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???
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???
Manners!!! There is a serious lack of manners and respect in this story and in many others posted. If you respect people, it should make no difference if your occupation is a CNA, an RN, a physician or a ditch digger. Burns my butt that people take others for granted and barely acknowledge the valuable contributions they make. Kudos to all the the CNAs, housekeepers, laundry workers and dietary staff at my hospital and others who do their jobs so well so that I can do mine! :balloons:
As a student nurse, I have seen quite a few good and not so good nurses, and I don't care if they're an LPN or RN, if they'll teach--I will learn. On one rotation, the nurse on the floor with wound care training was an LPN, so I followed her on her rounds one morn, doesn't matter to me what the letters are. A nurse in a nurse. Some of my classmates thought that I shouldn't be with 'just an LPN". HUMBUG.
At a previous job as a PCA/NA, I asked one of the RNs a ? to do with bedbaths-don't remember what- and her answer was "I don't know, I've never given a bedbath", with a totally snotty attitude. I was appalled at her attitude and response. How do you become an RN w/o ever giving a bedbath? was my thought, followed by--do you really care about people? Guess what? she doesn't. The things she does would curl your hair. So to me, she really isn't a nurse, not in the true sense of the word.
And my L & DR rotation was the rotation from hades. I know several of the nurses up there personally, and they are wonderful women, but there are several up there that ought not to be near breathing pts. or students. ie one day I asked an RN, whose pt I had been assigned, what my role was--as she had been cutting me out of everything and the clinical instructor was tied up in a delivery--and her reply was "Nothing, you don't HAVE a role". HMMMMM. for the pts sake, I retreated so there was no undercurrent of tension, but I was not impressed.
So, I guess if a nurse is snotty, she is snotty, whether to CNAs, students, or anyone else she decides she is better than.
I have decided that ALL nurses have much to teach me, some on how to be a nurse, :) :) and some on how NOT to be a nurse. :uhoh21: :uhoh21:
I work in an Urgent Care clinic an a LPN. This weekend a daughter brought her elderly dad in who lived in the assisted living across the street. He had cellulitis in both legs--she brought him in to have his wounds treated. Turns out he's wheezing, lungs full of fluid etc, O2 sats in 80's.... 3 of us LPN's took turns hooking up oxygen, wheeling him to xray and lab and sitting with him while his daughter read a book in the pt room, started his IV when the doc decided to have him admitted, called the ambulance, etc.... During this process of treating her dad, the daughter tells us she's an RN and started ragging about the LPN's at her dad's assisted living home, how incompetent they are, etc. I guess she thought we were all also RN's and she was dealing with "peers". Funny she didn't recognize the classic signs of chf. I'll bet a buck she was the same kind of nurse the OP was dealing with that night.
It is always wise to value the observations and experiences of all the folks involved with the patient. What I don't see, you might.
As a student nurse, I have seen quite a few good and not so good nurses, and I don't care if they're an LPN or RN, if they'll teach--I will learn. On one rotation, the nurse on the floor with wound care training was an LPN, so I followed her on her rounds one morn, doesn't matter to me what the letters are. A nurse in a nurse. Some of my classmates thought that I shouldn't be with 'just an LPN". HUMBUG.
At a previous job as a PCA/NA, I asked one of the RNs a ? to do with bedbaths-don't remember what- and her answer was "I don't know, I've never given a bedbath", with a totally snotty attitude. I was appalled at her attitude and response. How do you become an RN w/o ever giving a bedbath? was my thought, followed by--do you really care about people? Guess what? she doesn't. The things she does would curl your hair. So to me, she really isn't a nurse, not in the true sense of the word.
And my L & DR rotation was the rotation from hades. I know several of the nurses up there personally, and they are wonderful women, but there are several up there that ought not to be near breathing pts. or students. ie one day I asked an RN, whose pt I had been assigned, what my role was--as she had been cutting me out of everything and the clinical instructor was tied up in a delivery--and her reply was "Nothing, you don't HAVE a role". HMMMMM. for the pts sake, I retreated so there was no undercurrent of tension, but I was not impressed.
So, I guess if a nurse is snotty, she is snotty, whether to CNAs, students, or anyone else she decides she is better than.
I have decided that ALL nurses have much to teach me, some on how to be a nurse, :) :) and some on how NOT to be a nurse. :uhoh21: :uhoh21:
...and I'd be delighted to have a student like you on my unit...your "don't have a role" nurse missed a great opportunity!
i alwyas verbalize t omy cnas and other nurses - without cnas we cuold not do our jobs. it isnt just kindness and helpfullness - crap - without them we would not ofetn know when our residents need us - we have such big caseloads and so much work to do we need to rely on them to notice everything from bruises to depression to respiratory distress - we can not do our job without them i often make sur to thank my aides especially when they have helped me to help a resident that very well would have spent more time in distress if she had not seen it and told me.
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???
i agree - i detest when a nurse will page a cna to get a buzzer goingoff in the meantime the cna is in themiddle of a shower and then the resident falls andt hey blame the cna. get off your duff - we arent immune to wiping abutt - i often ( if i have time and many times even if i dont just to prevent injury to a resident) will take care of a resident for my cna. they are grateful and are not afraid to ask for help and do not get upset when i HAVE tosay no cause they know i will if i can. keep up the good work. to many thhink thy are above everyone else.
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.
LOL we have one old woman who absolutely will NOT allow her nurse to take her to thebathroom gte her water or anythingsayingi t sint her job- sad lol. but we do all get a giggle cause we just dont tell her we are a nurse if we answer her light ( we will go from our wings to that one so her nurse wont have to do it lol)
Has anyone ever had this from the patients too? Because I work at night the nurses tend to do work that the aides do during the day. We only have one tech/aide per floor at night. Sometimes when we get a new patient I'll answer their light and they'll start ordering me about. Then when they say "Oh, and tell the nurse I need some percocet" I'll say I am your nurse. They suddenly change their tune.
Yes, I do normally introduce myself as their nurse but when you come into a room and you get greeted with Fetch this! Reheat this hot chocolate! it's rather difficult.
It's a shame really that you meet the odd patient with an attitude like this.
I would hate to think about life in the medical field with out CNA's. For 2 years I trained men and women to become CNA's in a 12 week course. They must pass A&P I&II Medical Terminology I&II as well as Math, English and Clinical I&II. CNA's are irreplaceable and should be treated with respect and dignity, because as I said before, I would hate to think of life in the medical field without them.:balloons:
I would hate to think about life in the medical field with out CNA's. For 2 years I trained men and women to become CNA's in a 12 week course. They must pass A&P I&II Medical Terminology I&II as well as Math, English and Clinical I&II. CNA's are irreplaceable and should be treated with respect and dignity, because as I said before, I would hate to think of life in the medical field without them.:balloons:
I did not know how different CNA training was from state to state. That sounds like a wonderful program...
I can totally relate to your story. This has happened to me numerous times as well. I really wish people wouldn't assume that they know what your role is and just ask.
tweetyd
33 Posts
[/:deadhorse FONT]
I see all the posts detesting the way you wer approached, Yet all to often it is done again and again.
We can only hope one day ? all will realize we all have a place and the best way is to respect all.