My Partner left our patients wet!

ctmed · Dec 20, 2009

This is the reason you should have assigned rooms. Nurses have assigned rooms. You should too. That way there is accountability. I am not saying do not help your fellow CNAs out if they need help lifting or whatnot. I am saying the responsibility for the rooms must be divided up.

Always ask the charge nurse about get-ups and baths (yes, some facilities have night baths.)

You may have been fooled, or just did not know. You will not be fooled or be unknowing again.

Get your experience, learn a bit, and push forward. Nursing can be a catty and cliqueish field in some places.

CNA is a stepping stone. Not a destination. Good Luck!

caliotter3 · Dec 20, 2009

When you determined that she had not completed her rounds was when you should have approached the nurse and asked the nurse to come with you to see for herself. Now that it is out in the open between you and this assistant, don't give her an opportunity to do this again to you. Go to the nurse. It is the nurse's job to supervise all of the CNAs, including the CNA who doesn't like to take care of her residents.

fuzzywuzzy, CNA · Dec 20, 2009

We have someone like that. All the CNAs hate her because she's the most useless person ever, and a bunch of the nurses and all the supervisors like her and think she's competent because she sucks up to them... Hello, you'd think they'd realize all the time she spends sucking up is time spent NOT WORKING!!! A few of the CNAs have either chewed her out of refused to help her, and they were the ones to get in trouble when she went crying to the DON about it. They were written up for not being team players or something. Well people have their own residents to take care of!

One time I was assigned as a float and I told the charge nurse I was going back to the hard hall to help out with last rounds. I get there and this girl had NOTHING done! I think she'd just finished her HS cares and it appeared that most of her people had only been checked once or twice the whole shift. I asked her what she had left to do and she tried telling me that we could mark most of them as dry because she checked them earlier. Um, no, just because they were dry 3 hours ago does not make them dry now. I changed and turned every single one of her residents!

I really hate it when people put "dry" down for everyone. If you're a new CNA or new to a hall then that'll happen for a little while but a lot of people are just lazy!! It really chaps my ass.

eveningsky339, LPN · Dec 20, 2009

I don't mean to be inconsiderate, this other CNA obviously has no business in this line of work, but there was a better way to handle the situation.

Here's what would have been better: Say you had just discovered the other CNA playing on her laptop and the wet patients. At this point, it would have been better to go straight to the charge nurse, inform her that you would like her to see the rooms that the other CNA had taken care of, and show her yourself.

That way-- drinking buddy or not-- the charge nurse would have indisputable proof of neglect on the part of the other CNA.

So, if you encounter this situation again, go to the charge nurse and show her what happened.

CNA2day · Dec 20, 2009

You said that you were new.

For now I would work to establish yourself as a hard worker who takes pride in your job. You know you have to go behind her and check. Make sure you are putting YOUR initials and time on the briefs you change! That will cover you if someone happens! After you are established as a hard worker and respected then I suggest you go to YOUR CNA SUPERVISOR to talk about patients not getting changed. Tell your sup you are concerned because of the possibility of skin breakdown and the development of decubitis ulcers.

Do not go at it from the angle that you have to do all the work and she does none... you will not get anywhere with that. Work isnt always fair and you need to come across as understanding that. Don't sound like you are saying poor me I have to do all the work(even if its the truth). Go at it from the perspective that the patients are not getting the care they need and problems will be developing if it continues.

If you work hard people will notice. Take pride in your cares and make sure that everything is done to the standard you know it should be!

cryswms · Dec 21, 2009

You said that you were new.
For now I would work to establish yourself as a hard worker who takes pride in your job. You know you have to go behind her and check. Make sure you are putting YOUR initials and time on the briefs you change! That will cover you if someone happens! After you are established as a hard worker and respected then I suggest you go to YOUR CNA SUPERVISOR to talk about patients not getting changed. Tell your sup you are concerned because of the possibility of skin breakdown and the development of decubitis ulcers.
Do not go at it from the angle that you have to do all the work and she does none... you will not get anywhere with that. Work isnt always fair and you need to come across as understanding that. Don't sound like you are saying poor me I have to do all the work(even if its the truth). Go at it from the perspective that the patients are not getting the care they need and problems will be developing if it continues.
If you work hard people will notice. Take pride in your cares and make sure that everything is done to the standard you know it should be!

I totally Agree!... I couldn't have said it better myself. Going to the charge nurse and tattling on her won't get you anywhere. You kind of have to work the system you know... play the game. Because you are new you don't want to come off as a tattle tale or someone that doesn't want to be a team player... and because this girl is new and everyone loves her that is exactly how it will seem. They know and trust her right now. You def want to appeal to the patient care aspect and not the "it's just not fair, I have to do it all myself and the other girl does nothing" side. Right now you have to prove yourself and sometimes you may have to suck it up, at least in the beginning.

NM nurse to be · Dec 22, 2009

Great advice in that last post. Prove yourself for a bit, then see what you can do. I TOTALLY second the practice of assigned rooms. "doing the hall together" is not a good plan. And it always hangs the good worker out to dry. I took rounds from the evening shift on the rehab floor, from 2 aides who had done the hall together. The lazy one had skipped out, saying on his way by 'everyone is fine'. Well not so much. I made the other aide stay and change EVERY single wet (and most of them were) resident, including a bed change or two. She was not pleased. But I don't feel bad and I let her do it alone, she earned that one by sharing the load with the biggest slacker in the place.

Who is also the topic of my next rant. Sometimes, no matter how many times an individual gets caught out, NOTHING will happen and they will carry on with their useless self no matter who or how high up the food chain they are catches them SLEEPING. Or worse, and this has happened numerous times, catching them with soaking wet residents, wearing last nights (timed and marked) briefs. And swimming in Bm. And no one can do anything. This one has slept in FRONT of some pretty high ups and again, nothing has happened.

So sometimes, no matter how lazy they are and how much it sucks for their residents, there really isn't anything you can do. And if you squawk too much, you will be the target and not the good guy. It absolutely sucks that this goes on. I rail against it nightly sometimes but all it does is stress me out. I have decided to be resigned to give MY residents the best care that I can and while the others are not, know it's out of my hands.

Take your own rooms and do them to the best of your ability. Do your own documenting and checking and make sure you are visible doing your job well. You are after all, only accountable for yourself and if you have dotted all your I's and crossed the T's, you will be fine. It's hard but developing a thick skin is part of the world, it seems.