mintygirl

As awesome as CNA is, the day comes when its physically breaking you down. In which case you want the flexibility to change job fields, without going outside your career of the medical field. (Who else has the best flexible hours?) With that said there is nothing wrong with bettering yourself. And in cases of wanting to get into a hospital, if you luck out to get an interview, you can bring up the fact that you have these skills and abilities too. You might not be allowed to use it, but you can mention it and it just looks good. Then let's say you do get the hospital job and your comfy with it, you can always be asked to be cross-trained in other areas and she can place you where you need to be. :)

Why not call the lady who gave you a tour of the place and ask her what happened? Then at the end just thank her for her time, at the very least the next time around you might be reconsidered because things happen or the person they hire finds out they dont want the job, etc.

If you truly felt like the victim of a bully and that the nursing program was out to get you, you should have just left the program vs failing out of clinical. Take time off to address your mental and emotional needs then re-apply to a new one. It would have been the better route to go, the option that an adult would choose. No it wouldn't have been easy and you might have had misgivings about it, but later in life you would have thanked yourself for staying away from a bad program that is essentially supposed to prepare you for your nursing career. Granted this isn't the popular choice because a lot of people like to hear otherwise, to be consoled, but it changes nothing You'll still be in a program that is biased, unfair and discourteous to you. Take it as a learning lesson that no one in life has your back, including your peers and instructors. Essentially the nurse instructors have one job and its not to get you to pass theory or clinical, that's you - that's self study, but rather its to remedy any weakness in your character as a nurse. It's true that often times many nursing students will feel like they are "being attacked" and I've seen nursing instructors respond roughly to nursing students, with said student in return chalking up their inadequacies to race cards, age cards, gender cards. I usually tell them the same thing I'm telling you. It's 50/50. Either they really are bullying you for god knows what petty issue or they aren't and you need to toughen up, speak up, etc etc. Because eventually you'll stand alone and other people will be looking to you for answers, patients will be in your care and you have to be more than just book smart, but compete too. You mentioned mental health to us, but you need to address it. Have you not heard of Maslow Hierarchy of Needs? Its usually the first thing they teach nurses: take care of yourself, otherwise you are not fit to care for others.

Your age is a contributing factor. I know, I know. Many here will stand up and argue, "ageism" until it is in the dirt, but you have to look at the facts. If you are 18-22 then MD it baby. The ugly truth why many PA's dont become MD's is simply time over money. Considering residency for them is anywhere between 7-9 years and x amount of schooling, many MD's graduate at 29-35. With heavy debt. We're talking triple digits here. And you go into the hole deep from the start, "flunking" out isn't an option nor is any other sudden career change. And don't get me started on the MCAT. You pretty much have to spend a whole year after your B.S. to study for this, which will then determine if you even get into med school, let alone a good one. And then guess what? More student loans! Woo. Yeah. So yes, age is a factor for the MD route. The older you are, the later you have to wait to start earning money and having a life. NP's cannot alter between specialties either - despite what people will lead you to believe. You will take pay cuts as its not a one or all sort of experience that caries over. In order to go the PA route, many require "clinical hours" which have been accumulated by those who are EMTS, CNAs, LVNS, RNS or some other open field. They expect you to get your feet wet and from what I can hear in your post, you really are "undecided" as your title says. Your honest to best bet is to ask to "shadow" a MD and find a way to get into a hospital to oversee what people are doing on a day to day basis, to get an understanding if that is something you will like personally.

I don't know if that's reasonable, you need to stop asking others and ask yourself. Hell, you might not even know until after the first week. I don't know about every single state but this is why there is a 90-day probation period which means stuff can happen or you might find out you don't like this job. No harm done. Don't stick around unless its something YOU feel YOU can handle. Ask to shadow another CNA before you start. Places like these LOVE having YOU on the floor because you hold a cert and it makes them look pretty and can charge the residents more while they offer to pay you a dollar less. Essentially the only work you'll be doing different is that you don't give baths but you take a 1$ pay cut because of it.

Unfortunately you're going to find that many facilities are understaffed and that the "shortage" in nursing that people often spew at the mouth isn't because there aren't enough to hire, its that they choose to run at what the state sets as a bare minimum guideline. At the end of the day, this is a company you're working for. The DON and the Supervisor DSD might not necessarily be the ones on the payroll, but typically its owned by some out of state family who own like 30+ facility homes. These people are here to make a profit off health insurance and other people's pain and end of days retirement because god forbid they need help cooking a meal or two. I know in California there is a 3.2 per nurse hour which basically means there should be AT LEAST 3 shifts with a half hour to cover the change over when the other nurses come on, but people forget that's just the minimum which is set extreeeemely low! And the fact that there is no CNA to patient ratio is open grounds for why cna's get abused so much. The "older" cna ones have just gotten use to being treated like garbage and are apathetic to change. They will ALWAYS be hard and uncaring because its all they ever know. What I'm saying is essentially you might run into a lot of facility that are just down right nasty and will throw you under a bus. Oh yes and get this, say if the facility is understaffed and you're assisting a patient and another patient has to wait too long for you and some incident occurs, THEN the state and omnibudsmen get involved, everyone and their MAMA will be pointing the finger at you and say "Well why did you not speak up if you feel you can't provide adequate care or that you felt the residents weren't being cared for properly" and they show you videos those so called abuse videos where a lawyer is on screen running his mouth about how he'll sue you personally... Well its no wonder people dont speak up but just end up leaving. I remember working at one facility where cna's were quitting faster than they could hire them. No one wants to take the blame, its not a cna's fault the place is garbage. At the end of the day you were human, just remember to thank God that you got out of there before something serious happens.

I never understand why people wait until after graduation to find out if there are jobs for ___ field or if there is a x job in ___ (blank) location. The economy is what it is and no amounts of degree or education will save you from being out of work. It also doesn't mean that you won't have to put out leg work for a job either. My mother always taught me that looking for a job is often a full-time job in itself because you exhaust a lot of your resources trying to land one and god help you if the facility is a slum bucket.. Getting your foot in the door is difficult enough but what I found works best is cold calling. You pretty much find a list of every SNF facility in your area and cold call them, ask them if they're hiring and do your best not to sound too young or too inexperienced this way you can get an honest answer out of them. Just call and say "Hey/Hi I was wondering if you guys are hiring for any CNA's?" Don't mention shifts or anything like that. I've had a few places say "Yes we're hiring" or they might say "We're accepting apps" or maybe they'll say "No we're not hiring" but they will accept apps, which is sort of the same thing lol (they just dont want to admit their hiring for a LOT of reasons) then say "Can I come fill out an app today?" And if they'll say "Yes" then you go in. If they turn around and act like they never were the ones on the phone, then you know that's a facility that you don't want to work for because they can't be honest and upfront. Never take rejection to heart or because your not a good enough cna or lacked experience, you'll come to learn the work is all the same everywhere you go. The only thing I can suggest to making yourself more hireable is being open to accept any and all shifts, being on call and just having an open schedule (if you can help it).

Your not the first male nurse so you can relax if that's what your worried about. Nurses in general are not respected, not by doctors, other nurses, families and most of all hardly patients. You'll never really get a thank you except for the exceptional patient from time to time. The lifting thing isn't a surprise, but eventually with age and experience you might not want to do it as much. Letting people rely on you is one thing, but its another to be on the look out for your own back and spine. And if you're the one lifting, be aware that falls and bedsores as well as clots are now your responsibility because you now came in contact with that patient.

My instructor was honest and up front about the line of work (and you might as well do that because down the road..) you'll get students saying how this was not what they expected it to be. The line of work is very demanding not just as a nurse, but on your soul too. These people and the family included is very draining, teach them to document and speak up for themselves because once they get on the floor no one ever will tell them that. Too often people put blinders on what it means to be a nurse and talk about the glamour, but its time to open up the blinds and let them know that A) its hard laborious grunt work of nursing B) you never really get to do anything fun, its just butt wiping job C) Hospitals, LTCS, HH and SNFS are not your friends, they will fry you for being "too nice" Just scrim through the horror stories of this board. These places are designed to make money and your honesty can cost you your career. They need to remind themselves to look out for #1 which is their future, license and career, then patients, then lastly hospital.

Its never to late to stop becoming a back breaking cna and to land on the floor as an RN. Why would you ever let what people think of you to stop you from getting out of a hard back breaking job? Come on now we're in 2014 where we can do whatever we want at any age, stop letting ageism get to you.

No you did not ruin your career, people forget that CNA is a certification and that LVN is your license. Even if you were fired for god knows what, most of the time you don't need to show it or report it because it doesn't apply to a license.

Truth is, when it comes times for clinics make sure you protect yourself when you are practicing your skills on female pt's, especially peri-care. Don't be left alone with a resident and if you have to, just have your instructor present when you perform it. You have a lot of liars and jealousy in the nursing program, so I wouldn't be surprised if someone came back who didn't like you and said you did some questionable things.

Well that's nobody's fault but your own, next time in the future hopefully you'll do research before you join and complete a program, only to find out how much you really make upon exiting the program. That's like finishing school as a nurse, only to discover you don't get paid as much as a doctor.

It really wasn't all that long ago when they trained from the hospital on the theory and clinical though and that's primarily how a lot of old RN's started out and learned from other RN. So if you work as a CNA in a hospital, in the past or had been for awhile there was a lot to learn and you could learn granted by simply being employed there. In fact if you wanted to get your license as a nurse from a CNA, you used to be able to simply take the pharmacology portion and challenge the board and if approved, take the NCLEX. And the same was true for LVNs to RN, but the hospital provided a year of clinics. And that was because in the past, CNA's roles were less defined, they passed meds and drew blood with the right certificates. So essentially CNA's who worked in oncology, surgical and other units did pretty much have the majority of their clinics proportion out of the way and if they were lucky enough to be in a training hospital like UCLA. But by today's standards and how overcrowded the pool is, most CNA's going in don't have what older CNA's might have had the fortune of having, hospital experience. And I mean a good hospital, the kind you were proud to stay in. A brand new nurse who just obtained her CNA isn't a step away from being an RN, but if she was all that dangerous the job wouldn't hire her, the DON would approve of her. And that isn't really your judgement call, you just mandate appropriate task to a cna as you would an lvn and as long as its within their scope of practice. Which is what all schools teach and the laws are more clearly defined. I don't really know where the fear of a CNA is coming from, I haven't ever heard a CNA say "Well I'm one step away from an RN so I'm going to inject medicine the RN left behind."

Keep applying for SNF/LTC as they are the ones most likely to take new grads with zero experience. You're allowed to apply every 90 days and it typically helps to apply to the place you interned at. The reason I say SNF is that some of them are sub-acute (which you wont find out which ones are until your actually on the job, typically) but hospitals do like some sub-acute experience vs no acute exp. Everyone and I mean everyone's mom, brother, sister and kitty cat want to get into a hospital so you're competing against everyone. PCT jobs don't require exp, typically but they do require a CNA license - which puts you in the same field of everyone with a CNA applying for said job with exp. So that's why you're probably not getting a call back from hospitals and typically they prefer PCA/PCT to be 1 year into an RN program too.

I don't understand why they fired you, at best you just should have not been allowed to have that pt. What you can do that many don't realize, is chart on a piece of paper and then have the RN sign off on it after you explain the situation, definitely follow up - things like that. When I had a PT fall she claimed I pushed her out of the chair (I wanted to CRY the accusation alone made me feel so horrible as a nurse), but it was next to impossible and later when asked about it her story was inconsistent, she forgot about it and even came up to hug me and said I was the best nurse she ever had. Later on an RN told me that she had a change in medication and her behavior had changed erratically because I wasn't the only one she complained and lied on. Remember that no facility will stand behind you though, even when your an lvn or rn.

Then go ahead and do what a CNA does and then some. Funny enough this is why big chain hospitals go on strike though, when hospitals refuse to hire CNA's and start requiring RN's to do it all since they are so above us. CNA's are vital to the nursing industry and yet you write them off because they don't get paid top dollar. Why don't you remind yourself of Florence Nightingale and the whole lamp ceremony that every RN takes place in. She by today's standards would not be a nurse, but she was the first nurse and set the record by her goal: maintaining a well-lit, sanitary place for the pt to recover on their own. By your own reasoning though you've made yourself sound completely useless, your charting and assessment isn't what's saving the pt's life. And then you go on to say you can do your job without a physician? Oh my, even if you have your PRN you will not be writing or prescribing medications without a license M.D. in a snf. I don't know where you get off thinking that any job doesn't require teamwork. And your blatant disregard to CNA's in a CNA forum is something else. I don't know why you think you're at the top of the food chain and talk as if you are? An M.D. will always be over you and your work. If you could do without them, then RN's would run their own clinics. Nursing is bed-side pt care and Medical practices medicine. Whether you are a cna, lvn, or rn with exemplified extra licenses and certs, it will still at the end of the day, be bedside care. Regardless of whatever "tasks" you do differently from others.

Congrats!

My program was theory up front, then clinical and the clinical's were on set days, mostly weekends to accommodate everyone. Morning to 2 and if you missed a day, she was willing to make it up with you but she was pretty tough.

It'd be nice if this was the case, but most facilities actually promote this dogmatic behavior. Generally in SNF they typically require top quality care and bleed the life force and power out of the most passionate people by requiring the most cruel and detestable working conditions such as, but not limited to: skeleton crews, shortage on supplies and poor management. But guess who gets all the blame? CNA's and that my friends, is why the turnover rate for CNA's are so high. The nursing forms just love to talk about how nurses, as in RN's and LVN's have "job-burnout" and everyone will sympathize with them with thousand of posts about how they are angels, poor pitiful them, etc. They have "so much to deal with" and it's "so tough to be the only one" boo hoo. CNA's are treated like dogs, on the regular. I dare say that some places will make you feel like an absolute slave and you feel like it when you deal with personal care, patient overload and a facility that just seems to cut corners and cost at every chance they get. CNA's don't have a set patient to nurse ratio so granted there will be half your shift when the DSD just "forgets" to schedule another CNA. Even though the schedules are made a whole month in advance. Often times the LVN and RN won't take the wrap for you when something happens because you were answering another person's light, team work is just completely out the window and its every man and woman for themselves. And this is the problem, I've worked long as a CNA to put myself through school and have been at three separate facilities in different cities, but I never found a nurse who came in just to make hell for everyone just for the sake of giggles. It's because the working conditions are deplorable and at the end of the day, for all the hell you put up with and do for others because you take pride in being a nurse, the pay isn't really worth it.

This is pretty much the best answer on here.

I hate to make a new thread for this, but I wasn't really sure if a FAQ existed! So my question is I worked for a family member for in home support service (IHSS) for the county. But now that family member is doing better (I'm thankful). Still I'm looking for a new job and am not sure what to fill out as far as the supervisor question goes. I don't want to look like I'm lying on my application, but I'm not sure if I fill out the family member I worked for or do I put down the case manager who was over said client? Has anyone had experience with this? I live in CA if that helps (or not, not sure).

For CNA? It's tough the first time you start out: while some people get jobs right away, thats not the case for everyone. I think it took me two months to find one and then later on when I went to look for another job it took about a month. Keep applying and don't worry, there is no way you are going to forget all that you learn. Keep looking and find a place that will place you and let you shadow another cna. Once you get the new stamp off your forehead, it'll be easier to get jobs as a cna. Keep applying and don't give up! You went through all that trouble to get your cna and were determined to graduate! So apply that to job searching. And don't be afraid to call back and ask if they have any positions open for cna, then if they say yes, ask them about your application. You want to ask for the supervisor as she's the one who reviews it. Get that interview and shine!

Well I hate to break it to you but nursing in itself is a thankless job. Not everyone will cuddle you with gifts of appreciation, often times its not just the patients that are rude, but their family and staff, administration and techs / doctors who show up deciding that you are their human punching bag. At the end of the day you ask yourself did you make a difference and it will feel like: no, no you did not make a difference. But you will find few moments in life where the work is rewarding, you might find one gentle pt that's nice and thanks you and you are like, oh yeah now I know why I got in this work to begin with. But the other part of you is learning how to speak like an adult, now that you are one. I don't correct every pt that comes my way, but I do look family members in the eye and tell them that I am one person and not a machine. Staff won't like this and that, but even when you become an RN - working with people won't change simply because you are higher up in the ranking field. You have to learn how to put your big boy pants on and own up to it. Pt's don't have a "right" to physically hit you, but I've been pinched, kicked, spat and had my titty pinched by a dementia pt. Combative pt's are not easy to work with but require pt and "extra care" and time to manage them. I had one skinny pt with was 90 year olds and could summon the strength and fighting spirit of a warrior, it was up to ME however to know that she required a second person. And chart, chart, chart + report, report report to cover yourself should anything occur.

Give yourself time, speed will come later. Don't overwhelm yourself with needing to finish "fast" like others. Every cna is different and does things differently that is easy for them. Some tips I can give you are things like like: I always tend to arrive 15 minutes before my shift and get a report off with the prior cna and do my walk through to make sure the pt is changed and hasn't been sitting in urine for 2 hours, or worse: they are dead. I make sure the room is clean and the trash room is empty, then I start to prepare myself for pt care and start prioritizing pt's. If its an AM shift - I talk to my charge nurse and find out if anyone has dialysis or is a family is coming to get them, do they think anyone will be discharged? If they don't know, that's cool, I wait until they call us back. Then I clock is like 5 minute earlier because I'm able to do that and get started with the CNA. I assess the pt's by easiest first, waking them up, asking them if they like to sleep more. I do a shower or two if I can help it and then bam, breakfast. So I pass out trays, feed pt's that need assistance, pick up trays and then start my run. I'm fast with picking out shirts and getting it all ready, then I let the pt take their time getting dressed or if there is anything they can do for themselves, I let them do it because it saves me time + plus its the right thing to do. Meanwhile I strip the bed if they are sitting up and have my linen ready, then ask the pt if they want anything washed before I haul it off to laundry. I'm pretty much moving as fast as I can without speeding up the pt because they can take as much time as they need. For PM things are a lot more chill and Noc is relatively slow. Once you get to know your pts and their routines, things will fall into their natural order. Sometimes though no matter what I do, I still fall behind because the run is hard and the shift is crazy. A last minute appointment which throws my priority for pt's out the window. Two small important tip: never lift a pt without a second cna present and keep with you a mini notebook so you can write down the vitals / what their food intake was and what they drank / so it saves time on charting.