Hi all! I am not sure if I am posting this in the right area of the this site (I am a nub)
But I was talking to my girl friend and apparantly the new RN interns at the hospital dont want to do the basic cna stuff. This includes wiping butts, showering patients etc etc. Thoughts on this? I was pretty annoyed with what she told me. I got my cna and busted my butt off in clinicals ( I was the only male out of a class of 18 so I had to do my best) but its really annoying. According to there logic "There RN's so they SHOULDNT do the jobs that the CNA do"
Like me my gf was astonish by those words. I mean yes at times its disgusting but the job has to be done. My gf's mom is a charge nurse and she helps out her CNA's when they need it.
So what do you think? I personally dont mind wiping/ cleaning. The smells are gut wrenching at times but you do what you got to do.
Wow I wonder how they treat their CNAs. Our first clinical ever our clinical instructor and our lecture one both instilled in us that we are not above anyone in terms of giving respect and that poo patrol is not beneath us. I learned a lot form the CNAs and techs during my rotations and while one day they may report to me it doesn't mean I'm better than them and I won't have to do that sort of thing anymore. I mean what if you are on a unit that doesn't have CNAs or techs and your patient soiled the bed big time and/or needs a bed bath? You cannot leave someone like that its unthinkable from a human being standpoint not to mention probably constitutes patient negligence. Besides having been a tech myself and reporting to the docs I know I'd go above and beyond for those that treated me like a person while everyone including the residents would avoid the one who yelled, ordered everyone around just generally left a bunch of befuddled, angry, and upset people in his wake.
Been an RN for >30 years, BSN and MSN, and I spent several hours my last shift cleaning stool. Multiple times. While monitoring my cardiac gtts. Sometimes with help from the charge nurse, sometimes with a tech, and some all by my lonesome. Anyone who leaves a pt in a soiled bed is not a nurse. All they did was pass a test.
Yes! This exactly. My instructors would have our heads for bowling balls if we even implied that our patients' basic care was somehow beneath us. Like analyzing a patient's state of wellness can be done from across the room?!
Wow, appalling. I think learning to be a nurse should be from the ground up so to speak. No person ever won a spelling bee without first learning the alphabet. What happens if your CNA calls in sick, or the patients on your floor catch the flu and make a larger mess than normal. What if your laboring patient poops a bit from contractions etc. There are things that just can't wait for a CNA to be there for. It is scary that some people think that way. Nursing is caring for a person, in its essence. Kinda like marriage . For better or for worse, in vomit and in poop, til your good health does us part, or death, grander, etc. Making someone wait, because a diaper change isn't in your job description is cruel and anyone who does that should be tossed out of the job. JMO
Agree totally here - Nursing is CARING for your patients regardless!!!
Not willing to do the "dirty work" huh? Interesting. I was a nursing assistant for 6 years. I am now in the home stretch of nursing school and that's pretty much ALL we do at clinicals. We have one med pass a week and the rest is patient care. Let me just say that more and more, hospitals especially are leaning towards LPN'S and RN's doing the "dirty work" so we might as well suck it up, roll up our sleeves and do it. As far as I'm concerned...aside from all the charting and the meds and all the other crap that is expected of us...my number one priority is taking care of the patient. Whether that means giving meds, calling a doctor, getting a cup of ice or wiping their butt. I'm no better than anyone else when it comes to that. Period. I despise nurses who think they are. Go into administration and sit on a computer and in meetings all day. Otherwise, grab some wipes and some clean sheets. You're here for a reason.
This topic has been beaten into the ground. Of course nurses do patient care, and "wipe butts." When a LPN or RN is doing HHC or private duty, what do you think they do? If you are nurse and CNA for a patient, guess what. You're gonna wipe butts and clean up puke and urine, etc, etc. That is also what nursing school is......grunt work. You get to do the VS and showers, total patient care, meds and charting so the CNA's and RN's who are earning the paycheck get a break, and you get to learn. Not everyone thinks nursing is as its portrayed on TV......or, I would hope not!
In my LPN program we all had to be CNA's to get in. During LPN clinicals, No I did not want to make a million beds and give a million showers, and change a million diapers... I had already learned that. What I wanted to concentrate on was the LPN skills that were new. When I began working as an LPN I did help my CNAs and put people on the toilet, changed diapers, helped with bedbaths, and helped feed in the diningroom while other nurses stood by and wouldn't do the "dirty work", could I do it all the time and every time that it needed to be done, NO because I had to do my own work, which yeah is pretty hard when you have 30 patients. Now that I am in RN clinicals, No I don't want to pass pills, take accuchecks, make beds, change diapers, or give showers either. I want to learn the things and skills that are new to me and that I need to learn to advance my career.
But I also know that when I get that RN and BSN that I will be responsible for my WHOLE patient, and yeah that includes the yucky parts at times. Those that believe otherwise are sadly disillusioned.
And those students will get a wake-up call when they become RNs. CNAs are AWESOME. I'm a few months from graduation, but I can tell you now, if you treat your CNAs like that, and you think certain tasks are beneath you...you will find CNAs that aren't so willing to help you out. If you help your CNAs out when you can, they will bend over backwards to help you. You are a team, even if the RN is "over" the CNAs, you can't effectively care for patients with that kind of attitude.
I help my CNAs transfer, turn patients, take them to the BR when they are not available. But I am not going to do all their work, that's why we have CNAs. It is called team work.
I just started nursing school and I fully expect to do the "dirty work" that the CNAs have to do not only throughout school but also after. Yeah its not pleasant but if nurses can't be bothered to do that, they should switch careers. If I was the CNA at that hospital, I would be quite upset to have to work under people that think they are too good for the most basic nursing tasks. Plus most CNAs have to juggle a lot of patients and don't have to time to clean everyone up right when they need to. Its common courtesy to give them a hand, not just to help out a fellow coworker, but also to provide better/quicker care for the patient. If you're a nurse who doesn't want to get your hands dirty, find a new profession.
While I find it completely unacceptable for someone to state that they are above doing "dirty work", when I worked on a med/onc floor, it would have been impossible for me to change every bed and toilet every patient when I had eight to ten patients to do RN work on. Without delegation, you will drown. Isn't the point of having a CNA to have someone available to do those things when you are busy with a med pass, or calling the MD, or any of the other things that can't be delegated?
Yes, that is the point. What we are saying is anything a CNA can do, the nurse had better be able and willing to do as well. We delegate those tasks that don't require a license, but having the license does not exempt you from ever having to do it.
Nolli
236 Posts
Wow I wonder how they treat their CNAs. Our first clinical ever our clinical instructor and our lecture one both instilled in us that we are not above anyone in terms of giving respect and that poo patrol is not beneath us. I learned a lot form the CNAs and techs during my rotations and while one day they may report to me it doesn't mean I'm better than them and I won't have to do that sort of thing anymore. I mean what if you are on a unit that doesn't have CNAs or techs and your patient soiled the bed big time and/or needs a bed bath? You cannot leave someone like that its unthinkable from a human being standpoint not to mention probably constitutes patient negligence. Besides having been a tech myself and reporting to the docs I know I'd go above and beyond for those that treated me like a person while everyone including the residents would avoid the one who yelled, ordered everyone around just generally left a bunch of befuddled, angry, and upset people in his wake.