Nurses will do the CNA job

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I heard that some hospitals are requiring nurses do the cna jobs. Just want to know if this is true or not.

Yes, my friend works in and ICU without aides. The nurses do everything. My unit does have aides, and if they decided to do away with them, I think it would be detrimental to both patient care and nurse retention.

When we are expected to do total care on 5 - 6 patients - and face it, almost everyone is total care these days - it's an impossibility to do it right without aides. Unfortunately, as the acuity levels rise as the population ages, staffing levels continue to drop. I always like having 3 fall risks at other ends of the floor. Makes the day special.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

And that is exactly what will drive me from the bedside, if anything. It's not the patients, it's not the families, it's not the doctors or the incessant phone calls, or my coworkers, it's the lack of adequate help and being overworked and having to fight for my meal break, that will make me leave bedside nursing.

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

When I was CNA I had an LPN come in to where I was cleaning up a resident that had a very large BM and say " I've been looking for you for 15 minutes. Ms. So and so needs a drink of water." Before I thought, I said, " well are your arms broke?" I immediately thought -insubordination=lost job, but she simply turned around and went to give the woman some water. I decided that if I ever got my LPN or RN, that I would never be like that. WE should all work together as many of you have said already.

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Specializes in Mental Health, Surgical-Ortho.

If facilites want to do away with aides they better limit patient to nurse ratios. In the hospital I work they are usually 6:1!!! No way anyone can bathe, toilet, feed, complete q4 vitals, turn, reposition and clean up after 6 patients!

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Specializes in NICU.
I heard that some hospitals are requiring nurses do the cna jobs. Just want to know if this is true or not.

Nurses have always done "CNA jobs." If the reverse were true, it may be a problem.

My unit does not typically use CNA's for patient care. Our techs/CNA's (when we are fortunate enough to have them) do a lot of housekeeping and stocking. We've actually had techs from other floors refuse to do the regular CNA's jobs. After all....that's "not what they went to school for."

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hmm every single thing that a NA would be doing IS a nurse's job....they were the origingal UAP....and were, and are, a cost cutting option for the business (hosp/nrsg home).....and yes it is too bad the CNA didnt see this coming......i would think they will address in the future

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Specializes in Med Surg, Nursing Administration for SNF.
COMMMMMON YOU GUYS!!!! Wakie Wakie!! Dont be blinded by your compassion and goodness! Sure, we'll help, sure we'll get into the trenches. No problem. Most of us have no issues with bathing a patient - and with loving and kind strokes at that, or helping someone dress or walk to the BR, feeding them, or even emptying a BP. Not surprising as alot of us have a teeensy bit of "caretaker" issues going on. Yep, thats us, you dont even have to ask the magority of us. Screw lunch. HOWEVER - cutting staffing costs at the risk of med errors and shoddy nursing is UNACCEPTABLE! We MUST stand up for our TIME. It's bad enough that most of us barely have time to do the job we would LIKE to do without eight hours turning into nine or ten and never taking breaks. The demands keep coming. As long as we do what is expected, expect the bar to be raised. Administration and Corporate Management will continue to cut staffing as a way to make up for the deficits imposed by managed care, Medicaid cuts and Medicare spending and meanwhile med errors continue to rise as a leading cause of death. Sorry im shouting guys but I feel strongly about this issue, it is the exact reason I left bedside nursing. I believe most of us are nurses because we are inherently kind and loving beings - but I want to scream when I see our goodness being taken advantage of!! Ok I'll duck now. (be gentle ok?):chuckle

Yep. THAT is what I was TRYING to say. (is it not all about ME? :wink2:) ?? Anyone out there with some ideas on how to stay in the solution? If I were to even mention the work "union", I would probably be terminated. Not kidding - (here in Fla.)

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What you said is what I was alluding to. Yes it is my own job, but the duties we do ARE your job. Someone just decided some of those things nurses used to do, and some still have too, could be done by CNAs.

I was saying that what we do as CNAs IS a nurses job or they wouldn't teach it to you...

It's like a teacher and TA. The TA's job is basically the part of the teacher's job. The teacher just gives some of it to the TA to assist. The TA could not do the Teacher's full job though... Same with nurses and CNAs.

I never said CNAs were there to do your whole job but what CNA's do is part of your job. Some hospitals give that portion of YOUR job to Techs/CNAs and some don't... That is why nurses are responsible.

You can delegate tasks but NOT responsibility. Some of YOUR tasks come to me but you retain the responsibilty. Which is why I do right by my patients AND my nurses...

My initial point was Stanley, that a CNA IS hired to do their own job, despite the fact that as a nurse I am perfectly qualified to all that is in their job description. As an RN, I am only the "defacto" supervisor, meaning I can be held accountable and responsible for them by the SBON and in a court of law, despite the fact that I am unable to act in a manner as a true supervisor would in regards to working with them. If I have an issue with how a CNA does their job, I have to take it to my superior and it will be up to my superior whether they deal with that issue or not. This is one area I think SBONs, state legislature, nursing organizations, et al have done a huge disservice to nurses. Basically I feel that they have made nurses responsible and accountable without providing them the authority and autonomy necessary for that position.

Their job isn't to make mine easier. Their job description specifies what their job entails, again as a "defacto" supervisor, a description I had no input in. That's really not delegation in the true sense of the word, although that is exacly what I will be held accountable for.

You may consider the duties a CNA does as MY job, but I don't. No, I don't see the CNA as an extension or assistant to me. If it's MY job, than what are they doing there? No, I don't view it as a portion of my job being given to them, but I do see their job as one that has been created because there was a need. Like many jobs in many businesses, a role was created because there was a need or because of the expansion or change of a specific role and a there was a need to accommodate that expansion or change. Like a lot of jobs created under such circumstances, the role of the CNA works in tandem to the nurse. It's similar to the TA teacher scenario. My responsibility when it comes to a CNA doing their job is to ensure that they are performing their job in a competent and capable manner, yet again, as a "defacto" supervisor, I can only report problems in that area to my immediate superior who decides whether to act on any problems I report and it is that superior who will decide whether to hold them accountable and responsible regarding their job. Within the facility that employs them, they can be held accountable and responsible for their job, I'm just not the authority they answer to. As a "defacto" supervisor, I'm the one that may have to answer for their actions or inactions and be held responsible and accountability for them in a court of law or with the SBON.

It's threefold why we are taught the basics of care that are the CNAs jobs. One, is how can I ensure they are doing their job in a competent and capable manner if I don't know how it's done. Two, realistically I will have to step in and do their job if they are not available. This is true of any job created to work in tandem with another, what one is not available to do, the other can. Nursing is an exception, I can step in and do a CNAs job, but a CNA can't step in to cover mine. Nor is the balance of accountability and responsiblity so unbalanced as it is in nursing with a tandem situation. Three, if I'm in an area or facility that doesn't employ CNAs than it is MY job.

You know Stanley, I do think there are only just certain differences in our opinions here, but there are a lot of similarities in the line of thinking.:specs:

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This may make me unpopular around here, but I really dislike how so many nurses feel that they have to qualify their need for help by stating "I don't think I'm above it, and I help out whenever I can.". That really irks me. It's not about being above wiping a butt or feeding a person or filling a water pitcher. I shouldn't have to defend myself from being thought of as "that nurse" simply because I don't want to get bogged down in doing those things, when we have CNAs whose job it is to do those things, so that we can focus on the things that cannot be delegated.

I was a CNA once, and I know what the job is like, and it's only demeaning if you let it be. Yes, it only takes a few minutes for the nurse to get a warm blanket or fill up a water pitcher, but when you're doing those things over the course of the shift, the time really adds up.

No it's not about being above wiping a butt or feeding a person or filling a water pitcher. You're right we shouldn't have to qualify our need for help. The problem really is not having enough of the appropriate staff for patient needs and everybody being overworked and overwhelmed and reaction to that.

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Here in California, since ratios were passed, CNA's have been fired in many hospitals and nurses do all the work.

Sometimes we shoot ourselves in the foot.

steph

Thanks for that information. Nurse staffing ratios is not a hot topic on the conservative news sites. This is the first I have heard about other staff being laid off in order to help pay for the additional nurses.

Definitely an unintended consequence of the law, and one that needs to be pointed out.

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Specializes in LTC,HOSPITAL,HOME CARE,TRAVELING.

I worked in a hospital setting on a 32 bed telemetry unit and we were lucky if we had one cna on 11-7.They were responsible for helping us get our vital signs and patient care as much as possible but we did a majority of it ourselves.In the long term setting I work in now we are getting ready to go to patient centered care where our cna's will have like 6 patients to care for but they will do it all from personal care to activities and housekeeping for these six.If you went into nursing thinking you wouldn't have to get dirty or do that stuff again you just wasted your time and money .You better check on being a wal-mart greeter.

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Specializes in Author/Business Coach.

I understand what you're saying Bossy...Completely.

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