In Praise of My CNA's

[CareteamRN70]

one of the last shifts i worked (third shift with 2 mixed units sub acute and rehab) we were short handed and i had just one cna. my aide started off the shift abit irritated at working by herself and made me aware of it in no uncertain terms. my first thoughts was "oh boy, gonna be a real fun shift with this one"...and you know what? i was right.

background: i am a new rn with about 4 months experience working in ltc. i was recently switched from evenings to nights where in the best of times it's 1 rn and 2 aides for about 30-40+ residents and being mixed sub acute/rehab various levels of acuity. so far it seems like typical ltc expectations..they give you 8 hours to complete 12 hours worth of work. it's still better then my very first job of 55+ residents noc with 1 or 2 aides.

back to my last night with 1 aide, i'll call her "shirley". after she vented for abit we talked about the shift and what we had to get done. since we were short i told her my expectations were resident safety, dry and clean residents, and mandatory aide charting (i/o's, incont/cont, bm's, etc)....if trash cans didn't get changed out, or other non-resident focused things didn't get done i didn't care since we were short handed. i said i would take any fallout from these things not getting done as i had set the priorities for the shift.

after that the night was a breeze. shirley worked hard and focused on the residents needs, i pitched in with some toileting call lights and q2 turns, and we both ended up having a really great night. i was impressed with the quality of her work even with her venting at shift start.

it got me to thinking about the other cna's i work with. a few are...well..lazy..but the bulk of them are very hard working, take their job's very serious, and have positive attitudes even during the worst of situations. i don't begrudge them venting to me about why things are screwed up sometimes with a shift (they normally are right).

i had to turn in shirley's report sheet at the end of the shift and i added my praise below my signature to let the unit managers know about my pleasure of working with shirley.

now, i have a question for aides or other nurses. verbal praise of doing ones job well is always welcome, written praise passed up to those who have some control over raises is better, but i was wondering if i can do better.

i have 4 cna's i work with quite often that really impress me shift to shift. i was wondering what would be an appropriate way to let them know i appreciate their work. i can get discount movie tickets for first run movies and thought about getting them each 2 tickets, i donate blood often and have been given several gift cards for local restaurants for doing so. i have also just thought about one night bringing in pizzas for everyone (all aides).

some of my friends have disagreed with this stating i would cause harm to my unit (hurt feelings from the aides who did not receive anything from me), other's have stated it's not my job to praise cna's that's the unit managers job, and others think verbal praise and the pizza for everyone on the unit is best.

what do you think?

big j

semper fi

[tomc5555]

The pizza idea is great and inclusive.

[scottcna]

The pizza idea is okay...but as a great CNA myself, if a nurse gave pizza to EVERYONE, lazy CNAs included, the gesture would just lose all meaning to me. I'd say if you feel the need to reward or appreciate your "special" CNAs, do something individually for them. If your worried about offending the other ones, do it quietly before or after a shift. Although, I would just do it right in front of them. Maybe it would serve to motivate some of them...

[kserasera]

The pizza idea is okay...but as a great CNA myself, if a nurse gave pizza to EVERYONE, lazy CNAs included, the gesture would just lose all meaning to me. I'd say if you feel the need to reward or appreciate your "special" CNAs, do something individually for them. If your worried about offending the other ones, do it quietly before or after a shift. Although, I would just do it right in front of them. Maybe it would serve to motivate some of them...

I agree with you. Pizza is great but for the lazy ones it just means that they can continue being lazy.

I would like to praise you as a RN that you actually notice and appreciate your CNA's hard work. From my experiences, not many RNs appreciate or notice their aides hard work. It's mostly who is friends with who that gets appreciated.