I hate my new CNA job

JustBeachyNurse, LPN · Oct 7, 2014

In my area it's a different certification for assisted living (PCA personal care assistant) and home health (certified home health aide CHHA). It's true many ALF admit inappropriate residents who require a higher level of subacute care.

CNA training in my area is more targeted to long term care, acute rehab, subacute rehab or hospital facilities. There is even a few pediatric subacute & LTC facilities in my area that hire CNA, RN and LPN only (aside from allied health RRT, PT, OT, SLP and support).

Try searching for another job. Check Medicare ratings for subacute & long term care for an idea about the facility.

Good luck. It sounds like you may have more success in another setting.

casi, ASN, RN · Oct 7, 2014

4-5 CNAs for 25 resident's is better than most nursing homes. I think it would really depend on the amount of care and tasks you are expected to give.

You can always look else where. As a CNA there are many opportunities.

duskyjewel · Oct 7, 2014

Are those 4-5 staff members you speak of all CNAs or dies that include the nurses? Because if they're all CNAs, that's a 5-6 patient per CNA ratio and not for minimize your stress, but many of us would change jobs with you in a heartbeat.

GingerRN17 · Oct 8, 2014

That doesnt sound understaffed at all to me. I can have 14-16 patients by myself at nights on my unit...and they only staff one CNA at night...so its you when you are there! The first few months at any new job are HARD. It takes time to know what you are doing and feel comfortable. Give it time!

duskyjewel · Oct 8, 2014

I hate my autocorrect.

Paws2people · Oct 8, 2014

Could you elaborate on what is slave labor?

slilly · Oct 9, 2014

I think you should really try to stick it out, because this will help you with getting experience. If you think that the other CNAs are annoyed with you try working in a hospital where they would probably be a lot tougher on you and assisted living isn't all that bad. You gotta learn to take the good with the bad and if you think your co-workers are being mean then you should say something to the manager.

mintygirl · Oct 14, 2014

Unfortunately you're going to find that many facilities are understaffed and that the "shortage" in nursing that people often spew at the mouth isn't because there aren't enough to hire, its that they choose to run at what the state sets as a bare minimum guideline.

At the end of the day, this is a company you're working for. The DON and the Supervisor DSD might not necessarily be the ones on the payroll, but typically its owned by some out of state family who own like 30+ facility homes. These people are here to make a profit off health insurance and other people's pain and end of days retirement because god forbid they need help cooking a meal or two.

I know in California there is a 3.2 per nurse hour which basically means there should be AT LEAST 3 shifts with a half hour to cover the change over when the other nurses come on, but people forget that's just the minimum which is set extreeeemely low! And the fact that there is no CNA to patient ratio is open grounds for why cna's get abused so much. The "older" cna ones have just gotten use to being treated like garbage and are apathetic to change.

They will ALWAYS be hard and uncaring because its all they ever know.

What I'm saying is essentially you might run into a lot of facility that are just down right nasty and will throw you under a bus. Oh yes and get this, say if the facility is understaffed and you're assisting a patient and another patient has to wait too long for you and some incident occurs, THEN the state and omnibudsmen get involved, everyone and their MAMA will be pointing the finger at you and say "Well why did you not speak up if you feel you can't provide adequate care or that you felt the residents weren't being cared for properly" and they show you videos those so called abuse videos where a lawyer is on screen running his mouth about how he'll sue you personally...

Well its no wonder people dont speak up but just end up leaving. I remember working at one facility where cna's were quitting faster than they could hire them. No one wants to take the blame, its not a cna's fault the place is garbage. At the end of the day you were human, just remember to thank God that you got out of there before something serious happens.

Pathogems · Oct 22, 2014

Where I work as a Med Tech, there are 80 residents and 4-7 Aides/CNAs to care for them, so they all have around 15-20 people to help care for themselves. So it could be worse, but like others said, look elsewhere. You may find Hospice or Home Health is more appealing to you.

Nursing24/7, LVN · Nov 1, 2014

I say stick it out. Give it a full month because the first few weeks adjusting to a CNA job is not easy. If you feel the same after a month then explore other CNA job avenues. But for now, take it as an opportunity to learn. Don't listen to what other staff people say be friendly of course but don't let all the hearsay & rumor affect how you do your job. Focus. Work towards standing out amongst a group of people who are miserable. Stick to the job at hand & give the job a fair chance.

I'm a new CNA too & work at a SNF that I don't care for but I'm trying to hang in there at least for 3 months to gain some experience (it's not the hard work that I don't like about the job, it's the staff & my boss) and I also work for at an assisted living, which I LOVE. The assisted living is so easy & fun compared to my job at the SNF facility.

Good luck!

ali.nystrom · Nov 1, 2014

Having 5 patients to care for is not bad at all. Actually, that is a dream day for me. We have 8-12 on a normal day. Your boss probably wasn't lying to you about being well staffed. That being said, being a CNA is no walk in the park. In my experience you have to be a fast learner and be able to work at a fairly fast pace--even in an assisted living facility. If you like a slower paced job you should try to do private duty care--that will probably be more appealing to you.