Help, am I overreacting or is this normal???

[spicy1]

I am an Rn on a med-surge floor and was scheduled yesterday to work. When I got there I was told that it was my time to float, so instead of floating to another floor they put me as a CNA for the day. I am frustrated, because I feel that is not what I went to school for. I dont mind to change a diaper or give a bed bath, I do it anyway working as an RN, but not the entire 12 hours. Am I overreacting? Does anyone else have to be a CNA if there short. I havent heard of using nurses to fill the CNA gap? Thanks I needed to vent, it was a long day!

[I<3H2O, BSN, RN]

We do that on our floor too. Gives you a renewed appreciation for your CNA doesn't it? Would you rather have nearly your full load with total pt. care? If you were the Charge how would you have handled this staffing situation?

[spicy1]

I do appreciate our CNA's, I just dont want to do that all day long. I felt behind the whole day, because I dont know their routines. I guess I felt they should have pulled a CNA from the float pool. The charge nurse had to fill the void, and since there was an extra nurse, she placed me in the spot. I wasnt sure if all hospitals does this or just mine. Thanks

[TheMoonisMyLantern, ADN, LPN, RN]

Yes, you're overreacting. You may feel that you didn't go to school to clean up people but that form of bedside core is what nursing is about at it's core, therefore you should be able to perform in that role for a full 12 hour shift if need be. Is it difficult? Yes, it is, I was a CNA before I was a nurse and physically it was much harder than what my job is now, and yet I actually enjoy the nights that I'm pulled to do CNA work it's a nice change of pace.

Look from it at this perspective, at least you got paid an RN wage for doing a job that's usually paid much much less and you got to work instead of being called off due to low census. Also, don't take this the wrong way I'm not trying to be offensive but how much sense would it make for the person who does staffing to pull a CNA from another floor and have them work short just because a nurse on another unit doesn't want to do CNA work because she didn't go to school for that? It wouldn't make a whole lot of sense at all.

[amarilla, RN]

My floor will cancel the extra nurse; if we are allowed (by some kind act of God) to keep her, she will take a light assignment (2-3 patients) and be our float nurse - doing admissions and discharges, starting IVs, hooking up monitors, etc. We don't use nurses as NAs, but it is only because the hospital refuses to pay our wage unless we are being utilized as RNs.

I'm not sure I would care much - I was a NA before becoming a RN on the same floor - but I would take the cancellation instead if they wouldn't pay my wage. JMO.

[guest64485]

Yes, other hospitals do this too. I wouldn't be mad about it as long as you are still being paid an RN wage.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

We don't do that, but I wouldn't mind to do it for a day. As long as I get paid my wage, I'm good to go. It would be nice to have a day where my critical thinking skills could take a day off. If I was a CNA for the day, I wouldn't be passing pain meds, etc...

[ChristineN, BSN, RN]

I do appreciate our CNA's, I just dont want to do that all day long. I felt behind the whole day, because I dont know their routines. I guess I felt they should have pulled a CNA from the float pool. The charge nurse had to fill the void, and since there was an extra nurse, she placed me in the spot. I wasnt sure if all hospitals does this or just mine. Thanks

My guess is they would have used a float pool CNA if one was available. There are not always enough float CNA's to go around, especially at times with alot of sitter cases.

[Guest296136]

The problem is when they pull you as a CNA, the other nurses may ask you do to RN work and that puts you in a difficult position because you don't know the patients and can put you at risk for a problem. We had a nurse one day pulled because we didn't have an aide and she was asked to float on the unit, we were really busy and she was asked to start hanging blood on a patient and the patient had a reaction and had to go to ICU, that put her liable for that patient which was not fair. I would be careful, we have a union and they are not allowed to do that anymore, if you are asked to be an CNA only be that and nothing else for that shift, you have to protect your license.

[NurseOnAMotorcycle, ASN, RN]

I haven't heard of that. We do occasionally have "Help-All" nurses that are basically there to fill in the gaps, but they are not forbidden from doing RN duties.

[DaretoDreamRN]

I would be very unhappy. Yup, I do CNA work as a nurse but for 12 hrs straight????? I would be very unhappy.

[MunoRN, RN]

Not only do we do this at my facility but it's mandatory; every floor nurse must take a CNA shift once a year. We also require team leads and unit managers to work the floor once every 3 months. This was actually the floor nurses' idea to take a yearly CNA shift.

We of course got some resistance. Some Nurses complained it was beneath them, I think we should have made a rule that Nurse who thinks being a CNA is beneath should be required to take a CNA shift every 3 months. Other complained that they would be spend the whole time performing both Nursing and CNA duties. The expectation is that Nurses delegate tasks to an RN acting as a CNA they same way they would to a CNA. That doesn't mean there will never be times where it might be appropriate to assist another Nurse as a Nurse if you've got nothing to do and another Nurses is slammed, although the idea that there's something clearly wrong with that is ridiculous; you've never helped out another Nurse who was swamped when you were working as a Nurse? You've never covered for another Nurse while they were on break?