Please don't expect CNAs to

readytoroll · Nov 20, 2009

I agree, not only is it dangerous for the patient it is dangerous for you! If I need a patient lifted that takes two people to lift, I grab one CNA and me! That makes two, sounds like you need a hug!

tokidoki7, ASN, RN · Nov 20, 2009

I agree. I wouldn't even attempt to do something like that by myself.

koi310 · Nov 20, 2009

3 people might be more realistic. But you really need a hoyer.

pagandeva2000, LPN · Nov 20, 2009

It is unfair for any other CNA or nurse to expect someone to do this independently. It really toasts my cookies to see this happen. Everyone is human and has the right to go home in one piece.

TreehuggerRN · Nov 20, 2009

Two people shouldn't even be lifting a person that big.

Your facility needs a lift.

leslie :-D · Nov 20, 2009

oh my gosh, i think that's totally INSANE to expect anyone to do that...SAFELY!

that really chaps my hide.

nevermind our backs, it's truly shabby judgment on any nurse who delegates that.

as a cna, i would express concerns (with the nurse) about the safety factor, and the orders for a 2 person transfer.

holy cow, batman...

that is just soooo uncool.

pffffft.

leslie

dannyc12 · Nov 20, 2009

I am NOT going to transfer that patient by myself. So please quit expecting me to do it.

You know who you REALLY need to get mad at? Your fellow CNA coworkers who violate saftey rules and DO transfer that person by themselves. They are why the nurses expect you to do it.

I work on a woefully understaffed TCU Unit at a nursing home. 3 Aides for 32-36 patients. Many are total care, brain surgery, quadriplegia, hemiplegia, severe dementia, PVS, end of life, wandering, fall risks, behaviors - the whole thing. It isn't care, it is triage - the "most acute" (ie sitting/lying the longest time in their BM) get attention.

Management refuses to add a single aide so we can at least provide a slightly less criminal level of care.

A couple aides on my floor have started to do 2-person transfers (with hoyers or without) by themselves to speed things up in hopes of getting people changed and into bed. They are the ones who really **** me off.

Yes, I'm looking for another job.

mamamerlee, LPN · Nov 20, 2009

At one facility where I worked we had slide boards - they were wonderful. Still needed at least two people. Always need at least 2 people!

ctmed · Nov 20, 2009

My friends, what is listed above happens alot more often than you think.

Much of it is this disturbing culture that seems to be in many facilities where LPN/ RN will not "touch" a patient other than to give meds or do assesments because it is beneath them in some way or they "have more important things that only they are only trained to do" like sit at the desk and chart. Even other CNAs in some places refuse to help sometimes because it would be "doing someone else's job for them." These are the same places where the RNs will roll thier eyes and huff even if an IV goes off and they have to get up!

Please do not flame me. I have worked at wonderful places with wonderful, caring people who are always glad to help. But working agency, I have run into just as many places with the situation happening like above. Of course, if something bad happens, like you drop someone.. it is always the CNA's fault with various forms of punishment from a write - up to firing to report against certificate depending on how bad and how far someone presses it.

Im not saying do the job and get used by a lazy CNA, but help. A nice place to work begins by helping folks out and being cool. But, Im just a CNA... so my opinion may not matter. (It least in those places)

KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN · Nov 20, 2009

Much of it is this disturbing culture that seems to be in many facilities where LPN/ RN will not "touch" a patient other than to give meds or do assesments because it is beneath them in some way or they "have more important things that only they are only trained to do" like sit at the desk and chart. Even other CNAs in some places refuse to help sometimes because it would be "doing someone else's job for them." These are the same places where the RNs will roll thier eyes and huff even if an IV goes off and they have to get up!

Are you one of my coworkers? This sounds like exactly what I am experiencing

We have quite a few residents at my facility on hospice. One of them is over 300lbs. Someone upthread mentioned using a hoyer lift. Well sadly we don't have one. I work at an ALF, so we don't have things like that:sniff: Our RSD wrote on the residents care plan that now she is a four-person transfer. I'd really like to know how that is feasible considering there are only two people (if we're lucky) working in that section(of 15 residents, with 3 others on hospice btw) & no one in other sections want to help us transfer her. :angryfire And rather than address the issue, we get reprimanded for other things such as "Family members are complaining that you all are banging the dishes while washing them" or "I dont like the pajamas you are dressing the residents in..they look flimsy".

Forever Sunshine, ASN, RN · Nov 20, 2009

I'd come running to help if I were on that floor and someone was taking care of a heavy patient whether they asked for it or not.

Why? Because I know the feeling of having a heavy patient and it was just me assigned to her. I think it was a test and my instructor wanted to see what I would do. Of course I was asking for help from another student and evetually we had to call a CNA in because I just when it came to am care/sheet change I'd get stuck and couldn't do it myself.

She wasn't a mechanical lift. Nor did her chart or assignment sheet for the CNA state that she was a two assist. The patient was over 300 pounds.