Is it me or the nursing home/staff?

CoffeemateCNA · Apr 11, 2010

You're not alone. It took me several weeks of working before I was even somewhat comfortable transferring residents. I recall almost dropping several people on my first day. Transferring takes a lot of practice and experience. But, it's not hard to learn. I promise.

Ask for assistance from your other coworkers. Unless you specifically let them know that you are inexperienced and need some help learning how to transfer, they will assume you know exactly what you're doing. Believe me, you don't want any more skin tears to happen. It's bad for the residents and for you.

Unfortunately, I have never worked at a nursing home that was "by the book." There is very little you can do to change it except to "go by the book" yourself and hope that you will rub off on others.

It is terrible, but we work in a field where coworkers think it is perfectly acceptable to berate and discourage one another. Keep your chin up and push through. Your first few months as a CNA will be hard -- but there IS a light at the end of the tunnel. :)

cincymom96 · Apr 11, 2010

Jenny84 do not let these unprofessional people get you down. I am assumimg you have gone into STNA to help you proceed to being a nurse. I hope I am correct because you sound like a very caring individual. When I first started in a nursing home fresh from clinicals I was pretty much the same way you are not exactly sure what people expected of me. It gets better the more you do things. My trick for doing transfer was I called the shots. if i was helping someone with transfers i would tell the other aide what I planned to do if they wanted to do it another way i would listen but i would make sure before starting the transfer we were on the same page. Now I know there are those who are not easy to work with you just have to show them you are confident in your abilty and they will get the hint. Also If I am correct and you are going onto nursing start now looking for a PCA position at a hospital you will gain vast more experiance, the coworkers are much more professional and helpful plus the benifits are fabulous. hope this helps.

Faro · Apr 11, 2010

And if worse comes to worse, if you don't like that nursing home, just quit. Plenty of job openings for experienced CNAs even with a few months of experience under your belt. My first gig was with a SNF that was family owned and operated which meant jackshit when it came to professionalism. The DON was an unapproachable *****, the nursing staff barely spoke decent english and lazy as hell and loved pointing fingers and never gave support. It trickled down to the staff, hence the high turn over of CNAs.

Remember, Nurses need you more than you need them. Unless you're at a real professional workplace and are making good money.

jenny84 · Apr 11, 2010

Thanks for the replies! I feel a little bit better...I do want to be a nurse and I want do know everything. I am trying really hard to learn everything. I like the idea about calling the shots instead, maybe I will try that. I guess I'll just have to give it sometime. I got an interview with a hospital the first day I had a job at the nursing home so....I'll keep pushing. As far the other people.....I dunno know! I just wish they would wash their hands (they use the germex stuff but I've never seen them wash their hands) ack!

eveningsky339, LPN · Apr 12, 2010

This may be a little extreme, but I advise you to leave the nursing home ASAP and go to work at the hospital. The CNAs in hospitals tend to be much nicer and more professional.

fuzzywuzzy, CNA · Apr 12, 2010

There's not enough time to go by the book with everything.

The more you lift, the better you should be at doing it.