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Discussion

I can't believe this ****!

I just got home after one of the worst experiences in my nursing career.Okay,

so I'm a cna, but I'm trying to get into an lvn program. Most of my shift was fine.

It wasn't until 6 am that the **** hit the fan. I had a geri psych patient who is

a hitter and a fall risk. I was told not to change him without help. I had never

had him so I didn't know his history or condition. I passed water, did vitals and

made my rounds and changes. This guy, "Mr. Grey", was dry at 2:30 so I left him

alone. I wasn't going to wake up a combative psych pt to change a dry diaper or

to reposition him.

I know that ideally we should reposition and change patients every 2 hours,

but let's be honest, we usually don't have time for more than q4 hours. Flash

forward to 6 when I am helping Mr. Grey's roommate. The tx nurse comes in to

change Mr. Grey's gtube t drain. She calls me over and asks if his arm always

looks this way. The arm looked dislocated at the elbow. I told her that this was

my first time with the pt but I didn't think so. She called the LVN in to assess

the arm and the LVN said definately not. The tx nurse asked when I had last

changed him and I truthfully answered that I hadn't bcuz he was dry at 2:30.

She gave me a dirty look and fetched the RN ( who probably never even looked

at the pt)and reported the arm to him.

By this time, I had moved onto another room to toilet a pt. The RN came

into the room to question me about the injury. The conversation went like this;

RN What happened to his arm?

ME I don't know.

RN What do you mean you don't know? You were with him for 8 hours!You

have to know.

ME I don't know. I checked his brief at 2:30. He was dry and sleeping so

I didn't change him. I looked in on him every time I came by his room. He slept

the entire shift.

RN So you didn't check him again?

ME No, I didn't. I start changing at 4:30, so I knew I would check then.

RN Well there's going to be an investigation so you better come up with

a good excuse for why you didn't change or reposition him all shift. Are you

sure you didn't do something that could've caused this?

ME( very upset) Of course not. He was sleeping my whole shift.

RN Well we will see.:mad:

Reminder: This entire conversation took place in a room with 3 very alert

pts.:uhoh3:

The MDS nurse told me that she would look at the pt's history for any

degenerative joint conditions and told me not to worry. I was then berated

by the RN in front of all my coworkers at the nurse's station. :devil:

I was almost in tears. I thought I would lose my job, my certification, and

any hope at becoming a nurse. I felt like I was being fed to the wolves. I know

he was my patient, but he was the LVN's and RN's patient too. Where were they?

( Actually, the LVN did look in on the pt, but the RN never stepped foot in the room

until after 6.

I was on my way out when the RNAs asked me what was wrong. When I told

them, one RNA said,"His right elbow? He was admitted like that. Physical

Therapy knows all about it. Let me look at it. We went to the patient and she told

nurses that he was admitted with his arm like that. Upon closer inspection an

incision was found on his elbow. I thought I was gonna faint!:eek:

I am a good CNA. I pride myself on my patient care. I'm usually the one

that finds undocumented wounds or COCs. I missed this one. I feel like my

nurses were accusing me of neglect. I would never knowingly harm a patient.

I have worked for over 2 years with nary a complaint or write up. This really

shook me up and opened my eyes. My RN wasn't interested in what happened

to the pt, he was interested in keeping his licence. I knew he wasn't the best

RN I have ever worked with, but I didn't think he would be that mean. He

knows I'm a strong CNA. The LVNs love to have me work their station because

they know I get things done. And it's a acceptable procedure not to wake a

combative or aggressive pt unnecessarily. I did feel really bad bcuz I thought

"I should've started with him but I needed to get a pt who was trying to jump

out of bed( another geri psych)

Well thanks for reading this looong post. I needed to vent. Has anyone else

experienced anything like this? How did you deal with it. Were you ever able

to look at your coworkers the same way? Please give me your imput. BE NICE

PLEASE. ;)

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    • Featured Replies

    I'm a new CNA but I don't work as a CNA i work as a Personal Care Assistant in an ALF bc of that exact foolishness right there. I work alone all night and don't have to answer to any of those annoying "johnny come lately" nurses who NEVER have contact with residents except for med pass and then want to grill you about why mr. x's call light is on when you are busy getting 8 other residents ready for the day. UGH! Some Nurses sometimes forget what its like to do personal care (or never have done it) so they are quick to jump the gun and accuse you of neglect. Life happens, and you deal with it the best you can and own up to your mistakes when necessary.

    You can't let them see you sweat. You know what kind of CNA you are. At the end of the day, you have to do something REALLY stupid to lose your license and i know you have seen plenty of stupid nurses and cna's during your stint. do the best you can, study hard and become the best nurse you can be so when you supervise cna's they will respect you, not hate you. im getting my BSN now and im so glad to be a CNA bc i know how i will NEVER treat a CNA.

    sorry it was so long but.. did i make any sense? lol

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    I think it was wrong for her to just " assume" that you did it

    They are never supposed to point a finger without getting all the facts first

    Make sure you tell them that you did check on him within 2 hours and he was dry and asleep

    He could've injured himself or it could've been another employee,patient they dont even have the facts yet

    I wouldnt worry about it just remember to be CALM okay!

    The more relaxed you are the less guilty you look ( to me anyway)

    Things like this happen all the time and its scary This is why im going back to home care

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    • Author

    It turns out the elbow dislocation was an injury the pt sustained in the 1950s!

    The tx nurse who was so mad at me was the one who did the body check upon

    admittance. Tonight everyone apologized to me. I'm still hurt, but I'm beginning

    to see the humor of the situation.

  • Quote
    • Author

    It turns out the elbow dislocation was an injury the pt sustained in the 1950s!

    The tx nurse who was so mad at me was the one who did the body check upon

    admittance. Tonight everyone apologized to me. I'm still hurt, but I'm beginning

    to see the humor of the situation.

  • Quote
    It turns out the elbow dislocation was an injury the pt sustained in the 1950s!

    The tx nurse who was so mad at me was the one who did the body check upon

    admittance. Tonight everyone apologized to me. I'm still hurt, but I'm beginning

    to see the humor of the situation.

    I am glad that things were sorted out.

  • Quote
    It turns out the elbow dislocation was an injury the pt sustained in the 1950s!

    The tx nurse who was so mad at me was the one who did the body check upon

    admittance. Tonight everyone apologized to me. I'm still hurt, but I'm beginning

    to see the humor of the situation.

    Does it make me a bad person that I get much enjoyment from the idea that the person who attempted to intimidate and blame you is actually the one who screwed up? I'm glad everything got sorted out. I've been in a similar situation before and I know how frustrating it can be.

  • Quote

    I would have been FUMING if I was you!

    I had an RN accuse me before of something and she never did apologize... I had just started in the unit so she didnt know me too well..

    I work in an ICU as a PCT... and drew blood on a pt... right arm.. right before the nurses change of shift... so this is what happened....

    RN asks me to draw blood on pt about 30mins before shift change...so I go in do the bloodwork and send the blood to lab....

    and hour or so goes by and I have a phone call...it's the RN

    RN:"The tourniquet was left tied to the pt and then tied to the bed! what arm did you draw the blood on??!!" (yes she was yelling)

    Me: What? I drew it on the right arm. and I remember removing the tourniquet."

    RN: "yeah the left arm was tied to the bed with the tourniqut"

    Me: "I drew the blood on the right arm"

    (at this point she is talking over me... does not want to listen)

    RN:"why did you so that you left he tourniquit on and tied to the bed" blah blah blah....

    so she finally stops ranting....

    Me: "I did NOT draw the blood on the left. I drew the blood on the RIGHT. I specifically remember taking off the tourniquet and throwing it away. I do not know who or why the tourniquet was tied to her then tied to the bed"

    RN: "oh, alright well I figure it out bye."

    Come to find out...the family did it....was using it as a restraint...

    she came and told me the family did it the next day but never apologized...

  • Quote
    It turns out the elbow dislocation was an injury the pt sustained in the 1950s!

    The tx nurse who was so mad at me was the one who did the body check upon

    admittance. Tonight everyone apologized to me.

    Oh SNAP! That's great. I'm so glad this turned out that way and I hope this nurse learned a lesson about getting the facts (and completely doing and charting his/her own assessments :eek:) before trying to assign blame!

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    Probably I better consider myself fortunate. I was written up for a fall that turned out to be not my fault, someone else had failed to put her alarms on -- but since she fell on my shift I was blamed for it. One of the nurses must have went to bat for me and protested the write-up because when I returned to the facility (after quitting because of this incident) there wasn't even a record of the report. I was still glad I quit working there because I realized that the level of responsibility required to care for such helpless vulnerable people and all the risks involved with their care was not worth the low pay and the humiliation of working there. Good for you having the last laugh. That tx nurse was a nincompoop for not even knowing her own patient, especially one she did the initial assessment on!! Sheesh!!!

  • Quote
    • Author

    Thanks to everone for your support. I

    recieved a lot of support from my fellow cnas

    at work from all the shifts. The RN is being

    extra nice and the LVNS are lavishing praises

    about my "excellent patient care". The tx nurse

    however, is avoiding me like the plague. She

    is probably embaressed by her behavior and

    the fact that it was her screw up. I'm off 2nite

    but work 2morrow. Let this be a warning to

    others, especially new cnas... Always chart

    everything. If you find something strange

    about your patient report it to your nurses

    and chart it. The nurses will be covering their

    backs and so must you. I thought I had a decent

    relationship with my RN, but he wad quick

    to throw me under the bus. Just watch your-

    selves and your patients.;)

  • Quote

    The other day I witnessed a resident get injured during a transfer. It was the resident's own fault... the CNA was just following the care plan and did nothing wrong but the resident spun himself around without any warning in the middle of the transfer because there was a home run or some junk like that on the baseball game he was watching! We reported the injury (which was minor) and the nurse kept saying that we were lying and that the girl transferring him definitely threw him into the chair. I still don't know if we're going to get in trouble with the DON or not because this nurse is insisting that she's lying and that I'm covering for her. :mad:

  • Quote

    This sounds like the RN and LPN were trying to pass the buck, so to speak, and it seems that no one did a full physical assessment of the resident.

    Granted, I've never been in this type of situation because my work as a CNA has been only in a clinic-type setting, but it would seem that if an "investigation" does take place, it should be questioned why the LPN nor RN had done any type of assessment to look for any joint abnormailites, and for Pete's sake, at least to look at a medical history for past surgeries!

    I say don't get discouraged, because it happens when there are people who look down on CNAs as the fall person. But, also, when/if they actually do an "investigation" don't just sit there and take it, be sure to stand up for yourself.

    Good luck either way! :)

  • Quote

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