Ohhhhh your a Nurse!?!?

VeryPlainJane · Jan 14, 2006

God Bless CNAs!

widow2RN · Jan 14, 2006

God Bless CNAs!

Amen to that! As that past patient... I will admit that it was the CNAs and the LPNs I remember most (except for ICU)... but on the regular floor, I only rarely saw the RN. Hats off to all CNAs and LPNs who do the MOST to truly make the patient feel good while they are away from the homes they miss and love!!! :thankya:

medsurgnurse, RN · Jan 14, 2006

Oh my...last night was a toughie at my job. See I just became an agency nurse and trying to find my bearings on returning to hospital...lets say it is a re-learning experience big time, but all and I am really enjoying it! (it was just one of those nights...uhggg, like running on a hamster wheel and going no where...).
Well last night a charge nurse for the next shift started ordering me around for various tasks...no probelm I am a team player...so I did them. She was rather rude to me, and spoke down to me quite a bit, but being new I sort of expect that at times...so it didn't phase me that much...more like a hmmmmm oh well type of deal!
Then she caught me at the Pixis machine getting IV set up materials and said "you can't do that!". I turned and said "oh my patient needs and IV, so where do I get the stuff?". She then realized, and I realized...she didn't know I was an RN!
She explained how sorry she was for mistaking me for a CNA, and then was so very supportive and sweet and helpful the rest of the time. Quite a turn around from before.
Like I said, I am a big time believer in teamwork...so this struck me as very inproper indeed. You don't treat CNA's like dirt or maids. Without their kindness and helpfulness our jobs would be a whole heck of a lot tougher!!! They are to be valued and respected...
I didn't say anything, but hmmmmmm...how do you think we should encourage, in a positive way, respect for CNA's and other team members that aren't RN???

The thing that strikes me is that she didn't even know what staff she had. Isn't that her job as the charge nurse to know exactly what staff is presenyt and who they are assigned to.

ShayRN · Jan 14, 2006

:yeahthat: :yeahthat:

i really hate it when people do things like that. I think that everyone just needs to remember that whether you are the surgeon or the custodian you are still important and should be respected.

Nurse-To-Be-Joy · Jan 14, 2006

I remember when I worked as a housekeeper/transporter. Many nurses wouldn't even say hi to us, even though we were given 2-3 nurses each day to take care of thwir rooms/patients. We didn't exist to them until the patient pooped all over the floor, needed to go to the heart cath lab stat or whatever. So, it's not just the CNAs that are mistreated. Don't forget about the ones who clean your rooms, take your patients down for their CT scan, MRI, x-ray, etc, and all those other tasks.

chadash · Jan 14, 2006

Well last night a charge nurse for the next shift started ordering me around for various tasks...no probelm I am a team player...so I did them. She was rather rude to me, and spoke down to me quite a bit, but being new I sort of expect that at times...so it didn't phase me that much...more like a hmmmmm oh well type of deal!
?

Ahh! another typical day in CNA world.....

JVanRN · Jan 14, 2006

Ahh! another typical day in CNA world.....

Or best of all when your new name is now "The Aide" or "My Aide" :stone I never expected people to get down on thier knees and kiss by behind for doing a good job, but my goodness, if I've worked with you for 3 years, you could at least use my name. Because I know you know it. (collective you)

Once I graduated I noticed I was treated a little nicer, and when I would offer to do "aide work" I was quickly corrected and told that was not my job anymore, and to "get your aide". Good grief, just last week I was good enough to do it?! WTF?

That said most of the nurses were really nice and grateful. If they couldn't drop what they were doing, I understood that. I understand that nurses have alot to do, we all do. Just don't act as though you are above doing it.

GooeyRN, ADN, BSN, CNA, LPN, RN · Jan 14, 2006

That kind of attitude towards CNA's, LPN's, dietary, housekeeping, or whoever is not an RN really burns me up. :angryfire

grinnurse, RN · Jan 14, 2006

I cannot imagine not calling the aides that I work with by their names!! That is way too rude. As a matter of fact, my hats are off to the two women that I work with, Cindy and Felicia!! I don't ask them to do anything that I wouldn't do myself ever!! A simple thank you during and after shifts goes such a long way!! Thank goodness I don't work with any nurses, RN or otherwise that are so rude!! Not only do I say thanks to them, but I buy their lunches sometimes or cokes or something like that just so they do know that I appreciate how hard they work for me and my pts!! My life would as a new nurse would have been heck with out them!!

JVanRN · Jan 14, 2006

Like I said, thank goodness this was not the majority, but it was still enough. I also found these people, "my RN's" if you will, had a tendency to be snooty in "real life" too.

But on the other side of the fence, I know many CNA's that would get very offended if the nurse couldn't drop what she was doing instantly and go turn a patient. I was accused more than once by CNA's that I had worked with (as a CNA, and then an RN) as thinking I was "to good" for those things now that I was an RN, when that was simply not true or just outright refuse because that's what I was getting paid "the big bucks" to do. I think it helps to try to understand where the other person is coming from. There are lazy people on both sides.

grinnurse, RN · Jan 14, 2006

like i said, thank goodness this was not the majority, but it was still enough. i also found these people, "my rn's" if you will, had a tendency to be snooty in "real life" too.
i accepted a job at another nearby rural hospital and started back in mid november working for them(thinking the grass was greener). i was there 5 days and knew that i couldn't fit in b/c they had that rnittis, never helped their aides (would be sitting in the nurses station gossiping) and extremely rude to their patients!! as a matter of fact, i got reprimanded by one of my preceptors for helping one of the aides pass breakfast trays!! i won't work with nurses like that and so i went back to my old place of employment!! quick!!
but on the other side of the fence, i know many cna's that would get very offended if the nurse couldn't drop what she was doing instantly and go turn a patient. i was accused more than once by cna's that i had worked with (as a cna, and then an rn) as thinking i was "to good" for those things now that i was an rn, when that was simply not true or just outright refuse because that's what i was getting paid "the big bucks" to do. i think it helps to try to understand where the other person is coming from. there are lazy people on both sides.

definately agree with that statement!! we have one of the rudest people that i have ever come across that works my same rotation on the night shift though that i seriously would have personal conflict with!! my thoughts have been if you hate your job that much that you are miserable, change jobs!! i get paid to take care of patients just as everyone else in the hospital does!! there is no "i" in team work!!

JVanRN · Jan 14, 2006

I just wish the whole concept of RN's being "higher" than CNA's. No one is "higher" or "better" than anyone. The job description is just different. Yes, RN's delegate tasks, that is part of the job. And even as RN's we have "bosses" to answer to to. Sometimes I've even come across the occasional doctor that thinks nurses are below them. To a few of them all we are are "buttwipers" that follow that just blindly follow orders. These sort of people often have a superiority complex/and or ego problem. There are people like that in every line of work.