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???
Specializes in PICU, Nurse Educator, Clinical Research.
It's not just the lack of respect; it's the assumption that anyone in a 'low-skilled' job must have the intelligence of a sock! I have a friend who is a waiter with a philosophy degree, and he's amazed at the number of customers who assume he's a complete moron because he's waiting tables. Same thing with working as a nursing assistant while i was in school...some nurses were having a discussion about arrhythmias at the nurses' station one day, and the charge nurse asked the others a question about something- none of them knew the answer, but i did, so I casually answered the question. The charge nurse said,' why would you know THAT??' 'Why', not 'how'!! Like nursing assistants aren't *allowed* to have any knowledge about anything but making beds and wiping tails. Please!
I always remember this- I've met plenty of people with advanced degrees who were total idiots, and my best friend, who never finished college, is the smartest person I've ever met. I try to remind myself of this fact anytime I meet someone new and am tempted to prejudge them!
It's not just the lack of respect; it's the assumption that anyone in a 'low-skilled' job must have the intelligence of a sock! I have a friend who is a waiter with a philosophy degree, and he's amazed at the number of customers who assume he's a complete moron because he's waiting tables. Same thing with working as a nursing assistant while i was in school...some nurses were having a discussion about arrhythmias at the nurses' station one day, and the charge nurse asked the others a question about something- none of them knew the answer, but i did, so I casually answered the question. The charge nurse said,' why would you know THAT??' 'Why', not 'how'!! Like nursing assistants aren't *allowed* to have any knowledge about anything but making beds and wiping tails. Please!
I always remember this- I've met plenty of people with advanced degrees who were total idiots, and my best friend, who never finished college, is the smartest person I've ever met. I try to remind myself of this fact anytime I meet someone new and am tempted to prejudge them!
Yeah, they sort of assume you're about as dumb as a bag of hammers.
We should have respect for all coz our primary objective is helping the sick.It does not matter the level of education.Just do your best for the patient.
When such sad events happen,I think the wise thing to do is ignore and let the other person feel the shame.Teamwork is the motto.
My best friend is a cook in the kitchen at the hospital where I work. When the other RNs on my floor find out, I get the "you hang out with one of them" attitudes-like they have cooties or something. Even worse, they do this to my best friends face, and have the nerve to say they are not snobs.....they also kind of treat me at a lower level because I hang out with the kitchen and housekeeping help, AND I actually still answer call lights--the nerve of me My boss even told me that I need to watch who I am friends with at work, it is a matter of professionalism. I would think patients would rather see people getting along as opposed to dissention in the ranks. I just don't get it sometimes.....
Unless your friend is a drug dealer, I'm thinking it's none of your boss' business (and probably not even if she WAS a drug dealer!) - and I also wonder if it's even LEGAL for her to make comments such as that.
And as for these other RNs...well, some people are just sad....actually that borders on disgusting. Well, it IS disgusting.
Unless your friend is a drug dealer, I'm thinking it's none of your boss' business (and probably not even if she WAS a drug dealer!) - and I also wonder if it's even LEGAL for her to make comments such as that.
And as for these other RNs...well, some people are just sad....actually that borders on disgusting. Well, it IS disgusting.
I'm a CNA, in a nursing home, and I get that kinda stuff all the time. I get treated with disrespect like I don't know anything, even though I know the residents better than most anyone else. There are some nurses who help and try not to disrespect me, but every now and then I get the feeling of distaste even from them. The truth is I do more actual care for these patients then anyone else in the field. Alot of nurses say they got into nursing because they wanted to take care of people, but the fact is they spend more time passing meds, and doing paperwork, and getting paid alot more for it, then the people who actually do the care. I'm sorry untill you wiped up someones BM, or vomit, or urine, can you really say you take care of those people. So if you want to do actual care every now and then try helping out a CNA.
Sorry but I get really bitter about the disrespect I receive constantly from the nurses. Heres an example. I have one nurse I work with and our personalities constantly conflict, shes from another country and has a very rude and arrogant attitude. One night I was having to stay late and work a shift I wasn't scheduled for, nurse K asked me if I had got urine output on one of our residents. I said no I was going to due it on rounds in a half hour, mind you I am quite busy at this time. She says well you need to go get it now because I need it before I go home in 10 min. Mind you she is quite not busy at this time, sitting and reading a magazine. Tell me why she couldn't get off her butt and get herself if it was important for her.
This same nurse has nearly killed a resident who was having a heart attack. She didn't care that I said the resident was having chest pains, trouble breathing, and high blood pressure. Her response was that the resident doesn't take her medication so this is whats going to happen. I didn't know this but I later found out that the resident had a prescription for nitro and ativan in cases like this. It took her at least an hour before she delivered the nitro and she never delivered the ativan. When I asked her how I could make the resident more comfortable, she again changed subject and said how this will happen because she doesn't take her medication. I responded that just because she doesn't take her medication doesn't mean we have to be cruel to her. I reported her behavior but shes still working here.
She also does stuff that makes it perfectly clear she doesn't get her hands dirty. She'll go out of her way to have me clean up something that she could have done herself. I get this from all the nurses but shes the worst. The fact is though that I'm not an idiot I have two bachelors degrees, and I'm going onto PA school. Sometimes I know what a resident needs better than the nurse does, and they should know that.
How sad to hear that credentials dictate the treatment you deserve! I agree with PapawJohn and Dave Barry; it doesn't matter how you treat your friends, but how you treat your servants (so to speak. The term is old fashioned. If I remember correctly, it came from a former US president in the mid to late 1800's. If someone knows for a fact, please let me know). In my LPN program, a CNA certification was required for acceptance. I have since returned to school and found that many in my RN program have not had other nursing experience. I think that I have been more successful in my program because I could focus on learning RN-specific tasks such as IV pushes and advanced assessment skills because I did not have to start from scratch. Learning how to make a bed or give a bed bath isn't something you should be learning when you have so much more information to master; these tasks should be old hat. All nurses need to know how to do all of these, because being a nurse means you DO them, not learn how to delegate them. I would never ask someone to do something for me if it is not something I would do myself. Nurses should only delegate to maximize patient care, not to pawn off "grunt work". I have found that RN's who have been in lower-division nursing roles are usually better RN's than those who have not because they do tasks such as changing beds, giving bed baths (the best time to assess skin and build patient trust, in my opinion), and giving enemas. How would you feel about your care and your worth if the person you are trusting with your life absolutely refuses to provide less than glamorous cares? Get real. No one is above any nursing care. I cringe every time I hear a fellow student rejoice at the thought of delegation: "I've given my last bed bath!" Think again. If you are going to be a good nurse, you will be giving bed baths until the day you die and you will do all of them with a smile (whether you feel like smiling or not). I understand how you must feel. I notice that I am treated better as an RN student when hospital staff learn that I am an LPN. Too bad letters following a name have more impact than the person answering to it.
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!!
definately agree!!! I have been a LVN for 9 mo now, an aide 3 years before that....I love my aides at night. Couldn't get through the long hours without them...( i work in a LTC for children) We will buy each other lunch, have potlucks, and take breaks together. I always tell them each night, thanks so much for all of your help. I never have to ask for any certain thing to be done, they do it as if they know I'm going to ask. Even the simple things, like collecting my I/O sheets off the doors, which I can do myself, they do, and tell me that they know I'm swamped. So, when I'm not "swamped" I go turn a few kids, change a few diapers...etc..turn about is fair play..The nurses and aides are good to each other where I work, and thus the kids get the best care ever.
Specializes in rehab, antepartum, med-surg, cardiac.
That's so sad that she would be so rude and condescending to you because she thought you were a CNA or tech. Makes me angry that people treat techs and CNA's badly. They deserve so much more respect than that.
I'm just wondering - does nursing school cover everything that you would learn in a CNA course? I was considering either taking a CNA course this summer, or take some credit courses I need for nursing school. I know CNA training will give me hands on experience in health care, but OTOH it won't help me advance in my pre-reqs towards nursing school.
Thank you so much for this post!!! I'm an RN and I constantly see how poorly the CNA's can be treated. Our jobs would be IMPOSSIBLE without them!! More people need to realize that. Thanks to all CNA's, we couldn't do it without you!!!
You were one of the lucky ones who got CNA's. We didn't. The jobs were always impossible, either way.
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My boss even told me that I need to watch who I am friends with at work, it is a matter of professionalism. I would think patients would rather see people getting along as opposed to dissention in the ranks. I just don't get it sometimes.....
rach_nc_03
372 Posts
It's not just the lack of respect; it's the assumption that anyone in a 'low-skilled' job must have the intelligence of a sock! I have a friend who is a waiter with a philosophy degree, and he's amazed at the number of customers who assume he's a complete moron because he's waiting tables. Same thing with working as a nursing assistant while i was in school...some nurses were having a discussion about arrhythmias at the nurses' station one day, and the charge nurse asked the others a question about something- none of them knew the answer, but i did, so I casually answered the question. The charge nurse said,' why would you know THAT??' 'Why', not 'how'!! Like nursing assistants aren't *allowed* to have any knowledge about anything but making beds and wiping tails. Please!
I always remember this- I've met plenty of people with advanced degrees who were total idiots, and my best friend, who never finished college, is the smartest person I've ever met. I try to remind myself of this fact anytime I meet someone new and am tempted to prejudge them!