How to help my CNAs

Specialties Geriatric

Published

l I have been on the job a few weeks and except for the exceptions (admissions, deaths, transfers, indecent reports) I am getting to know my job well. My med passes are within the allotted time frames I am getting my charting and assessments done too.

So, now that I am getting more efficient at my job (if nothing out of the ordinary happens) I would love to be able to help the aids but I am not sure how. For example I give a women all her medication and she says she needs to go potty (or lay down) I tell her to put on her light and I will go find someone to help. I do this because I don't know if this person needs a lift, or a 2 person assist, or what.....I just don't know:o. I also don't know how the aids decide when to get people up or lay them down. I don't want to put someone in bed who is supposed to be up or vice-versa. As you all can probably tell I went straight through with my schooling and never worked as a CNA.

I want to help but I feel lost. I think I should have had an orientation day with the CNAs before I started my nursing orientation! Any suggestions?

Another example "nurse I need my oxygen filled"

Me "ok I would love to help let me find someone for you"

ARRGH I hate not being able to do simple things! I actually asked my nurse I was orienting with to show me how to fill the oxygen and she told me "oh the aids do that". No wonder some of the CNAs think all we nurses know how to do is push pills.....I am feeling the same about myself just about now:uhoh3:

b) That the nurse wouldn't know the basic mobility and diet of a patient they had. For us that's part of our assessment, because it figures into things like risk for skin breakdown, risk for atelectasis and/or pneumonia, risk for aspiration, ileus, etc.

I think this is where some of my frustration is coming from. I only worked med-surge for a short time but when I was there we did all patient care because at the time the hospital I was at was phasing out aids and LPNs and only hiring RNs. Because it was only me for those patients I knew how to take care of them. It is really hard having 25+ patients and not really knowing them initially but still being expected to provide competent and complete care for them. The good news is I am getting to know them quickly but this is all very new to me.

I really rely on my aids to communicate pertinate info so I can assess the situation. So far they have been great! They are carefull to report who has/has not eaten, any skin issues, abnormal vital sings or anything else they feel is "off" and believe me....I listen to them.

So far, in my estimation, ltc nursing is worlds away from hospital nursing....not that one is better than the other or that one requires more/less skills...just two very different nursing environments.

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

Honestly, ANY help you can give the CNAs they will appreciate. I'm the DON...if I walk down the hall and there is a call light on, I answer it. Why walk all the way down the hall to find someone else to answer the light? Some days they look at me like I'm crazy...like on Friday late in the day we were getting 2 admissions. House keeping had gone home. Someone had to clean the room. So I grabbed the housekeeping cart and the nurse manager and I scrubbed the beds, the furniture, mopped the floors and made the beds. We're all in this together and we all need to help each other out. Yah...I know the CNAs can't pass the meds, but they sure can save your butt when they pay attention to the residents and pick up on skin issues or if the resident isn't eating as well as usual.

PS. Please don't use the term potty....they're old people not little kids.

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PS. Please don't use the term potty....they're old people not little kids.

Ooops.....I still go potty and I am not a little kid :lol2: just what I have always said.....never seemed to bother anyone....

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So far, in my estimation, ltc nursing is worlds away from hospital nursing....not that one is better than the other or that one requires more/less skills...just two very different nursing environments.

I help when I can.

If I don't know the resident (work part time) I will ask the CNAs how do transfer/ toilet/ feed them. If you have time and are willing to help....just ask the CNAs! If someone needs something right now, you can go get the cna, stay with them and ask them to show you how do do something.

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Specializes in LTC.
Ooops.....I still go potty and I am not a little kid :lol2: just what I have always said.....never seemed to bother anyone....

Sometimes the residents do say "I have to go potty." Sometimes some of them say it too much.

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

I've been in long term care since the 70's....was a nurses' aide before there was such a thing as a state run class or certification. Not once in all those years did any of my residents use the term potty...never.

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I have always stressed to the aides that everything they are doing is a nursing duty. I show them that by assisting with toileting, making beds if we're really short - granted, there are times I cannot help out, and one has to be careful with not allowing them to take advantage of you - but getting your own hands dirty when necessary goes a long way towards showing them that you value what they do. And thank them. When they're working short and get it done anyway telling them what a great job they did goes a long way. And DON'T call them "the girls." They have certs or licenses they earned and are entitled to be addressed by title.

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I've been in long term care since the 70's....was a nurses' aide before there was such a thing as a state run class or certification. Not once in all those years did any of my residents use the term potty...never.

I have only been nursing in ltc a bit but I have heard "potty" a lot. Maybe it is just a regional thing but people say potty here....really they do. I am not being condescending to them. I had a lady just yesterday tell me "I need to go potty" when I answered her light and another women who said "I need to go pee pee" when I answered her light. Both residents are alert and oriented and that's just the way they talk, and it is the way I talk too. I think correcting them and saying "no, you need to urinate" or "you must mean you need to use the toilet" would be rude and condescending. I would never chart about a resident going potty or "pee pee" but when I talk with them I use language they are comfortable with.

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I had a resident say potty before and she caught herself and laughed saying that she has been watching her grandkids too much.

Must be regional..

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Specializes in LTC.
I have only been nursing in ltc a bit but I have heard "potty" a lot. Maybe it is just a regional thing but people say potty here....really they do. I am not being condescending to them. I had a lady just yesterday tell me "I need to go potty" when I answered her light and another women who said "I need to go pee pee" when I answered her light. Both residents are alert and oriented and that's just the way they talk, and it is the way I talk too. I think correcting them and saying "no, you need to urinate" or "you must mean you need to use the toilet" would be rude and condescending. I would never chart about a resident going potty or "pee pee" but when I talk with them I use language they are comfortable with.

I don't correct them either. We have a lady who when she has to go.. "Oh my .. I have to pee." She goes on her own but announces it to the entire world. lol

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

I didn't intend to hijack this post and turn it into a discussion of what people call pee or urine. It's about how we can help the CNAS. The potty thing is a pet peeve of mine. So whatever you call it we should help the CNAS with it.

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I don't correct them either. We have a lady who when she has to go.. "Oh my .. I have to pee." She goes on her own but announces it to the entire world. lol

must be a former nurse! I notice a lot of people at work announce it, including me, cause if you don't....where is she?!

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