I hated being a CNA, will this mean I'll hate being a nurse?

[TinyLilly]

Hello Everyone,

I became interested in nursing as a second career, since my first one in fashion was not rewarding and I wanted to help people. I started taking my prerequisites at a local community college and volunteering at the NICU at a nearby hospital. I loved volunteering at the NICU, helping the nurses with restocking their carts, helping them with the tiny neonates and helping families. When I found out that the department was hiring a CNA 2, I immediately went through the CNA 2 certification course (I was a CNA but I did not have much experience) because I wanted to learn more about working in the NICU. However, I was turned down for the job, even though the girls that HR hired did not last long and were afraid to hold and help the babies.

I was frustrated because I had been volunteering for over a year at the NICU and oversaw projects to help with the department's carts restocking. I was basically doing the NICU CNA 2 job for free. A lady from HR told me that I did not have enough experience to work as the NICU CNA. I was frustrated because I felt so used, and so I decided to quit my volunteering position to focus on gaining more experience as a CNA.

I got a position at a skilled nursing and long term care facility, where I did my CNA 1 clinical. Right away the CNA 1s were mean to me because I was a CNA 2 without as much experience as them. I had always the worst assignments and if something went wrong I was to blame. I tried helping at my coworkers when I could, like answering their call lights if they were unavailable and my residents were fine. Some of them warmed up to me, but a few still were awful.

Right away from working with adults I realized that I missed the NICU. I have a hard time caring for grown ups who purposely wrecked their bodies from drug abuse, over eating, lack of exercise, and alcoholism. There are barely any old residents there. Most of them are middle aged to semi-older (35-70 years-of-age). Since I'm new, the residents are not helpful in telling me how I can help them (and they are cognizant and able to verbalize), and they use every excuse to demean me.

Just from this experience, I realized that I don't want to work in a long term or skilled nursing facility. I miss helping the premies every day I have to work at this place. I find it harder and harder to care for the residents were are demeaning, verbally abusive, and disgustingly lazy (one lady can walk to her refrigerator in her room to get her soda, but not the commode).

Also the work environment is not good. The nursing staff is hit or miss. Some of the staff has warmed up to me, but the others are still mean. Plus there is always scheduling mishaps, which make it frustrating to know what days I'm working or not.

I'm going to nursing school in the summer (yay!) but is my experience as a CNA foretelling me what it will be like to be a nurse. Already I've decided that I want to go into NICU nursing. Are nursing specialities with adults like this now? I've worked with parents with babies in the NICU and I feel like I can handle them better than adult patients already.

Thank you everyone for listening.

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

i would ask what it was about being a CNA that you didn't like. I worked as a home health aide while I went to school. there was no way I could have done LTC or hosp. I loved the work but the understaffing and some attitudes of nurses were horrid. I loved the work and the patients. I agree with others that they are very different jobs. If you can handle being a CNA, you can be a nurse. It is harder in some ways, but I like it and I like it better than being an aide even though I had a cushier job.

[NurseCard, ADN]

I definitely hear ya, as far as how staffers at nursing homes treat each other...

especially at the busiest, most understaffed homes. Nursing home work can

be so, so stressful and I think staffers take it out on each other. It can

happen, really, in any stressful workplace or profession.

I can never work in another nursing home. Ever.

Now, having said all of that... I can only back up what has been said, about

needing to have empathy for all adults in order to be a successful nurse.

I've taken care of many a young adult (30's to 40's) who were debilitated due

to conditions that were inherited, not because of anything they did. Even

those of us who have "wrecked their bodies" deserve empathy. I'm

morbidly obese. I'm also a hard working mom and wife who is active in

my community. I've tried countless diets and exercise regimes. I'm currently

on a diet that I've basically created myself. I'm very lucky that I have

good genes and therefore have escaped, so far, serious illness resulting

from being so large.

[jbriggsrn]

I depends on what you hate. Two different jobs. The CNA job can be harder and less desirable on a different level for people as well as rewarding to some.

If you do not like the patient care or the environment then probably. It is just your type of work and if you see the nursing and feel that is for you, the probably not.

If you do not like being too busy to do your job, then that will not change. You won't have as many patients but you may still find yourself having to do CNA tasks while having to do your tasks which you can't delegate.

Also there are many areas of nursing you can try to make as your goal which is one of the benefits. There is also the potential for further education to grow and change your experience in nursing. Nursing is a fair security for employment, opportunities, advancement and income.

[Sour Lemon]

NICU is a competitive specialty that you may or may not actually be able to get into. Most people that need medical care are not babies and young children, so there are far fewer positions open.

Beyond that, keep in mind that adults are simply babies who've grown up.

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

OP: When you took the CNA job in the skilled nursing facility, you took on a job (and its environment) that is going to be very different from that of acute care, and even more so removed from a specialty unit like the NICU. I'm an RN and all of the things you can and would normally do as a CNA is in my scope of practice. Why then do we use CNAs? Simple: they're specifically trained to do certain tasks so that I am freed up to be able to concentrate on other significant portions of patient care.

In particular, I'm an ED RN and my ED doesn't have "CNA" staff, we have "ED Techs" and most of them are absolutely awesome! When they're available, I can have them do splints, bring food trays, do certain bandaging, etc while I'm working with another patient that requires more close assessment (something our Techs can't do). Our techs are also fantastic in that they'll let me know about a beeping monitor or a beeping pump or a patient request. Often they'll tell me why the monitor is beeping (they read the alert or they see the Vital Signs displayed) and relay that info to me. Then I do the assessment part and put that data in with the other stuff I know about that patient and I may or may not do something other than silence an alarm or ask another nurse to do a certain task to address that alarm.

I have also worked where having additional available Techs often didn't happen. When that did, I would just have to work that much harder to ensure all my patients had their needs met.

Now I usually tell people that are looking to get into nursing to get some experience working as a CNA. It's not because I want to chase them from nursing, far from it! I do it because experiencing having to do some very basic nursing skills on and with actual patients is a good gut-check as to whether or not you really want to work in nursing precisely because they may end up working in a place where the RN does total patient care and there aren't any CNA or Patient Care Tech personnel around. You make beds, you change and clean patients, you feed them, you take vital signs, you clean rooms, you report things you see to someone "higher up" than you and you answer to them as well. It's not the environment I want them to think about because that can change. It's the interaction with live patients, as "messy" as they can be that needs to be experienced. If you don't want to do CNA, try EMT. Those skills are still very basic and you have some greater autonomy than a CNA does, but it still puts you in the position of directly doing patient care. If you like doing that, then perhaps RN or LVN/LPN might be a good step for you to take.

OP: What you have also found is that some people can be very catty and vindictive over "small" things. You have found that you don't like working in the SNF environment. So you now know that you need to work where you're going to be more supported and with friendly-ish people (or that are at least very professional) and perhaps in an acute care setting. I'm not saying that nursing isn't for you, but you shouldn't just dismiss a potential career that you may enjoy because you found working in a single facility less than satisfying.

Make sense?

[Yvonne2014]

I also did not care much any longer for being a home health aide due to the constant liabilities I was thrown into such as clients not having appropriate transfer equipment, and even not being informed ahead of time of the client's health statuses but now as a nurse working in 2 specialties (one currently being a home health nurse) I love my careers and am thankful everyday that I didn't allow those "short term circumstances" deter me from my goal of becoming a nurse!

[direw0lf, BSN]

Hi as a student nurse myself, I thought you'd like to maybe here my experience.

At first in clinical, ALL I WAS DOING was CNA stuff!! CNA things and trying to get the hand of head-to-toe assessments while doing CNA stuff. And I do kind of think, that you can't exactly hate it, for 2 reasons:

1. Because if you want help from the PCA's and CNA's you can't just say "can you wipe 23's butt" if you are not busy and you see the PCA/CNA are very busy already. I think that's really a bad nurse.

2. It helps the relationship b/t you and your patient. I didn't do much PCA work my last clinical day, because I was shadowing the nurse the whole time and most of that time was spent on medication administration (I was slow). I actually prefer to incorporate more aid work because I felt like it helped me know the patient better and know what they expect from their hospitalization, or their fears, etc. I am just a student though like I said. This is just my very NEW opinion. When I was shadowing the nurse, we were asked for things like soda or coffee and we got them. It was on a cardiac telemetry step down unit.

I have seen a handful of drug addicts. It was harder for me in my OB clinical to hold back my feelings toward the parent of a baby in the NICU with fetal alcohol syndrome or on methodone because he was born addicted to heroin. (but I did not show my feelings, and wouldn't.) The fact you could handle that says something about your character- that it is strong imo.

I'm expecting nurses to eat their young. I was told that when I went to the ED to shadow a nurse, and other nurses have said it. But I also made sure I mentally noted the nurses that were liked and what they were doing!! One time, a nurse stayed after her shift ended and she gave report, to change a dressing as little as that but it was appreciated by the other nurse. Another time in the ED the new nurse was just on top of everything, didn't need to ask what to do next and she helped out patients she wasn't assigned to, and the nurse I shadowed said "we need more like her". So I think you'll see how to get along better, like I hope I can. But for the scheduling mishaps and stuff like that, I'm also expecting stuff to happen, but what we are taught is that no one has the right to abuse or mistreat you whether it's a patient or staff, so we have rights too when things keep happening on a unit that put patients in jeopardy or are treating any staff member unfairly!

[Future-NurseRedHeart]

You might or might not, nurses do some of the work as a CNA but they can do so much more than that. I'll be starting my nursing classes in fall, I'm not much a fan of being a CNA, but I know I'll love nursing. My issue with being a CNA is that we can't do much other than changing briefs, the pay sucks, and asking for proper staffing is a joke. The facility where I did clinical had one CNA taking care of an entire wing of pts (20+) and they made $10hr, good thing I did my clinicals there so I know NOT to work for them!

[quiltynurse56, LPN, LVN]

Maybe or maybe not. The first thing you need to start doing is to leave your biases at the door when you enter a facility. No matter where you work, there are going to be people who don't act in a way that is nice. Do you think that those residents wanted to end up in a care facility at a young age? No they did not. Due to whatever circumstances in their lives, they are there. Some are hurt, angry or even depressed. You go in and do your job in a kind and soothing way.

As far as coworkers go. Well, that one does take time. Though you need to be aware that in a career which is mostly women, you are going to run into cliques and cattiness. No some places this isn't as bad as others. Do your work, offer to help others when they are swamped as this will go a long ways towards fitting in.