Horrified by lazy CNA's, is this the norm?!

[DBK99]

During clinicals for our CNA class, we were at a nursing home and while the majority of the staff were very nice, they were horribly lazy! 90% of them smoked and would just walk out the back door for a smoke break, literally every 30 minutes, for the whole day and complain about the residents. One resident was asking for a breathing treatment so the CNA I was paired with that day got the LPN, and then the lady said her back hurt, and the LPN came back and said to the CNA, "My, my, we just want everything today, don't we?" and began gossiping. I was thinking "Hello! She's old! And not very mobile. She can hardly do anything for herself, you're here to care for her!" Another day, I was paired with a different CNA and while we were dressing a resident, she became incontinent on herself and urinated all down the back of her sweatpants. I told the CNA she had pee all over her backside and she just sat the lady down in her wheelchair, with wet pants! Another girl in my class said the CNA she was with was assisting a man have a bowel movement in the bathroom, and the CNA was all in a rush to get everyone else up for the day and she said "We don't have time to wipe you" and pulled the man's briefs up without wiping his poopy butt! Which of course, we reported. But what if us CNA students weren't there to witness those things? And this is a nice facility! Very pretty and well kept, and expensive. The residents pay close to $9,000 per month to live there. I don't even want to imagine what a lower end nursing home would be like!

So I guess my question is, does anyone else see this, while working as a CNA? I admit I am new to health care, I am a newly certified CNA and I start nursing school in August, but I just can't imagine NOT doing everything possible to provide good care! I felt like crying for some of the residents and their families who entrusted this place with their loved ones.

[Hygiene Queen]

And when you pick up their slack -- as in you just did your job well and their job well -- you have then just raised the bar on yourself.

And when management sees that, you will never hear anything but grief if you do anything less (i.e. your own work).

Now I had nurses that demanded, "Jump this high".

I would jump it.

Then they would say, "Now jump this high".

I would jump it.

But maybe the next time I jumped it, I'd catch my toe on the bar.

"You jumped but you caught your toe. That must never happen again!"

Meanwhile, some butt-head was snaking around on the floor trying to figure out how to get under the bar without doing any work.

And because my butt could jump it, I was expected to grab that butt-head and pull 'em on out from under.

I can't tell you what I wanted to do with that damn bar!

Fortunately, I have had the pleasure of working with some of the best aides you ever did see... but the crappy ones were around... and they could destroy teamwork and morale in a heartbeat.

[cogath]

Yes unfortuntely it is the norm. You will soon learn that you and some of your coworkers get paid the same wage for doing essentialy two different jobs: them for taking unlimited smoke breaks and hiding when work is needed to be done, and you for running your hiney off all night trying to hold things together.

[susanlwins]

All I can say is, you have to decide whether you are going to be part of the solution or part of the problem. Don't join in and become these people. Not wiping someone is enough to get you fired, in my opinion. It is neglectful and you should report it as such EVERY TIME. When you first start, you want to have camaraderie with your coworkers because that is what we all want - to work with like minded people we can trust. You will eventually learn who you can trust and who you can't. You will learn to kind of step aside from the BS and remain above all of it. Do your job the way YOU know how it should be done, and dont listen to the coworker who has been doing it the crappy way for the last 10 years who wants to tell you you are doing too much, or that you should treat a resident like crap because they have mental health issues because otherwise you are "spoiling" them. Obviously these people don't have the capacity to understand that, DUH, a mental health issue is a HEALTH issue, as in, the person, as much as it may seem like they are choosing to be the way they are, are not CHOOSING to be difficult. It is not their fault, any more than it is a stroke victim's fault that their arm doesn't work anymore and they need help to the bathroom. So stay above all of it, do your job well, and don't let all the other lazyness get to you too bad. Just let it go, and report what you can as negligence. If you dwell on it too much you will drive yourself nuts. There will always be people you prefer to work with and people you HATE working with. But if at the end of the day you can hold your head high and know that YOU didn't join in, you did your best, you'll be ok. : ) There are those of us out there who bust our butts every day, do a good job, care about resident safety and quality of care, and are highly intelligent. I hope you get the chance to work with some of us too, and not just the lazy ignorant morons!

[Mskate1]

Lazy CNAs? You betcha!

I just started working at a major hospital and have been on orientation (this is my first week by myself) and to some of these lazy Ass CNAs there is an "I" in TEAM, except of course when it comes to their patients but then there is an "I" in that TEAM too as I seem to be the one taking care of their patients . I have answered call lights that belonged to another CNA. lets call her CNA "A" who actually turned her head and when she saw her patient calling for her turned back around and started chatting to her friend who was preceptor to me even though the Director said that she shouldn't have been We'll call her CNA B. These two are a tight "clique" Well, the call bell kept going and my preceptor and her kept on chatting, finally after a minute or so I got up and started down the hall saying "I guess I'll answer your call bell" When I got in the room I found that the patient was a C-Diff patient who needed to be changed. Guess that's why neither of these CNAs "A" or "B" were in a rush to answer that particular call bell. Then they snookered me into "Helping" give a sponge bath...next thing I knew they literally shoved me in the Bathroom with the Patient and buggered off somewhere leaving me with CNA "A's" patient...then another day I'm busting my ass getting vitals and trying to get the vitals charted when CNA "A" comes up to me with a glass of water telling me "Your patient asked for this" I looked at her and said "Can't you give it to him as I'm a little busy here right now"? Oh there are a number of little dirty tricks that these ones have pulled to get me to do their work, but when I ask them to help me lift or transfer a patient I can't transer/lift myself I get the "deer in the headlight look followed by the loud sigh.

Best one yet was last night...I had 2 admissions, one being who is on a wanderguard and is setting off her bed/chair check literally every 5 minutes. I also had another patient who is laying on her call button screaming for her morphine/methadone and other pain pills every 5 minutes...another patient who is AX2 who is severely incontinent and needs to go on the commode every 20 minutes only to pee on herself and the floor as soon as her brief is losened and another patient who is also AX2 and constantly pooping black + for ecoli and a hematestX2. Anyway I'm taking care of my + ecoli patient getting him out of the wheelchair that PT left him in, washing him up, changing him applying cream to his stage 2 on his butt, trying to obtain the hematest, getting him in bed and CNA "A" comes into the room pulls the curtain and announces that my severely incontinent lady needs to come off the commode and that she had a BM. I told her I was in the middle of something (OBVIOUSLY) and couldn't she take care of her since SHE answered the call bell her response? "I have my own patients to take care of!". It was a good 10 minutes till I was able to leave the patient I had been working on to get to the other patient who was STILL sitting on the commode! The patient next to her and their family member who is an RN at another hopsital were ****** that CNA "A" left that woman there on the commode and forced not only them but the patient on the commode to smell that till I was able to get there. This CNA "A" was reported on the week before for forcing another patient to get out of bed herself and onto a commode and I've heard that she's been written up a number of times already. I reported what she did to the charge nurse who told me that SHE (CNA A) was wrong to do what she did. I said between her and CNA "B" I've been getting no help whatsoever, but when it comes to their patients I'm expected to be a "team player". Charge Nurse told me "just don't answer their call bells" My response to her was I can't consciously do something like that when I have the time to help out another patient not in my set.

Oh yeah, LAZY isn't even the word for these two and I do realize that they are taking severe advantage of the new kid (me) on the block....

[NurseAid0123]

@cogath:

No, it is NOT the norm. I am a nurse assistant, and I am afraid these kind of posts right here are why many nurses do not appreciate their CNAs or think they're above them. Have some appreciation. Some of those nurse assistance/CNAs probably have more education than you. Some aides have Bachelors Degrees in unrelated areas outside of nursing (some because of the economy and others because they would rather be in patient care) while some of the nurses only have an Associates Degree and talk down to their CNAs. NEVER forget some of the CNAs are also going to be nurses one day, and you will have to work with them on a whole other level...be careful how you treat your CNAs. :)

[Missingyou, CNA]

Yes some CNAs are lazy especially the smokers. But I love my job as the nursing home I work at. I know I do a good job and I do not leave a dirty poop butt even if I have 18 patients to care for! that is just nasty. Sadly, I do not have time to clip nails or sometimes I do not get to do my showers. Some CNAs do get annoyed by me when I tell them "This person smells of urine". I am the annoying CNA. But it is up to you to keep your residents clean and dry if it bothers you. Some CNAs probably leave a resident dirty because that is the way they are themselves.

I completely agree with this ^^^! I also work in an awesome (but not the best looking facility). I would NEVER consider leaving a poopy bottom or wet pants because I don't have time! That's just wrong. I may have to move a little faster, or, like you said, someone's nails don't get cut or just a bed bath instead instead of a shower, is what I need to do to make up for the lost minutes.

IT is also very true that great team work does wonders! Every single shift I work, we work together. If someone is going to the dirty room, they grab anyone else's trash bags on the way....if they're going to the diningroom, they take a resident with them. NOONE stands around with "a few spare minutes", we go find someone else to help out, because there will be a time when when we fall behind and that other CNA will be there to help out. It's just what you do!

Teamwork makes a very difficult job so much easier.

I don't care HOW LONG you've been doing this job or what the pay is. If you can't take proper care and you deliberately leave someone unclean, you need to find a different job. Working retail pays about the same without the "stress". You MUST have the ability to get more out of this type of work than a paycheck in order to be good at it.

I won't lie and tell you I don't get frustrated sometimes, but I remind myself these people can't help it (even the "mean" ones) and I know the kind of care I'd want for my parents.