amorecondannato

She's certified now but when she started working there, she wasn't. She's out of a group of about five people that've been there since BEFORE Georgia made you become certified, she was grandfathered in.

Hey ya'll. I need some advice... I work in a hospital-based nursing home in Southeast Georgia. I was so excited the day I got my CNA certification and was able to enter the health field, because I've ALWAYS wanted to be a nurse. I swear, this facility has run me so far away from it screaming that it's pathetic. I have finally steeled myself not to let others bring me down, and continue going for nursing...even though I'm sure my college is going to shoot me for changing my major one more time. Anyway, the facility I work at operates on the buddy system big time. The CNA manager and the ''team leader'' on 3-11 is friends, and Lord it shows. I'm NOT attacking the ''team leader'' personally, but she's been an aide for years and never went to school...she was grandfathered in when the GA Health Partnership mandated that all aides had to be certified. She has no education, she can't spell...but I digress. This is the problem. I worked 3-11, then was moved (without asking me...) to 11-7. I've put it for full time THREE times, and yet...about seven peoples been hired above me for full time. That doesn't sting as much as this team-leader nonsense does. She thinks she owns the place. She'll pop open someone's chart in a minute. She talks to us like we're dogs, she mysteriously vanishes to the parking lot for hours on end, she calls our manager and tattles on us ''so-in-so's wearing green socks...''...it's pathetic. I think due to her lack of education, she uses her friendship with the manager as a shield. She has a personal vendetta against two persons at the facility, me and someone else. I am very good friends with her niece, and she's confirmed this for me. Tonight, for instance...I was ten minutes late. I am not habitually late. The reason infact, that I was late tonight was I was giving another CNA her anatomy and physiology books and flashcards back. I walked with her to her car and put them in, then went and clocked in. I figured that'd be the much more honest thing to do then to clock in THEN go to the parking lot. Anywoo, she was having a bleeping hissy fit. she was telling the nurses what the manager said ''SOON AS THEY HIT THE FLOOR, WRITE THEM UP AND PUT IT IN HER BOX'' ...Now, as a ''team leader'' her position is supposed to be to stay if someone calls in, but tonight is the FIRST TIME since I've been there that she's stayed. And I KNOW it was only because I was late. But why was she telling the charge nurses what to do? After she left, (I love this) AFTER she left, the charge nurses were all big and bad...saying they wasn't going to write anybody up. Why couldn't they tell her to stuff it when she was flouncing around? And another thing, on 11-7 EVERYBODY just about comes in late. We have a pastor who regularly shows up at midnight, two people who have second jobs who show up around midnight...and the ''team-leader'' NEVER stays until they get there. When the LPN's start writing this particular woman up, THEY get in trouble. I don't want to give information away about where I work, bu there was a big howdy do before and our CEO got fired for ''misappropriating'' money...and the ''team-leader'' lied for her. It was a domino effect once she left, and our DON got put back in the careplan office, and the same manager I'm talking about now was put back on the floor with a cart. When the CEO blackmailed (lol) her way back, the DON was replaced with the old DON and the manager was put back in charge of the CNA's...and the ''team leader'' returned. All this of course happened before I was ever hired, but I figured I'd give some backstory. I wrote an anonymous letter to our ADON (the only one I think with gonads enough to do something) tonight because frankly, I'm tired of it. It seems like you hit a brick wall, so I'm taking it higher. I am upset as so many things, like...when people won't come in when they're called, it's okay...but if I'M called and can't come in (on a day off - keep in mind I'm a student) I'm put on the poop list for the next month and MIGHT be scheduled two days a week. So what do I do? Wait it out, cause a ruckus? Take it to the DON and CEO? When does it stop being an annoyance and start being discrimination? The only thought in the back of my mind is how wonderful it will be one day when I'm an RN working down in the hospital...then they'll have to see that they didn't impede my progress in ''making it''.

Well, I'm currently an aide, and in school for medical technology. I fully intend when I graduate to get a master's from South University and (I hope!) work at Memorial...I had NO idea there was this much animosity dealing with AA's. I guess I'm used to being bullied, I am after all only an aide, but still...sheesh. We're all in the medical profession dealing with human LIVES. From the chief medical grand poohbah doctor to the housekeepers making sure germs aren't running amuck and rampant...we all have our place and our job to do. I always thought that everyone would come and work together for the betterment of our patients (...I was wishfully thinking ) before I realized our cut-throat, back-stabbing, and clique-y things are at my current hospital. I always assumed it was just because I was an aide, and a student. Now I realize that this hurtful and detrimental mentality goes all the way up to advance practice nurses, doctors, and master's prepared AA's/PA's. For shame! I guess being an aide at least prepares me for the smite I'm obviously gonna get when I do graduate South =/... I do have a question though, did the AA's/CRNA's here have a chance to work while in school? I'm just curious.

don't be scared! perhaps you could contact a local nursing home and inquire if you could shadow someone for a few days before you take your test? i can understand nervousness, i was nervous my first day at clinicals...and then again, my first few weeks at work...but i still experience a sense of wonderment at the human body and human spirit every day that i'm around my residents, fellow cna's, and nurses! you'll overcome your nervousness in time, i'm sure...and lead a very groovy, and rewarding profession! :balloons: just remember, reading it in the books makes it sound so much more harder and scarier than it is in reality! (: i have faith in you!

update us on your status!!! you sound alot like me =):balloons:

while remaining a lurker for the longest time, i'm proud to say that i've been a cna since march. i've been employed by a hospital-based nursing home since june. i'm not going to lie, at first i hated my job. i came home crying the third night. i also caught myself almost crying my first day at a feeding table, because one resident's mental illness makes them cry constantly, and another always calls for their mother. i thought, ''these people are locked inside their minds this way!'' then, i came to the realization that these people need cna's that care for them, which in my severe bout of empathy during my first week on orientation, i realized i did unconditionally. i have now come to love my job, and am so happy to go to work every evening! i truly love my residents, even when things get ugly! incontinent care caught me off guard at first,...but i'm used to it now. one of the things that i'm simply mortified of is if and when state comes in. we're taught to do things so differently in school, what if state is watching me do something and i screw up? oh boy. if and when that time comes, i'm going to grab another cna. i'm currently in lpn school :) i can't wait to graduate. i took a little time after becoming a cna considering all these other branches of healthcare, but decided to go back to the same technical school i started at to finish up with practical nursing. i'm glad i decided to become a cna, it's shown me to really care for the residents/patients, and also to always appreciate cna's in my nursing career when i get bigger and better letters after my name ^.~

I've looked nearly everyone for two year ADN degrees near me...the closest one is in Bainbridge, Georgia...there's also one in Augusta, GA...but both are at least two hours away from me. I'm perfectly at Ogeechee Tech, though! I was just so excited when I bought my Medical Terminology book...I just devored the whole thing, in fact I'm taking my first test tonight...wish me luck!

hi everyone! i've been on allnurses for quite some time without posting anything...i've been more of a lurker, just reading...because i never had started nursing school! a little backstory is that i keep my little brother for my parents alot and i just knew i wasn't going to be able to go to an actual campus, so i was looking everywhere for online classes. well, the local community college offers a great portion of their classes online, and since my little brother will be old enough for daycare in november, i went and registered! at this particular school you have to be a cna before you start the lpn program, but it all works out because you take all of your core classes in the cna program before you enter the lpn program...and you've already taken anatomy and medical terminology. anywoo, now that i'm officially a nursing student i just see so much ahead of me! i've always wanted to be a nurse...i come from a background of nursing with my grandmother, aunt, and great-aunt all having been nurses, or in the case of my aunt still a nurse. i do have one important question that's been bugging me...are cna's considered nurses? i've read that there's a debate over what qualifies us as a nurse or not (since i'm going to be a cna before i become an lpn...i can say ''us'' right? :) ) also, what's the difference between a cna and a nurse tech? one of my good friends is a nurse technician (she's going to the same school i'm going to...except she's in the lpn program, but she got her core classes when they still awarded a nurse tech certificate and not a cna certificate) anyway, in public i'll always say ''well, she's a nurse..ask her!'' and she just kind of says that she's not a nurse, just a nurse tech. it breaks my heart everytime! just some of the stories of the things she's experieced already leave me in awe sometimes. one of my best friends is going to georgia southern to be an rn (i'm trying to get her to switch to my school...) and my other best friend is going to be a medical assistant at my school..(i'm trying to get her to switch to lpn...). there aren't any two year rn degrees anywhere close to around here, it's all either two year lpn or 4 year rn...i've only encountered the whole ''you'll only be an lpn'' once, but it was from a condescending witch of a woman who i associate with as little often as i can. anyway, i'm from georgia...i've lived here my whole life except for a brief two months when i lived in nashville with my aunt...i love it here! i look forward to being a nurse in ga!