I am in a bit of a predicament. I worked as a CNA for 4 years before I fell pregnant and at 8 months my Doctor limited me to 10 pound lifting and my employer wouldn't let me work until after I was released to full lifting. After I had my son I decided to be a stay at home mom and go back to school to become a nurse. I went on and completed my first year of nursing school and decided to stay home with the kids for the time being. Last year I went on to achieve my LPN and took the class and took my NCLEX and passed. I was hired at a long term care facility to work as a LPN last September. About 5 months ago my scheduler asked me if I could help out and work 3 CNA shifts as we were extremely short on aids. I said I would do those 3 shifts. However, over the last 5 months she has taken advantage and on average I work 10 out of 12 shifts a month as a CNA. I had made the decision to do an online LPN to RN bridge program I am starting this month. At this point I need all the nursing experience I can get to help me be successful. Over the last 3 weeks I have asked my scheduler to please not schedule me as a CNA anymore yet it continued. I decided to speak with my DON who stated she was very appreciative of me helping out. I explained to her what I explained to my scheduler and she said she was working on it. The next week, 3 CNA shifts in a row. I have no asked 4 times to please allow me to do the job I was hired for with no luck. There are about 4 of us nurses who are being used as CNA's on a regular basis. There are some nurses who told them if they were scheduled as a CNA they would quit. There are nurses who are newer than I am and were hired after me who don't have to work as a CNA. They are letting PRN nurses work the carts and forcing me to be a CNA. I don't mind helping, don't get me wrong. But 5 months of only getting to do my job 1-2 times a month is getting old. At this point I do not know what to say to my scheduler, DON, or administration about this. I have spoken with the state board and it is legal for me to work do the job but I am not a CNA just a nurse doing the duties (seeing as all CNA duties are nursing duties delegated to them).
Anyway, I was hoping for some feedback in regards to helping me with what I should say. I don't want to quit as I do love the facility. However, It is getting rather frustrating. Seeing as I am a new nurse. In all reality, I became a nurse 11 months ago and out of that time have only been able to work as one for 6 months. Thanks :)
I would start looking for another job if you do not want this to continue. Sadly many employers do not care about their staff and will use and abuse you until you wash out. Then they will do the same thing to the next staff person they hire. I'm glad they are paying you your LPN wage, but you did go to school for your LPN, and even if you are working as a CNA - you are just as accountable as if you were the LPN scheduled to be the nurse for them that day. That is the tricky thing about working for a position that is below your license. You are just as accountable regardless of how you were scheduled that day. Good luck with this mess.
How is she being taken advantage of? She's being paid LPN wages. She's an LPN.
She's being asked to toilet / bathe / dress / feed patients -- all of which are basic nursing care tasks.
She's not being asked to babysit the director's children on her day off, or to provide sexual favors, or to wash the administrator's car. She's being asked to provide care to patients and being paid for it. How is that being taken advantage of?
Scenario 1:
An LPN gets told to work the floor proving only ADL care (80% of the time) after being hired as an LPN. Another LPN performs all aspects of nursing care including delegating to her.
Scenario 2:
An LPN gets hired to work as an LPN and performs all aspects of nursing including ADLs.
One scenario is ok. The other is NOT.
I personally went to school to get a job in which I Assess, diagnose, plan, implement, and evaluate care. I did NOT sign up to only provide ONE type of care, but all of them.
Leaving aside that "technically" LPNs are not to assess, her scope of practice is being way underutilized. She is being prevented from performing in her FULL SCOPE of practice. Regardless of if she is getting paid an LPN wage or not.
How is she being used?
She is being used because clearly most of the other nurses refuse to do this. She still allows it, and her work place is taking advantage of that.
I am in disbelief that I even had to explain that to another nurse.
An LPN gets told to work the floor proving only ADL care (80% of the time) after being hired as an LPN. Another LPN performs all aspects of nursing care including delegating to her.
Scenario 2:
An LPN gets hired to work as an LPN and performs all aspects of nursing including ADLs.
One scenario is ok. The other is NOT.
I personally went to school to get a job in which I Assess, diagnose, plan, implement, and evaluate care. I did NOT sign up to only provide ONE type of care, but all of them.
Leaving aside that "technically" LPNs are not to assess, her scope of practice is being way underutilized. She is being prevented from performing in her FULL SCOPE of practice. Regardless of if she is getting paid an LPN wage or not.
How is she being used?
She is being used because clearly most of the other nurses refuse to do this. She still allows it, and her work place is taking advantage of that.
I am in disbelief that I even had to explain that to another nurse.
I agree. A functioning unit should feature professionals who are working at the top of their scope consistently, not the bottom of it.
You won't progress as an LPN working as a CNA. As others have said, you aren't utilizing the full scope of your skills.
At my previous place of employment, I worked as a CNA twice even though I am a licensed RN and I was hired as an RN. I agreed willingly because the employer was stuck, but I made it clear before accepting the second CNA shift that was the last time. My employer agreed and they knew they could not call me to replace any more CNA shifts. You have to be firm. Wanting to help on the odd occasion is one thing, but they are clearly taking advantage. Learn to say no.
Find another job. When nursing homes don't have coverage, they bring in CNAs from agencies to work the shifts; I've never heard of a nurse being recruited to do CNA work. They're taking advantage of you because you didn't put your foot down when they first asked you to do CNA work. If a job asked that of me, I'd drop dead from laughing, so would any self-respecting nurse.
Find another job. When nursing homes don't have coverage, they bring in CNAs from agencies to work the shifts; I've never heard of a nurse being recruited to do CNA work. They're taking advantage of you because you didn't put your foot down when they first asked you to do CNA work. If a job asked that of me, I'd drop dead from laughing, so would any self-respecting nurse.
Umm, with all due respect...no. Cut the direspecting 'self-respecting nurse' sillyness. What do you mean by that term, anyway? Lots of nurses do CNA work on a regular daily basis...it's all patient care. I did it for both that reason and the extra money.
I was a self-respecting nurse who did a poop-ton of OT covering for CNAs. I started by doing it on three occassions when someone was out (It got me a nice extra chunk of bonus change and moved my name farther down the nurse mandation list. The CNAs were thankful, and it helped the nurse on duty). Once I knew I would be leaving within the next few months (I had a line on a good job returning in my pre-nursing career field), I picked up all the open CNA shifts I could. Almost all were dayshift with my LPN shift directly following. The money was beacoup crazy. I wanted to stack as much cash as I could before I left and at the same time, I hated being mandated (it would put me into overnights, which I loathe). I made several extra thousand $$$ doing this, and went about 5 months without being mandated.
I know understaffing and subsequent mandation is the mantra of ltc, and they may have hired someone else or brought in agency if I hadn't worked the open shifts; but here again, I was leaving and I made the system work for me.
If a nurse doesn't want to be doing CNA work, it is on them if they allow themselves to be doormatted into it. One has to stand up for oneself. But one can also take advantage and make it work in their favor. The stars aligned for me (as I was leaving ltc) and taking as much extra money with me was just icing on the cake.
Umm, with all due respect...no. Cut the direspecting 'self-respecting nurse' sillyness. What do you mean by that term, anyway? Lots of nurses do CNA work on a regular daily basis...it's all patient care. I did it for both that reason and the extra money.
I was a self-respecting nurse who did a poop-ton of OT covering for CNAs. I started by doing it on three occassions when someone was out (It got me a nice extra chunk of bonus change and moved my name farther down the nurse mandation list. The CNAs were thankful, and it helped the nurse on duty). Once I knew I would be leaving within the next few months (I had a line on a good job returning in my pre-nursing career field), I picked up all the open CNA shifts I could. Almost all were dayshift with my LPN shift directly following. The money was beacoup crazy. I wanted to stack as much cash as I could before I left and at the same time, I hated being mandated (it would put me into overnights, which I loathe). I made several extra thousand $$$ doing this, and went about 5 months without being mandated.
I know understaffing and subsequent mandation is the mantra of ltc, and they may have hired someone else or brought in agency if I hadn't worked the open shifts; but here again, I was leaving and I made the system work for me.
If a nurse doesn't want to be doing CNA work, it is on them if they allow themselves to be doormatted into it. One has to stand up for oneself. But one can also take advantage and make it work in their favor. The stars aligned for me (as I was leaving ltc) and taking as much extra money with me was just icing on the cake.
*shrug* Whatever. If you want to break your back that's on you. There's easier jobs than slaving away at an LTC trying to take advantage of you. Feel free to work hard and not smart......
Yeah but like I said I made it work for me...long as I was leaving, I figured 'hey I want some extra cash and I hate hate hate mandation (the whole nightshift thing), so I'll just pick up what I can ... My back is strong (no, really, farm-girl/factory gal here) so I made it through, coming out the other side in much better shape (and smarter) than I went in, and I got to leave ltc with a hell of a lot more $$ and right into a much better career all around. Yeah, I'm feelin' pretty free and smart in a higher paying job with much better benes and no more ltc bs. Win/win.
I have not read through the comments, so I hope I'm not repeating anyone; i suggest that if you say that you like your job where you are, then you need leverage to get what you want.
You get leverage by going out and getting an offer on another job and tell them that if they won't put something in writing that you work the majority of your shift on the med cat/etc, then they will have a hole to fill.
I once worked at a LTC facility as a weekend nurse only. I had a full time job during the week at a rural health clinic, and was picking up extra work doing two 12 hour shifts every other weekend to earn some extra cash. I did my job faithfully for over a year and never missed once shift; all of a sudden we were told all the CNA's just walked out and we were asked to pick up a group of residents for basic care AND continue to perform our nursing duties (medication passes, assessments, charting, skin care/treatments/body audits, etc.) until more could be hired. I agreed, and did this every weekend I worked for a period of around six months. Now, in six months time, if you as an admin and DON cannot find competent CNAs to work, there's an issue. I politely asked the DON if there was going to be and end in sight to this double work (as I was doing double duty, but only getting my nursing pay) and she LAUGHED. She laughed. She thought it was cute that I saw this as a temporary problem. I left that day feeling awful. Turns out, I (among others) was breaking my back not wanting my residents to suffer while the senior staffing and admin were soaking up the extra money they'd saved and patting themselves on the back for coming up with a solution to save corporate fat cats money and rake in fat bonuses. I turned in my notice and never looked back. While I, even after 25+ years in, would NEVER refuse to toilet someone, lift someone, feed someone, perform peri care/incontinent care, or anything else a CNA typically does during a shift, there has to be some kind of limit to what admin forces nurses who have sacrificed time and effort to educate themselves and further their career goals, to do. Just my opinion.
xoemmylouox, ASN, RN
3,150 Posts
I would start looking for another job if you do not want this to continue. Sadly many employers do not care about their staff and will use and abuse you until you wash out. Then they will do the same thing to the next staff person they hire. I'm glad they are paying you your LPN wage, but you did go to school for your LPN, and even if you are working as a CNA - you are just as accountable as if you were the LPN scheduled to be the nurse for them that day. That is the tricky thing about working for a position that is below your license. You are just as accountable regardless of how you were scheduled that day. Good luck with this mess.