Nurses forced to work as aides

Nurses Professionalism

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I am frustrated with my hospital. We have a shortage of aides, and no wonder because they have a hard, backbreaking job for measly pay. As a result, sometimes when we nurses show up to work, we're made to work as aides. No notice, just here: you're an aide today.

This seems really unprofessional to me. I signed up to be a nurse. I never worked as an aide because I know how difficult that job is, and I don't want it. It's confusing to the patients to have two RN's running around. Thankfully, the other nurses haven't asked me to medicate a patient, because I'd have to say no since I didn't get a nursing report, nor did I look up the patients to a sufficient level to be able to take full-on nursing care for them nor did I assess them, but I can see how this could set up a problem in the future for a med error.

It just seems wrong on several levels. I guess this is what happens when you work in a hospital with no union. At least I still get my nursing pay, but I still feel that this is inappropriate.

Thoughts? Have you ever heard of this before?

Specializes in hospice.
"Common"? I find it hard to believe it is "common" for you to work with nurses who "truly do(es) delegate every single aspect of his or her job to the CNA," since there are only a few, very limited elements of the RN's responsibilities that can legally be delegated to CNAs.

Until the higher ups found out and cracked down on them, the nurses on my telemetry unit would routinely delegate vitals after hanging blood to the CNAs. Some of us were too inexperienced to realize they weren't supposed to, and some had been around long enough to know that fighting stuff like that was useless and had given up.

I think some of you are lucky and don't truly understand just how lazy some nurses can be when allowed to get away with it.

Specializes in critical care, LTC.

Used to work with an RN who would walk out of a patients room looking disgusted and tell me (I was the charge nurse) to "find an aide to pick up the patients meal tray or get the patient a glass of water" then he would go get a cup of coffee for himself and walk right past the tray cart. As a manager in LTC I worked many nights as a CNA, helped transfer and toilet patients on day shift, cleaned code Browns on my own because I knew the CNAs were overwhelmed. I always called it "doing my job". I had the respect of my staff because of this. And always told my aides I could not do my job without them.

Specializes in Transitional Nursing.
"Common"? I find it hard to believe it is "common" for you to work with nurses who "truly do(es) delegate every single aspect of his or her job to the CNA," since there are only a few, very limited elements of the RN's responsibilities that can legally be delegated to CNAs.

I couldn't hit edit in time to fix that sentence. It should read "Every single aspect of his or her job that they are able" Obviously I don't mean that nurses delegate the aspects of their job that one must be a nurse to do.

It's extremely common, unfortunately. Answer that light, get 223 some tissues, 224 needs to use the restroom, 221 needs to be turned, 222 needs a dinner tray, dressed, bathed, etc. Is it my job? Absolutely, but it's also yours if you have the time and I am busy. There are a lot of nurses who don't believe that, and yes it's common.

I couldn't hit edit in time to fix that sentence. It should read "Every single aspect of his or her job that they are able" Obviously I don't mean that nurses delegate the aspects of their job that one must be a nurse to do.

It's extremely common, unfortunately. Answer that light, get 223 some tissues, 224 needs to use the restroom, 221 needs to be turned, 222 needs a dinner tray, dressed, bathed, etc. Is it my job? Absolutely, but it's also yours if you have the time and I am busy. There are a lot of nurses who don't believe that, and yes it's common.

There also happens to be alot of CNA's/PCT's that don't fully understand the scope of a nurse's job. Just because it looks like I'm sitting there on the computer doesn't mean I am not busy. I have exponentially more documentation to do than the unlicensed personnel. The aides/techs aren't responsible for every single aspect of a patient's care, but the nurse is. Someone else made the comment about a Venn diagram and that brings the point home very clearly. There is a small amount of overlap between an aide/tech and a nurse; I can do every aspect of your job, but you can't do mine. I wish techs would stop worrying about what other people are or aren't doing and just do their jobs. This is yet another example of why I have no use for CNA's/aides/techs. Instead of arguing with them and trying to explain to them why it doesn't look like I'm busy (but really I am), I just do everything myself.

Specializes in hospice.
There also happens to be alot of CNA's/PCT's that don't fully understand the scope of a nurse's job. Just because it looks like I'm sitting there on the computer doesn't mean I am not busy. I have exponentially more documentation to do than the unlicensed personnel.

I get this, I really do. I've just also had the unfortunate experience of watching nurses sit and ignore call lights and pile more tasks on me, while they have a Caribbean vacation booking site open on their workstation. I respect doing your job. I don't respect that.

I get this, I really do. I've just also had the unfortunate experience of watching nurses sit and ignore call lights and pile more tasks on me, while they have a Caribbean vacation booking site open on their workstation. I respect doing your job. I don't respect that.

I understand. I'm not saying that ALL aides/techs are useless. Obviously I'm sure there are nurses that just don't want to do basic care and delegate it out to the aides when they could actually do it. It's not a nurse vs. aide argument, it's just that some people (regardless of their title or job) have a poor work ethic.

I am frustrated with my hospital. We have a shortage of aides, and no wonder because they have a hard, backbreaking job for measly pay. As a result, sometimes when we nurses show up to work, we're made to work as aides. No notice, just here: you're an aide today.

This seems really unprofessional to me. I signed up to be a nurse. I never worked as an aide because I know how difficult that job is, and I don't want it. It's confusing to the patients to have two RN's running around. Thankfully, the other nurses haven't asked me to medicate a patient, because I'd have to say no since I didn't get a nursing report, nor did I look up the patients to a sufficient level to be able to take full-on nursing care for them nor did I assess them, but I can see how this could set up a problem in the future for a med error.

It just seems wrong on several levels. I guess this is what happens when you work in a hospital with no union. At least I still get my nursing pay, but I still feel that this is inappropriate.

Thoughts? Have you ever heard of this before?

Sigh. First of all, it is RNs, not "RN's". Leave it to the uneducated aide to correct the college grad on her grammar.

That said, when this happens, you get to to more hands on patient care aka the dirty work..it's not glamorous but someone has to do it, right? And a humble and experienced nurse knows that this can go a long way in learning about the patient's needs.

As an RN, you can do the job of an aide. And at a nurse's pay and without the same level of responsibility, why not????

As an RN, you can do the job of an aide. And at a nurse's pay and without the same level of responsibility, why not????

A nurse working as an aide is still a nurse.

An aide might not have the education to identify a sign of impending doom, but there would be no excuse for a nurse working as an aide to miss out on patient abnormalities.

Sigh. First of all, it is RNs, not "RN's". Leave it to the uneducated aide to correct the college grad on her grammar.

That said, when this happens, you get to to more hands on patient care aka the dirty work..it's not glamorous but someone has to do it, right? And a humble and experienced nurse knows that this can go a long way in learning about the patient's needs.

As an RN, you can do the job of an aide. And at a nurse's pay and without the same level of responsibility, why not????

...but this is where you are wrong. Just because you are doing aide work doesn't mean you can take off your RN hat. The BON will hold you accountable to your highest level of training.

That means if something happens to that patient that the "aide" should have picked up on? You don't have one RN in trouble, you have two.

Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

There is nothing that an aide does that could not be expected of a nurse. Patient care IS our responsibility.

Sigh. First of all, it is RNs, not "RN's". Leave it to the uneducated aide to correct the college grad on her grammar.

That said, when this happens, you get to to more hands on patient care aka the dirty work..it's not glamorous but someone has to do it, right? And a humble and experienced nurse knows that this can go a long way in learning about the patient's needs.

As an RN, you can do the job of an aide. And at a nurse's pay and without the same level of responsibility, why not????

The phrase used "RN's running..." Who was running? RN's were running...therefore, running is possessive, and needs an apostrophe in this instance and example.

As an LPN, and it is the same with any licensed nurse, we are held to the standard of our license. No matter what management claims as otherwise.

Which can get sticky in a whole lot of situations. It is not a situation of a nurse being "too good" or "too lazy" or too anything else other than the license we hold requires that nurses are held to a standard of care, and a duty to act.

So to put it plainly, it is a tactic used by management to have a licensed nurse have his/her hand in the pot of each patient. Supposedly as an "aide" but more like if a patient requires a nursing task, we are required to act on that. With that being said, we can't be a "floater", as then we are apt not assist in the other aspects of care for every patient.

The phrase used "RN's running..." Who was running? RN's were running...therefore, running is possessive, and needs an apostrophe in this instance and example.

Say what? Sorry for going off topic, but "running" is a verb. Verbs cannot be "possessive." Bluemorningglory is right about the grammar. The apostrophe is incorrect. An example of a possessive noun taking the apostrophe would be "the RN's stethoscope" (or, in the case of multiple RNs (no apostrophe), "the RNs' stethoscopes."

Sorry, back to topic ...

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