Made a CNA Mad: Is it better not to help CNA's?

[Nurse Beth]

Dear Nurse Beth,

Last night I made a generally kind CNA mad. It was slow for the nurses so I was helping the aides and I went to a room on my fellow nurse's side thinking the aide was busy in another room. Once I saw her helping the person I asked her if she could help me adjust the person in the other bed and she asked why I was even on that side.

Throughout she made comments on how she is smart. I think she thought I was accusing her of doing a bad job. Is it best not to help aids? Does it appear to be micro managing?

---

Dear Made CNA Mad,

You tried to help and it went all wrong. I would love to hear some CNA points of view (POV) on this.

You say she is a kind person, yet something provoked her. Consider this POV:

• You entered a room that was not yours and offered no explanation for why you were there (boundaries)
  
• You pointed out that his/her patient had an unmet need (criticism)
  
• You interrupted him/her when he/she was busy providing care (insensitive)
  
• You decided that what you wanted done was more urgent than what she was doing (disregard)
  

Ok, that POV may seem harsh, and I purposely made it more extreme than it may have been to make a point.

But try putting yourself in the CNA's shoes to help you understand his/her reaction, which puzzled you.

In your mind, you were going out of your way to help the CNA. You could have just sat at the nurse's station and chatted, right? But...in reality, the CNA didn't feel helped and may have been offended.

Maybe once you were in the room, you were uncomfortable being out of your zone and busied” yourself to decrease your uncomfortableness? Tolerating uncomfortableness when you're trying something new is part of learning new skills.

Try this next time. Visually picture yourself coming alongside your co worker, falling in step with them, and joining in whatever he/she is doing. Walk their path, side by side, as an equal. Ask what you can do. Communicate respect for his/her expertise and acknowledge their experience and skills.

Another exercise is to identify someone you know in real life who is a helpful person (let's call her Kimberly). Kimberly always jumps in when there is something to do, and is comfortable with others. Ask yourself What would Kimberly do, or say, in this situation?”

Keep being a helping person. Just learn to go about it in such a way that others don't misunderstand your intentions.

Best wishes,

Nurse Beth

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

Most of the time I can't stand to just sit:). If my nurse job is done, I'll answer lights. Or do anything to keep me busy. Not being busy happens less and less, but I still do anything I can so I don't have to sit and stare at myself in the computer monitor.

My coworkers don't care. We all know each other. They know I just want a job to do, and don't mind if I do theirs sometimes.

It's the new employees. The ones who interpret my swerving into their territory as judgmental. The ones who're learning about us, as we're learning about them. I've had more than one snappy exchange with a CNA who thinks I'm nosy. Or who thinks, I think, there's something wrong with the way they do things. When all I want to do is stay busy.

When it's obvious I've offended them, I explain my MO, and the old staff just say, "That's just her".

I just continue to do what I do, and they soon figure out "That's just me".

Two things.

I don't continue when the CNA seriously doesn't like it. I understand being new they might think I'm checking on them. Or that I do it my way because I think they're not good enough.

The other is, I've found that usually the really good staff take exception when you do their job.

The staff you don't want to stay are the ones who play on their phones while you do their job. In that situation, I stare at the computer.