurse rep, you will be selling the newest safety syringes from kendall that are really just like everyone elses safety syringes, you will encounter these things.

twotrees2 · Mar 4, 2007

i'm still guessing siemprebella...

though harshly put by the last poster - i think the point was - when you become a nurse just dont do it - ( you wont make it through nursing school if you refuse - they will require it ) but once your a nurse go ahead and do not change the briefs - get a cna " cause that is thier job" in your view- some nurses do that - yep - sure do. delegate delegate delagate - thats in our job description............................,

however if you choose to be one of those kind of nurses be forewarned and prepared - you will not be liked or get along with most of your staff and you will not find a job you fit well with and stay there any length of time.i have seen many nurses come and go who only do "nursing " stuff ( like assess, pass meds, chart, sit at the nurses station and page the cna to get that light or change that person or toilet someone ) they never stay in one place to long cause being a part of nursing requires teamwork - without that the care sucks anbd patients complain and someone ends up fired and it wont be the cna running her butt off trying to care for those 12 residents pooping all day by herself. there are usully a tad bit more ratio of cnas to nurses and i promise you the cnas will gang up and get rid of nurses who are not team players.

i pray for the first resident you refuse to clean up trying to get outta the mess they are laying in - i pray they dont fall on the floor, its not fun. cause now instead of just wiping a bit of poop you now have neuro checks evry 15 min and then half hour and maybe even end up having to get xray and do all the incident reports and charting, not to mention answering to managenment and family, why when you knew they needed help why did you not just do it yourself instead of taking 15 min to find a cna etc - on top of your already full day - it would be wiser to just clean the poop and deal with it.

twotrees2 · Mar 4, 2007

calm down, jellibelli is a student who plans on going into psych. unless you plan on going directly into psych. then there is a high probability that you will have to go in the trenches and do direct pt. care.
there are very few places that will hire a new grad that are non pt. care/contact. you will be touching,smelling all types of body fluids, not only poop as many others have already stated. my best friend does l & d. yep, all kinds of lovely,smelly stuff there too! oh, and she hates going in the nursery, having 6-7 crying babies is not always fun;) .
well, people tried to warn you and now have definitely become .
nobody here claims to "love" working in poop all day, it's just a reality we have all learned to deal with. it just doesn't appear that you are even willing to learn to deal with any unpleasant aspects of nursing. sweety, you can't come out of school and go right into admin.:trout:
good luck, i think you might need it...:monkeydance:

i have worked my share of psych myself and the previous poster planning in going there will find they may haveto deal with poop even more than just wiping it up off a butt lol - i have seen irate psych patients hurl wads of bm or thier urinals or bedpans at nurses and other staff , play in stool painting thier bodies and walls like a toddler might , or one in particular i recall would just crap where-ever he felt like it and no there isnt so many aides on psyc its nursing mostly lol - and let me tell you that is a much bigger yuck than wiping any butt any day lolol.

shlru0404 · Mar 5, 2007

WOW, you have been given some great advice! I have 13 years experience of CNA, probabley more than any other in my class. It has been a wonderful benefit to me. Keep in mind, no job (career) will come complete with no faults and I particularly liked the idea of using as great time to assess skin and provide interventions! Best wishes and it is never too late to find something different.

shlru0404 · Mar 5, 2007

social skills! That is how you deal with any people

MS._Jen_RN, ASN, RN · Mar 5, 2007

Here's my :twocents: since I think everyone else gave theirs. I hate (as an RN) working with the nurse (you all know one) who comes out of a pt's room and tells the aide that they need on the pot, off the pot, or that they need cleaned up. Unless it's a huge mess, and you are in a huge hurry to do something VERY important, you were just in there and should have done it yourself. Don't be that nurse. Noone likes her/him. The whole person is your patient, this includes excrement from all orifices.

~Jen

twotrees2 · Mar 5, 2007

You know what? I can't keep shut anymore! Shame on all of the so called caring compassionate people who have responded with such negativity. It's sad that a person can't come here with a concern and be understood rather than ganged up on and treated rude! Like I responded earlier, I know just what she is going through!!! I did not want to be a CNA and still don't and guess what....I'M A CNA at an LTC facility. I took the job so that I could know that aspect of nursing and so that it would help in NS. I hate it! I love working with some of the patients. I come to work just to see them. When I have a few minutes of downtime, I spend it with the patients. If they want to tell me "how their day at work went yesterday" then I listen and go along with it. But when I have 6 people who have physical therapy and I have to get them fed, bathed, dressed and ready at the same time and they all have to go to the bathroom and some don't want to get up and they're cursing at you and then their families are coming in demanding this that and the other, it can be pretty darn stressful!!! Or I may have some patients who are 300 lbs and want to be put in bed. They can't walk or stand so you have to find someone to help you get them in bed. Which means you have to put on the patient's shoes, take off the legs on the wheelchair, position it and have the other person help you lift this person in bed and then take off their shoes. Then an hour later, they want to get out of bed so again you have to find someone to help you get them out of bed. To get them out of bed, you have to put on their shoes, position their wheelchair, take off the legs, have someone help you put the patient in the chair and then put the legs back on. Being a CNA is hard work! I am used to seeing genitals and I am used to cleaning poop and wiping butts. The nurses where I work DO NOT CHANGE BRIEFS! They get us to do it. They are very busy don't get me wrong and we all work as a team but I have NEVER ever, seen a nurse answer a call light. We answer and if the patient wants the nurse we go get them.I'm not saying that you will never change briefs when you are a nurse but unless you work in ICU, there won't be very many times when you will. That's what CNA's are for. None of these people on this post know me or lookingforward to be able to say we are not caring compassionate people just because we don't want to be CNA's. I am a very loving person which is why I chose the nursing field. My family and my former co-workers in the corporate world always told me that nursing is what I should be pursuing.
To lookingforward I say this... it is very normal to feel apprehensive about the CNA part of nursing but I believe that once you get into it and do it, you will be able to get through it and find that its not as bad as you thought it would be. It's just going to take a little time. It's hard for me because I am slow right now because I like to give my patients good care as opposed to just wiping them down and putting their clothes on. Unfortunately I pay for this by missing my 15 min breaks and sometimes missing my lunch breaks. Pray for God to give you the strength to get through it and He will and in the meantime, if you go to the CNA forum and click on the sticky Free Full CNA Video Course, this will help you out alot. God Bless!

woah - i hope i am reading an attitude where there isnt one - i know many cnas who hate their job and this post sounds like the attiude they have - and honestly they are bad aides - i have written up and helped get 2 fired and will turn in and get fire any that come in with the same attitude. residents pick up very very quickly on that attitude and DO complain about it - and thier care is NOT caring in any sense of the word.

if its not an attitude and youre just venting - id say i am sorry you work with nurses who do nothing to help - i help my aides whenever i can and any nurse who wont help when they can, is not a good nurse period. perhaps they are the ones with the attitude that " they dont want to do poop all day" - can you see where that tone can lead now? working with nurses as you do that do nothing.???? the OP is not going to be a cna- she is going to be a NURSE, with the idea of nursing that the nurses you work with have - noone has been rude only enlightening her to what nursing is suposed to be about , its to bad you would admonish those defending your hard work!!

shlru0404 · Mar 5, 2007

wow, you really hit the nail on the head. Nice job