Did the title catch your attention? Good, I was hoping it would.
I've seen people talk about this attitude on allnurses quite a bit, and I find the reactions fascinating. I'm amazed at the passion, care and professionalism of the nurses on this board and really about every nurse I've ever met.
BUT, everyone-from the most seasoned nurse to the student- knows that nursing is changing and will probably continue to change dramatically over the years to come. There are CNAs and MAs who seem to have an increasing role in the healthcare system and nurses themselves have more responsibility (all the charting etc.) and demanding jobs as new diseases, new medicines and standards of care make their way into our lives.
My question is, do you think their should be a change in what nurses do? Will there come a time when basic hygiene and certain other tasks often done by nurses in the past will be the responsibility of CNAs and others in similar roles? Would this be a good thing for nurses? Is there really anything wrong with nurses who feel that four years of education + all of their other demands and responsibilities should mean that they shouldn't have to do these tasks?
as a cna/student nurse, i often find myself "sticking up" for nurses to my fellow cna's because i agree that they do not really know what all nurses do. that being said, it is hard to defend some nurses. for example, it does not take long to put a pt on a bedpan,...so what is wrong with the nurse putting the pt on the bedpan and THEN come find the cna to say "i put so-and-so on the bedpan" that way the pt can go ahead and relieve him/herself and i can be on the lookout for the call light OR MAYBE the nurse will find me helping another nurse with his/her pt and i may be in there for 45 min.(this does happen as i regularly have 6 different nurses' pt... that's a lot of nurses to have to answer to) you do not really want YOUR pt on the bedpan for 45 min. because i am helping another nurse and am not available do you? surely not!!
it amazes me that nurses can complain about being short staffed, too many shoes to fill, too much to do too little time...and all the nurses say "YEAH", but when a cna complains about being short staffed, too many shoes to fill, too much to do too little time...all the nurses say "WHAT, i WISHED i had the time to change linen, wipe butts, give baths, turn pts q2h, v/s q4h, pass water, feed pts, take record i&o's, assist nurses with procedures, ambulate pt in halls, take pt out for d/c and wait for pt ride...etc..etc..etc (actually nurses normally say "WHAT, i WISHED i had the time to give baths and wipe butts" as that is all cna's do). is it so hard to believe that the same hospitals that understaff nurses to save money would also understaff cna's to save money too!?! i hope everyone gets my point. i love nurses and nursing. i can not wait to proudly hold the tittle RN (one more year!). i freely admit that there are ALOT of lazy cna's out there, but there are also alot of great but overworked cna's out there. i know of several fellow student nurses that after working as a cna hated it, not because of the type of care they had to give but because there was so many pt they could not give adequate care. also, in reference to the lazy cna's, some of them become lazy LPN/RN's. and that is what we are talking about.
OH! a bed pan is not only uncomfortable, it can produce a pressure area far faster than a bed, so 45 minutes is a disaster in the making!
And there is no know-how required to do bummies. We all wipe our own, same difference.
I still do not expect the nurses to do my job, I really want to free them up to do theirs, but if I am not available, they need to put the patients skin integrity above their job description!
I still do not expect the nurses to do my job, I really want to free them up to do theirs, but if I am not available, they need to put the patients skin integrity above their job description!
i agree 100%. i actually feel bad if a nurse ends up doing what i consider "my job", but we can not be everywhere at once and we have to remember we are there to HELP them not to do everything that doesn't require a license! which is what many of the nurses that i have come across feel, if it doesn't require a license then it is a cna's job and if they wipe a bottom then they feel they are helping us....WHAT? that is the wrong mind set. they are helping THEIR pt. not me! even i fall into this trap of thinking it is somehow my job to do ALL care not requiring a license. a cna is a certified nursing assistant we are there to HELP the nurse take care of HIS/HER pt. although i consider the patients to be "my patients" the truth is they are the nurses pt's and i am there to help the nurse do his/her job...and total pt. care is every nurses job! by doing our jobs we help the patients, but our job is to help the nurse...the nurses job is to help the patients! again i love nursing, i love helping others, but in my role as a cna i am most satisfied when i have made the nurses day easier by holding up a leg while the nurse does wound care or by taken great care of the patients so that the nurse was able to pass meds, assess, chart, etc..etc..etc.. without having to worry that her/his pt's where not cared for.
i agree 100%. i actually feel bad if a nurse ends up doing what i consider "my job", but we can not be everywhere at once and we have to remember we are there to HELP them not to do everything that doesn't require a license! which is what many of the nurses that i have come across feel, if it doesn't require a license then it is a cna's job and if they wipe a bottom then they feel they are helping us....WHAT? that is the wrong mind set. they are helping THEIR pt. not me! even i fall into this trap of thinking it is somehow my job to do ALL care not requiring a license. a cna is a certified nursing assistant we are there to HELP the nurse take care of HIS/HER pt. although i consider the patients to be "my patients" the truth is they are the nurses pt's and i am there to help the nurse do his/her job...and total pt. care is every nurses job! by doing our jobs we help the patients, but our job is to help the nurse...the nurses job is to help the patients! again i love nursing, i love helping others, but in my role as a cna i am most satisfied when i have made the nurses day easier by holding up a leg while the nurse does wound care or by taken great care of the patients so that the nurse was able to pass meds, assess, chart, etc..etc..etc.. without having to worry that her/his pt's where not cared for.
Exactly! I do get caught up in doing anything that doesnt require a license....well, I don't do windows....wait a minute, I have done windows....nevermind...
I wonder if we surveyed longest running threads on allnurses, what percentage of them are bummy related? Hmmm. I like to think I played as small part in this....
in fact many of them say, i would have done it myself, but i would have made a bigger mess...
personally, i think that's a load of crap, but that's what i get. then i get the nurses that are so good natured, they try to help and don't want a patient to have to hold it, so they put them on the bedpan and since our facility only seems to want to buy fracture pans, they put in under the wrong way, urine floods the bed and i have to do a complete bed change (by myself). now, i love the nurse that didn't tell the patient to hold it and wait for an aide, but it shows that they have been focusing on what exactly their license requires, for a very long time, and have gotten out of touch with the hands-on aspect of nursing.
may i also add---this has happened so many times, it's like a joke. can you imagine how painful a fracture pan the wrong way would be. i walk in and find that and all i can think is 'a nurse did this, didn't they?'
Exactly! I do get caught up in doing anything that doesnt require a license....well, I don't do windows....wait a minute, I have done windows....nevermind...
OMG, so have I.
An to the RNs that don't know how to wipe butts or put a patient on a bedpad, to the CNA's satisfaction. Shame on you! That's Nursing 101. Thank goodness I've never seen that.
Wow! I was sharpening my claws and rolling up my sleeves when I saw the title!!
My feeling is that there is no task that belongs to the CNA's. All the tasks are actually ours and they are our assistants. They work under our licenses, their tasks are ultimately our responsibility.
Thank you for saying that.
I have worked as an nurse aide most of my adult life in the hospital setting. I am now a 40 year old student nurse in a 2 year ADN RN program. I have heard other pre-nursing students say those things too, that they do not want to wipe poopy butts. I will say this, I have worked with different kinds of nurses. Some helped the aides, some did not. We were working under their license. Some of the aides were very, very young and did not always record correct vital signs. I have worked along side some nurses from the old school, who did all of their patient care, including wiping a poopy butt. The most important thing to remember is that everyone on that unit must work as a team. It is vital to have a smooth running floor and staff. The call lights will pop on constantly, an aide may have to work the floor by herself because the other's called off, which happened a lot. Everyone has to work together in order to have a better patient care atmosphere. I can tell you this, those nurses who thought they were way too better than wiping poop, did not make great nurses to begin with. You can tell who is there for the money, and who truly is dedicated to their profession.
Specializes in telemetry, cardiopulmonary stepdown, LTC. Hospice.
Huh??? WHY?????? As long as the hands are washed before the IV's are touched, why would this matter? I have cleaned up incontinent pts and then administered meds or IV's (with hands washed!!) and I seriously doubt their perceptions of me changed because of that.
Speaking as a person who is going into nursing, but has been a patient before, when I needed help all I wanted was HELP...I didn't think less of a person who changed my sheets or cleaned me up. I never really looked to see who was an RN or an LPN, I just knew they came in and I hoped they knew how to help me, whatever it was I needed.
i was helping a nurse transfer a pt via bed to another floor in the hospital. while in route i got a page.."pt needs to use bathroom." i also got two other pages. i get back to the floor and literally ran from room to room changing pts, took pt to restroom, then when i went to my last room, the daughter of pt was upset because her mom needed to use the restroom. no one came. she ended up wetting the bed then her daughter put her on the bsc. twice she went out to talk to her mom's nurse at the desk and pleaded with her to come and get her mom off of the bsc. didn't happen! so now i come in clean up pt and apologized. pt's family said they knew i was busy because she SAW me running room to room. she thanked me and i apologized again, but she said she understood that i was busy, but that her mom's nurse was just sitting at the desk (she said she was standing in the hall watching her, that's how she saw me running room to room). NOW THIS IS WHAT BUGS ME!!!!!!! she asked to speak with the charge nurse...the charge nurse came in and said "well it's not the nurses job to put pt on bsc or take off!!!":angryfire
and this is my problem!! since when is pt care not a nurses job! like i said in a previous post, if it does not require a license somehow nurses think it is not their job. i know i can not change minds, especially as a lowly cna, but one day i intend to try and make changes. not for me, i'm not lazy, i've worked hard my whole life. however, i love taking care of patients, and for my patients and all patients this has got to end. PUT THE PT FIRST!!
i expect all nurses to give the best care. and that means wiping a butt or two. if you are a nurse that has left a pt like this i say shame on you and i hope that one day you realize the harm you cause. this is the same kind of nurse that "stands watch" when a loved one of theirs is in the hospital and ends up driving the staff crazy. forcing the staff to follow every procedure by the textbook because they "know how patients are treated in the hospital." (yeah one of their pts maybe!)
Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN
12,126 Posts
So you've seen or heard a nurse say "i can't clean this pt. up, i don't know hoooooow"?