What would you have said to this CNA

[zofran]

I was almost done posting this but it went away? Sorry if it comes up twice???

Anyway, I am an RN on a busy day shift med-surg/onc floor. The other day it was crazy. It was about 1400 and I had not eaten or peed. I was starting to feel a bit sick. I told the HUC that I was not feeling well and that I was going to take a quick break to pee and eat something real quick. I told her to tell the CNA I was working with that I was not feeling good, would be back quickly, and to give her this note.

The note said - Take temp in 502 and get water for 507. Thanks

Well when I got back, the CNA working with me was livid. She demanded to talk to me in private. She says (and I quote) "I am not your N-word" (but she says the word if ya know what I mean) "You can't just leave me notes and expect me to do what you say"

I was just so shocked! First that she would use the N word (we are both white) and second, that she seemed to not care that I had to get off the floor for just a few min.

So I end up apologizing to HER, explaining why I left the note, and telling her how bad I had to take a quick break. She really didn't care, didn't even give the water or take the temp, and just talked trash about me for the rest of the shift. I heard her later telling the other cna's that 'she put me in my place"

this type of behavior is so dishearting for me, We should ALL be there to support eachother and the patients. What would you guys have done?

[edowhitetop]

Write her up - now and when it happens again. This CNA has an attitude that definitely does not belong in the art/business of health care. Years ago, a hospitalized friend told me he had requested that a particular nurse not be allowed to have anything to do with him. When I visited some time later, a particular nurse stopped in the doorway to speak with his roommate. I took one look at her and listened to her for maybe half a minute - and said to him, "She's the one you were talking about isn't she?" She was. Her bad attitude was so strong that it seemed to infect the air. This CNA seems to be very similar.

[CNAMichelle]

the CERTIFIED NURSING ASSISTANT(I prefer that title to just simple"tech") should have simply did the task that were ask of her,no biggie. But I also wanted to give a friendly reminder-that CNA'S also have a TON of work to do ,they are also very over worked and under payed,not just"nurses"

[CNAMichelle]

Why are you apologizing to a nursing assistant?

I completely agree that this certiified nursing assistant was out of line......but I dont like the way you made this statement.

[meluhn]

There is a cna where I work that is a constant problem, never does what you ask him, always hides out, ignores it when he is paged, tries to "wait you out" until you finally have to do what you asked him to do a half hour ago, argues with you when you ask him to do something, in short, an absolute nightmare. I used to confront him about it, now I just go straight to the NM office and tell her what he did specifically. She appreciates this because she needs specific examples in order to have the paper trail required to fire him. Apparently you cant just fire someone for being an idiot, you have to document the reasons.

This saves me alot of frustration in dealing with him and actually gets me closer to the goal of gettting this moron fired.

Hope this suggestion helps.

[Amira1978]

Wow! That is crazy. I am a CNA myself and I would have reported her. I respect the nurses that I work with and they respect me as well. I pray that if she was to be ever to become a nurse that no CNA treats her that way because that was totally uncalled for. She should be ashamed of herself. First and foremost she should have be thinking of the patients not herself and did what she was asked. She should have sucked up her pride and if she really had a problem with your note she should have came to you in a professional manner. I have ran into some rude nurses and for the most part I try to get along with them, but you leaving a note was not rude at all.

I think she was a problem with other people being in charge.

Sincerely,

Amira

[heron, ASN, RN]

I had a similar thing happen to me. I was in the middle of a procedure that I couldn't leave and asked a CNA, who was busy chatting on her cell phone, if she would please get a patient's bell that was ringing. She said, "you can do it." She was a filapina, part of the floor clique. After not getting help from this "clique," I asked the DON to meet with us. The meeting amounted to "I can't disipline the whole floor." She said "there was nothing she could do. They were a protected class." I was then fired. I filed a grievance with the union and I won, mainly they had no possible grounds for the firing.

I'm glad that your union was able to help you here. Your DON's response illustrates a pet peeve of mine ... using antidiscrimination law as an excuse to avoid dealing with problem employees. In point of fact, the legislation does NOT establish different job performance standards. Your DON was being flat out lazy ... discrimination lawsuits are not all that easy to win if documentation of job performance is thorough and if management can prove that it's applying the same standard across the board.

Sorry to go a bit OT, but this kind of krep is the reason that affirmative action is a dirty word.

[dhinson45]

AMEN!!!!!!!!!

[Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN]

I just read this whole thread and find it incredible that people are criticizing the OP!!! OK, in a perfect world, a perfect person would have eaten sooner (although I would love to see the PG scores when the screaming patients and families find their nurse calmly munching a cracker while all heck is breaking loose on the floor. For that matter, I would love to see the co-worker's reaction to this). Well, the hospital floor is far from a perfect world and no one is perfect. In a perfect world, the CNA would have been immediately available and the RN could have given her instructions face to face. Again, no situation/person is perfect. THE RN did the best she could given the extremely IMPERFECT situation she was dealing with. Let's try having a little compassion for our fellow caregivers, people!!!

NOTHING that the RN did justifies her being spoken to in that manner by a subordinate. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. There is NOTHING that can justify what the CNA did. She was fired. She got what she deserved, even if the actual firing was a result of something else she did.

As far as the RN apologizing in the moment, I can understand how that happened. When faced with something so incredibly extreme as that, I would have been flabbergasted too. Many times in those situations the mind simply cannot process what is happening, because it is too absurd. In those cases, auto-pilot takes over and we revert to a response that we are comfortable with. For some of us, that would be giving heck right back to the CNA. For others, that would be stammering out an apology (somewhere it is ingrained that if we are being yelled at, we must have done something wrong). EACH of us would have a completely different reaction to this situation. While some may be more PERFECT responses than others, how can you berate someone for doing their best in a completely jacked up situation???

Whew. I feel better. OP, I hope you do as well.

[RedZeppelinRN]

I'm glad that your union was able to help you here. Your DON's response illustrates a pet peeve of mine ... using antidiscrimination law as an excuse to avoid dealing with problem employees. In point of fact, the legislation does NOT establish different job performance standards. Your DON was being flat out lazy ... discrimination lawsuits are not all that easy to win if documentation of job performance is thorough and if management can prove that it's applying the same standard across the board.

Sorry to go a bit OT, but this kind of krep is the reason that affirmative action is a dirty word.

Thanks for your support. I had not thought of the antidiscrimination the lazy supervisor used to avoid the problem. Appreciate that insight. That is why I am going back to school to get a certification in Emergency Room Nursing. It is at a local university and the program is awesome. It gives you just about everything you need to enter into other areas, such as ambulatory care, which I really liked while I was in my refresher course. Sometimes I think about total care nursing, but I didn't think that was such a good way to go either. The last patient I had weighed 236 pounds, and she could not get up to go to the bathroom until she was evaluated by physical therapy. No way did this woman fit on a bed pan, and she peed, and she peed, and she peed. The Charge Nurse did help me once with her. I seriously was planning to quit when they fired me. Not only was I compensated, but HR records were changed to reflect that I quit.

What would I say to this CNA? I would ask her to go with me to the NM and have her job description pulled, and follow it up. Of course, I was treated as a whistleblower. But that has not hurt me, probably because the settlement agreement was pretty strict. Confidential with no "bad language about me and records changed to quit, not fired."

I know the job market is tight right now, but by the time I finish my certification, things will be better (I believe) and along with that the baby boomers will be coming.

As I said before, I am glad you gave me the hint about the lazy nurse manager and discrimination. This will give me a "heads-up" to be more aware of NMs leadership.

Thanks so much.

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

Sounds just like one of the CNAs that takes care of me when she's grouchy. I finally got tired of the nonsense, and told her boss who is my friend.

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

the CERTIFIED NURSING ASSISTANT(I prefer that title to just simple"tech") should have simply did the task that were ask of her,no biggie. But I also wanted to give a friendly reminder-that CNA'S also have a TON of work to do ,they are also very over worked and under payed,not just"nurses"

You're preaching to the choir here. Many of us "nurses" were once CNAs, and have walked in those shoes. But I have to say that as overworked as I often felt as an aide, it pales in comparison to being a nurse. As far as pay, I feel the CNAs in my hospital are compensated appropriately for their level of education and responsibility. However, none of this has a thing to do with the original post.

[firefox828]

I would have reported her to my supervisor. It's not too late; you can still do it. This type of behavior needs to stop, or she will continue to rule.