lazy mean assistants

Nurses General Nursing

Published

This morning while I was trying to calculate I/O's, admin meds, cover fingersticks, etc...the end of shift duties, I asked my assistant if she had emptied the NG and colostomy and f/c in room 6. She said "nope". I asked her if she would do it. She said "nope, I wont." So I asked her why not. She said that the assistant-trainee needs to do it (this assistant is training her). Now normally I do this stuff myself because it always turned into a confrontation when I asked them to do anything. Well, this assistant-trainee doesnt know how to do it, she says she has never been shown how to. At this point, it was just easier to do it myself. But the rude assistant wouldnt leave it alone. She yelled at me in front of the entrie nurses station about how these new people need to do their job or find another one, that I need to go and show her how to do it! Umm, excuse me? It isnt my job to train the assistants. Im doing my job and its hard enough. Then she follows me to the medcart to argue with me some more. She gets mad and walks off yelling at me. Ya know, when she is swamped or busy, I always helped her do her blood draws, empty trash. I tried to work as a team. But apparently thats what is EXPECTED of me now. When I need help, there is no help to be found. Another nurse is the one who has to help me clean a patient who is a complete when they have a bm in the bed. The assistants on our floor will not clean a patient, will not empty f/c's, will not do any I/O's, they want to skip out on the vitals by asking "which patients do you have to have vitals on." I never ask an assistant to help me, because I get yelled at! The answer is "I dont have time." One day I had a shot in one hand and a cup of pills in the other and was going to a patient's room when another patient called out needing to go to the bathroom. Who do you think had to go...ME. I had to put the meds back in the medcart and go assist this patient to the bsc because the assistant didnt have time (she was standing at the nurses station talking). Ive gone to my nurse manager several times, as have many other nurses. It doesnt do any good. We are short staffed, which allows this behavior to continue. Im ready to QUIT but if I dont figure out how to handle this now, it will happen again at my next job. I dont know how to be assertive. This assistant has worked on this floor for 17years, Ive only worked there for 2 1/2 years. She literally thinks her role is more important than anyone elses. How would you handle an aggressive assistant like her?

I failed psych nursing this summer, I have to take two classes to bring up my gpa so I'll start in January to do this. I won't be able to start nursing school again til this august '08. This isn't the worse part, because they've changed the curriculum I have to take two classes that I've already taken I only have one more chance and I'm scared not only that I'll fail again but taking the two classes that I've already passed increases my chances of failing I think.

Specializes in Med Surg, Hospice.

Last week, I came in to work 3-11 and found the nurses at the nursing station in an uproar... and about 3 of them so mad they were about to spit nails. The one LPN told me to put my helmet on because it was going to be a rough ride until 7:00. Then I heard the whole story. The aide that I was replacing (according to the nurses) "Did nothing all day except take vitals." Then I heard "She faked her I&O's, wouldn't and didn't empty Foleys" and a whole other laundry list of things including not giving the patients baths. On my floor, baths is one of the most important priorities, and if you don't give a patient one, you'd better have a pretty good reason.

Then the nurse told me that she told the nurse doing the most complaining that she needed to write up the aide. Nurse wouldn't (or didn't) do it. Basically, this aide did not do her job and got away with it. This isn't right.

As a nursing student who worked as an aide over the summer, I had the opportunity to kind of see this from both angles. While I really sympathize with nurses who are frustrated by poor work ethics on the part of aides, I just wanted to add that, as an aide, I have never worked quite so hard for so little respect in my entire life. The lack of respect did not come from patients, families, or anyone but from the nurses themselves. Of course I'm not making any general statement about nurses but in my short experience I found the nurses on my unit to be unwilling to communicate with me and woulddismiss me if I brought certain things to their attention. I felt pretty value- less ( is that a word?) to the nurses although I rarely got a break, did back-breaking physical labor, cleaned up c**p all day, and in general ran around like crazy to make my patients more comfortable and the nurses' jobs less taxing. My own morale was pretty low and my respect for women who had been aids for twenty or more years was never higher. My point is that these aids work very very hard for little money and little respect and I think it is easy for many people to dismiss them because they "have no education" or because their job description involves physical labor rather than critical thinking skills. But until nurses begin to treat their very hardworking aids as valued and respected, they can not expect aids to have the same level of dedication to them.. just my opinion and it may seem naive but I really think sometimes nurses' attitudes need adjustment. Please don't take any of this the wrong way- I'm 8 months away from becoming an RN myself- I hope- and I am in no way putting down all nurses or saying all aids are great. Just some observations I noted while working as an aid after being a student nurse for a year. The nicer you are to people, the more willing they will be to help you out.

Absolutely!!! I am with you 100% on this! 100% I am working as a CNAII while in nursing school and I can go on and on about the lack of respect that we all get. I understand that as a nursing assistant we are suppose to help the nurses with the patients, but a lot of nurses take this to mean that we are just suppose to handle the "dirty work." It was nurses like this that made me not want to be a nurse at all. What they don't understand is that when a pt calls to go to the bathroom or something like that, they won't be helping the assistant, they will be helping the PATIENT! If you come across any bitter assistants, they are more than likely bitter because with all the work that they do, they get hardly any respect or appreciation. Also, they have probably come across more than a few lazy and arrogant nurses who have distored their perception of the entire nursing population. And to the NM who attributed the mean behavior to lack of education, she is, yet, another example of arroagance and ignorance. Everyone, both nurses and assistants alike, are suppose to be there for the patients. And the amount of education or money that you make should not dictate how much you are actually willing to do in order to help the patient.

Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

Nurses are also treated like crap by managers and administration. What adds to the pressure is that the nurse is the one who will ultimately have to answer to patient neglect, whether she was present or not.

I have had my share of CNAs that have been beligerent towards me, especially since I was one myself up to a year and a half ago. Now, being an LPN, I have had to tell them that this is a brand new day, a new job for me and new responsibilities. I do try to bring them in on what is happening and the importance of their input in patient care. Most times, they get on board. But, I have also seen managers turn a blind eye towards the complaints that the nurses make on the aides that have a negative impact on patient care. This does make things very hard to deal with.

Specializes in dialysis.
Talking to her obviously does nothing. Document these incidents. Her behavior of following you around is not only unprofessional but hostile. You need to talk to your NM about this. Yes, it might make things worse with this assistant but she's creating more work for you. If other nurses are having the same problem, get them on board too, if they have the courage.

I've seen some units where nurses are so cowed by the assistants that the assitants literally run the place. That's not how it's supposed to be. Each person has a specific job to do, and you're supposed to do.

iIAM SURPRISED AT THE SILLY ANSWERS. YOUR NEXT STEP IS TO GO TO YOUR BOSSES BOSS (DIRECTOR, ASST DIRECTOR, MED SURG DIRECTOR, HR, ETC.) YOU TAKE YOUR PICK. IN FACT GO WITH SOMEONE ELSE TO SHOW THAT YOUR MANAGER IS NOT DOING HER JOB AND TAKING YOUR STRESSES SERIOUSLY. AARE YOU READY FOR THAT UNCOMFORTABEL STEP. IF NOT THEN IT DOESNT HURT BAD ENOUGH DEAR.:twocents:

Specializes in LTC.

i have worked with hard working cna's that always did what i asked with a pleasant attitude but when i was off my relief had huge problems with the same girls that i was so pleased with. i asked them point blank why they did this to her. she was a nice nurse and good at her job. thier reply was that she did not repect them or make any effort to help them. i expained to them that it is not always possible for a nurse who is dealing with 35residents,meds,docters,labs,fmly,charting,and overseeing the care given by the cna to drop everything to help empty cath bags. althou i do when i can. i found out that a good many cna thought when a nurse was at the station she is just doing nothing. true in some cases but not in this one. i also talked to the nurse and told her what they were saying. the next week she was near a room when the cna was pulling a resident up in bed. the nurse locked her cart and took just a minute to offer assist and she and the cna were like best buddies. these small things spread and before you knew it all was good. this case turned out with a happy ending however i know cna that no amount of meeting in the middle would work with and for those there is only one way to handle it. give them directions to the unemployment office. hall them into your don office for every occurance and she /he will put a stop to it.

Specializes in LTC.

sorry about the spelling im tired.

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