I dont handle lazy aides well

[hollyberry678]

Maybe I am not cut out for hospital nursing, I dont know. I cant seem to handle lazy aides well. Again I was assigned to the other side' on my unit, night shift, 2 rn's with one aide, 12 pts (6 patients each rn). If there is not a good aide, you drown at some point, usually later in the shift.

This float aide we had last night did his vitals, sat down in the hall with a portable computer for an hour or hour and a half. I got an admit, he balked at doing a sling weight (she is asleep, that can wait for days') (me: no it cant). Then he took over an hour break, when it is posted that they can take 2 15 min breaks and one 1/2 meal break. But that is the standard.

The night charges dont care. They dont give support. They just dont want trouble'. I told the aide upon his return of the above policy on our floor.

Then he started 0400 vitals, didnt answer call lights. I was trying to chart. I asked him to answer a call light. He did not, finally I went to answer it. I asked him why he didnt answer it, he said I could have answered it instead of coming to tell him to answer it. I told him I was charting, and that he was on the floor. He said he was in an iso room'. It seemed to me he took 15 minutes of so in that iso room to get VS, and was just waiting for ME to answer the call light. He got loud when I asked him this (about not answering) and argumentative. Then he went to the charge nurse to complain about me.

The chrage nurse said he's generally been a good guy'... I wrote my nurse mgr stating I am frustrated dealing with certain aides who seem to want to do only the minimum. I called insick for tonight. I am thinking of requesting not to be put back in this section especially if there is a marginal aide.

I left this morning with not enough time to do notes, ect. I just was so upset and wanted to get out of there.

I dont know what to do. Please advise.

[MedSurgeMess]

We only have 4 CNAs on our unit. 2 do strictly baths then sit at nurses station, the other 2 do strictly activities and 1 of those 2 sits in nurses station all afternoon and sleeps. 1 out of 4 runs her buns off, and you can trust everything she does to be correct. She comes to everyone and asks if they need help...We've been talking about revising the CNA job description to make these others get up

[Scrubby]

quoted from cop2bnurse41

setting the tone from both sides of the bed!!! first to the last poster! cna work is nursing work.

umm no it isn't, cna work is not nursing work at all. cna work is cna work, nursing work can be both.

in fact it is first semester nursing! as a leader you have to know the job of the person working with you or under you!

as a leader you should be aware also of the legal implications of someone calling themselves a nurse and claiming that they are 'nursing' when they aren't.

also aids are very important to the rn while we are not nurses many situations would go uncorrected if the aide did not bring it to the rn's attention! now i am a nursing student and an aid(which should be mandatory). as a student nurse i had to learn quickly that you set the tone when working with support staff. you do this by being the hardest worker on the team. you enlist the help of others when needed, and delegate with a quick explination! "im not sitting on my can at the station im tied up with patient x can you please handle this for me" after a short time most people want to be on your team! almost everyone wants to be part of a good team!

i agree that cna's are an important part of the team but there is a hierachy whether you like it or not. i have also been a cna, an ain, an rn and cn. i know how it is on both sides of the fence. i find there can be some resentment from cna's an enrolled nurses being delegated to especially by new graduate nurses. and i have also found that many rn's look down upon and demonstrate very little respect towards cna's and en's as well.

however, the rn should not have to justify to anyone that they are not being lazy and sitting on their 'can' and provide a rationale everytime they need to delegate to a cna. now if a cna was planning on doing something else and they aren't sure what they should do first, then the rn can help them with setting the priorities.

i also operate the same way as an aide. i am the hardest worker on the team period! i am requested by every floor in my hospital. i consider myself the eyes and ears of the r.n. i happen to be working with for the day. if i see something going wrong with one of my pt. i let the nurse know. i wll also call a nurse out for being lazy!!!

i agree that this sounds very resentful. i don't know where you work but cna's do not call the nurse out for being lazy. if there is an issue then you try and resolve it with the other person in a professional manner, or if it can't be deal with then this is taken to management to help work out. and this goes for a nurse who has an issue with another nurse.

i had a new rn who was never an aide walk out of a pt's room and and call down the hall for me while i was tending to another pt. she said and i quote " go put 345 on the bed pan" befor i could explode on her one of the other nurses on the floor grabed her by the arm and drug her back into the room! i was later told she went up one side of her and down the other. "you dont mess with that aide he makes our life easy and will save you but!" so befor we go writing anyone up we need to relize we are responsible for the team we work on be a leader set the tone through hard work and you will be respected and people will want to work with you and for you! earn respect dont demand respect!!

perhaps her approach was disrespectful but hardly worth exploding at someone over. i think you need some perspective here. it's hardly professional to go exploding at someone every time someone doesn't say please or thankyou. what is wrong with quietly speaking with this rn and letting them know you felt her choice of words was disrespectul?

and why do you feel the need to mention that this particular rn never worked as an aide? this sounds very judgemental, as far as i'm aware it is not mandatory for an rn to have worked as an aide despite your belief that it should. it sounds as though you don't believe an rn is worthy of the title if they haven't worked as a cna. should they grovel on the floor for you because your 'the hardest worker on the team'?

i don't believe in earning respect. respect should be the default behaviour in any work setting, even if the rn hasn't worked as a cna. if someone is acting inappropriately whether they are a cna, en, rn, whatever then this should be dealt with professionally and by not dragging people into rooms and yelling at them.