EmmaPeel

I received my CNA training through the local community college and finally landed a job at one of the city's largest nursing homes. As the pay is fantastic compared to what I have gotten before in the service industry, and the hours flexible, I could not be more psyched. However, on the 2nd day of my orientation on the floor, the RN supervising my hall snapped at me. It all started with dietary being almost 2 hours late getting residents' food to the dining room/floor(they were extremely short-handed). Also important to mention, I'm on a closed unit-Alzheimer's and combative residents for the most part. Foregoing our own lunches for over an hour, my trainer (an awesome CNA of over 10 years) and I, managed to get everyone fed, changed and in bed, and she slipped away with the rest of the beleaguered CNAs for a much-needed smoke break. As I don't smoke, I stayed behind and waited for her in the dining room, which is literally on the other side of the wall from where she was smoking. The place looked like a tornado had hit, with trays abandoned and food all over the floor in one spot from where one resident didn't take too kindly to being made to wait so long to eat dinner. When a dietary aide came in and assessed the situation with a beaten down look on his face, I asked if I should help him load the trays on the carts (literally the same thing we do in the halls). I was not trying to change teams, do his job for him, none of that. As I have a lot of that experience, I swiftly bussed the tables and helped him load the carts so he could take them back to dietary department. Just as I was finishing up, Nurse Ratched comes by and tells me I need to go find my CNA, and she proceeds to help the young man take the food carts down to dietary. Keep in mind my CNA has not yet returned to the floor from smoking. I thought nothing of it until...Nurse Ratched comes in a resident's room where we are working and reams both me and my CNA-me, for helping dietary and her for not being with me the whole time. As if I would have been better off sitting on my butt watching this guy struggle with all this stuff while my CNA is smoking. Had it been any other job, I assure you I would have lit her up and possibly walked out, but I really need the job and I know I won't always have to deal with her crap. Now even though it was only my 2nd day, I have noticed all the CNAs avoid this nurse if at all possible, as she is generally unpleasant-to employees as well as residents. She snapped at my CNA about doing vitals when the vitals had been done and listed on the nurse's paperwork an hour prior! I have heard her tell a resident to "shut up", which really got under my skin, because if that had been my grandma, I'd have her job. It's just not right to speak to anyone that way. The other RN in the unit is as pleasant when she arrives as she is when she leaves, helps CNAs and residents when needed and is professional and kind in her speech. I let it roll off me at the time and just said "okay" or "yes, ma'am", I forget which, but it does bother me. My supervising CNA plans to report her to her supervisor (not just for this issue); however, that nurse will be out for the next month, leaving us to just keep our heads down and try to avoid Nurse Ratched's ire at every turn. I'm sad that what was supposed to be an exciting and educational beginning to a career in nursing turned sour. I'd really like to stay on that unit, as all of the CNAs are just dynamite-decades of experience, lots of energy and really treat the residents with love and compassion-but not sure how to adjust to Nurse Ratched. It just makes me tired to think about it. It makes me see why the CNAs I have talked to say they NEVER want to become a nurse, why they think they're "only in it for the money". And it makes me hesitate to let them know I'LL be starting nursing school to become an RN in the fall. I don't wanna let this get me down, because I will need all my energy to handle adjusting to this new and challenging work-any advice from a more seasoned pro??

My grandma always said I should go into nursing. She said I was way smarter than her and that she was a C student in nursing school. When she retired, she had been head nurse of surgery for her city's main hospital for decades. Average ain't so bad. Average saved lots of lives and contributed to many positive patient outcomes. Average bought her own house and helped her family, provided for her retirement. Average didn't think she could do it in the beginning, but she did it, at a later age in life and amidst many other obstacles. She just never gave up.

Competitive, but it's a great program. I'm applying to the RN and LPN as a backup to bridge into RN. They're only taking 90 students this fall for the RN program. 9-0. There were at least that many people in the pre-nursing conference I went to last week. That's awesome that you got your pre-reqs out of the way. My adviser constantly tells me to take this or that before applying. I'm taking A&P 137 now and she wants me to take microbiology in the summer, so I don't have to take it later,but my brain might explode. It's a combination of GPA and NLN scores that will land us in that pool of 90, so every little bit counts.

Hey there, fellow BCTCian. I went to the last conference this past Friday and it was packed. Just took the NLN this morning and altho the book does help you out quite a bit, it was hard for me to understand why the emphasis on some things was so dramatic. For instance, electrical currents. Without going into too much detail, there was question after question about ammeters and electrical currents. Silly me, I studied up on my anatomy and physiology, thinking, well, you know--nursing exam. Started with reading comp and then vocab which flew by timewise, then into math which was by far the best part for me because I finished confident and on time, then onto science which I finished early, surprisingly. I walked into the testing center at roughly 8:40AM or so, started the exam around 9 and was in my car on the way home at 10:30 or 11 somehow. But I'm still raw about the EE component. I'm just going to check my scores in a couple of hours when they are available, and deal with it. I want to do the RN program but at BCTC they are only taking 90 students, as opposed to the LPN which is taking more, but starts next spring. If I don't get into the RN program, I'm going to try for the LPN and do the bridge. You can apply for both and at a number of colleges simultaneously--you will just need extra copies of things like transcripts, etc. My advisor told me a lot of people hedge their bets by applying to both RN and LPN.