Pauligirl

Congratulations! If you were employed full-time please check with your state unemployment website to see if you qualify for benefits! If you weren't FIRED for gross misnegligence or subordination and have had a steady work history you might be eligible to unemployment benefits the you are entitled to.

If you want to be PROPERLY trainined, like you mentioned, sign up for a CNA course at a local college or career school. Oh yes, they usually cost money but you will be PROPERLY trainined. Especially since you say this work is your "calling". I assume the facility isn't relying on the other aides to inform you of infection control and universal precautions.:uhoh21: Hopefully the facility has put together a training booklet for you to take home and study. As also suggested you can look on youtube for demonstrations. The facility also might have an outline for the work routine of different shifts (when baths are done, etc..). As an untrained, non certified, right off the street nurse aide it's not your place to judge who's lazy and not doing their job properly. And running to the supervisor or DON is not going to do you any good. Unless you're reporting physical abuse! The aide's that were chosen to "train" you are probably the ones who have worked there the longest. And I'll bet you a penny they didn't volunteer for the additional job duty of trainer. They're not getting more pay because they're training you and part of having a CNA does not qualify an individual as a trainer. I doubt the other cna's and nurses are working against you! You're blaming them for your lack of experience and training.

There's not a general biology college course prereq for the AP class? I suggest buying the textbook now so that you can review or familiarize yourself with the first three or four chapters which are generally a review of general biology and chemistry as it relates to A&P. Start memorizing the skeletal system NOW! And get a start on muscles. You can google photo's of models that are used in the labs. The university or college you attend might have these on their biology dept. website. Mine did! And be prepared for the possibility that you might not get the grade that you're truly capable of. Working full-time, not having had recent college level bio courses, and taking this course in a five week term almost sounds like a recipe for disappointment. Hopefully you're single and don't have any responsibilities.:uhoh21: I took this course during a 7 week summer term while I was working full-time. I had taken recent bio and chem courses so that helped out a lot with studying the first several chapters. Once we got to the bones and then muscles I was totally overwhelmed! The muscles were the worst for me. Bleh! Having to memorize the muscles, their function, and insertion points was just too much for me in a short period of time! Also understand that lab and lecture is like having two individual classes! Sure the two are related but you'll need to know different things for both. You will have weekly tests AND quizes! Ugh! I did pass the course. But didn't get the grade I wanted, or knew I was capable of getting! I re-took the course the following 14wk term. I did a heck of a lot better and had the time to really soak up the course material. I now view the AP courses as a foundation for the many other courses a nurse will have taken. I wanted to thoroughly understand the course material. Not simply memorizing and cramming just to make it through the 7wks of HELL! I just couldn't stuff all that info into my head AND understand it while working full-time. And apparently I wasn't alone. A little less than half the class dropped out. Quite a few took the option of a W (withdrawl grade) rather than the grade they were likely to earn. I wish you the best of luck! I wouldn't do it again! If nothing else, you NEED to start memorizing the bones and muscles now. And also understand WHAT they do.

I agree. And I've noticed that this problem also occurs when communicating with health care workers who are american born. As a patient I recently decided to see a new rehab doctor. After giving the receptionist all my paper work she asked me "has you seen him before?" . I initially gave her a blank stare because I seriously did not understand her.

Hello everyone! And congrats to those who have been accepted into the program! I have a few questions for the people who've been accepted, as well as the other applicants. I'm very curious about your academic and career background...excluding anything related to G.P.A's and pre-req grades. -What degree(s) did you have when you applied? BA, BS, MA, MS, ...? And what was your major/minor? - Any previous health care experience, direct patient care experience, or related certifications? - Community service or volunteer activities? - Are any of you "second career" applicants? If so what was your previous line of work? Feel free to post your resume's :chuckle:chuckle

Since my previous post to this thread there have been a few more deaths on my hospital unit during my shift. If the family is coming to the hospital to view the deceased we "tidy" the patient up. Remove IV's, tubes (GI tube), probably keep the foley in place until we take the body to the morgue. Quick wash up of the face, peri-anal area, change brief if one was worn. Put clean gown on, clean top sheet, arrange the deceased in a restful looking position. After the deceased's family leaves we remove all clothing from the body, then tag and bag. No clothing, no jewelery, nothing on the body. Thorough washing is not part of the routine. One of the nurse aides' (that I mentioned in my previous post) that ignore's her responsibility when a patient she's assigned to dies had a recent death. Her and I were working on the same hall. Before her patient passed I noticed that the patient was tossing, turning, and trying to sit up in bed. He had thrown off all the sheets, blankets, and his gown was off. All of this was noticed just from walking by the room. Since it was still visiting hours and many families were around visiting other patients I decided to go in and take a look. This was not a nice sight to see and maybe the patient needed something. I covered the patient up, told him it's chilly without clothes and blanket. Asked him if he needed anything but he didn't respond. His eyes were kind of bugged out and he had that "death rattle" in his throat. A few minutes after I covered him up respiratory therapy was in the room giving him a breathing treatment. About a half hour later his RN walked by the room and mentioned "I think that patient has passed". No rush since he was a DNR. Sure enough he had passed. His eyes were still bugged out and his mouth was wide open with black coated tongue obvious. The poor man was not a pretty sight! When I told the nurse aide who was assigned to him that her patient had passed she said "Oh No!" and continued to do her charting. So I decided to help out and asked his nurse if family was coming. She said "yes but he needs to be tied before rigamortis sets in, tie his jaw shut , we'll just have to be sure to undo it before the family arrives in about an hour":uhoh3: I don't have any experience with tieing deceased patients! Nor do I have any knowledge about it! So I went back to the deceased's assigned nurse aide (who was still sitting at the pc doing her charting) and told her that her nurse wants the patient tied up! And told her she had better hurry before rigamortis sets in! The look on that nurse aide's face was priceless! She truly had the look of horror! Serves her right, since she has a habit of skirting her responsibilites! She got another aide to help her with preparing the body and I guess they had a heck of a time trying to get the deceased's jaw to close. They never did find any rope and the man's jaw never did get closed. And the assigned aide managed to dump the remainder of her responsibilities onto the aide that assisted her. Since it was after hours the other aide met the family in the lobby, etc... I'm wondering about this tieing of the body. The RN mentioned tieing the jaw shut, arms down, etc... I really don't recall. Does anyone have experience with this? Know anything about tieing the deceased???

You will have to prioritize what needs to be done. And realize that with a heavy patient load (12+ patients) it's next to impossible to give the kind of care you'd like to provide. Always get help with lifting and transferring patients that can not or will not assist with their own care. You can really injury yourself trying to do it all on your own! I've got a herniated disc and back problems which I suspect is from lifting and turning patients all on my own. Encourage your patients to do as much as they can for themselves. Some of them will gladly allow you or rather expect you to lift them up and boost them up in bed even though they are capable of doing much of it on their own!:angryfire I once had a patient that amazingly was able to stand on her own and get in/out of bed and chair with minimal assist once she learned that I had back problems. And don't forget to take care of yourself! Always take your breaks and put your feet up!

Yeah, in the real world we throw it all on the floor!:chuckle If it's a super big mess I usually roll the linen cart into the room. Or get a linen bag and throw it all in the bag which is on the floor.

I would think that obtaining a CNA would not prevent you from performing PCA duties at a hospital. In my view the CNA is a backward (downward) step from PCA(PCT). At least it is in my area. If I were in your shoes I wouldn't bother with the CNA. If you're already hired at the hospital which provides PCA(PCT) training this work experience will likely qualify you for a position at another hospital if you were to loose your current PCA(PCT) hospital job. But if you want to be overly cautious you could check if CNA is required at other hospitals. In my area it seems that the CNA is only required for working in nursing homes. Been there, done that, never again. If you're looking for additional employable skills check for courses in phlebotomy (blood draw). These courses are about the same or less length of time as CNA classes. From what I've heard, most CNA's working in nursing homes would love to be able to get a hospital job. So I'd say you got lucky getting the hospital job! I've been working as a PCA at a hospital for a few years. My CNA card expired many years ago after I decided to leave nursing home work and pursue a non health care career. I had no problem getting my current job without the CNA certification. I was hired based on my experience from many years ago and my current desire to pursue a nursing career. I guess I was also lucky to get the hospital job! Within the last couple of months I've applied online for PCA and critical care tech positions at two other hospitals. I received calls backs and interview offers for all the applications I made. So again, if I were you, I'd concentrate on studies and the current PCA job. I'd go back to waitressing or ANYTHING else before I'd consider CNA nursing home work. Sure, I learned some useful and common sense things from the CNA course. BUT the work was tiring, hard labor, and back breaking. Hats off to all you guys n gals that do that work and still have the energy for studies and classes!

In my case I've found this to be untrue. I was always willing to help out all my co-workers and offer assistance. Until I realized that it was not being reciprocated. Some of my co-wokers had absolutely no problem with me tending to their patients when they were no where to be found. Or if they saw me walking down their assigned hall rooms which had a call bell ringing they'd continue to sit at the nurse's station engaged in chit chat because they knew I wouldn't just walk by a patient's room when the call bell was ding, ding, a dinging. One co-worker even had the nerve to shout out my name from the nurse's station when they knew I was in a nearby room tending to one of my other patient's. Hey! Hey! Pauligirl! YOUR room XX is callin' YOU! Geeh! That sure was nice of her to inform me. Because she was just too busy leaning her rump on the nurse's station desk to help a patient in need. It wasn't like the patient was calling me specifically by name and refusing all others...the call bell was ringing, singing my name. Now granted this occured while I was a patient care tech. But I've seen the same thing occur at my hospital amongst the nurse's. If it wasn't their assigned patient they'd have absolutely nothing to do with the patient if the other nurse was truly busy. Those kinds of attitudes, lack of team work, and lack of concern for any patient in need is uncalled for. At least in my opinion. A few bad apples really can spoil the bunch. Or rather unit. After the experiences I've had working that unit, other units at that particular hospital, and a LTC facility I have absolutely no desire to work the floors (do floor nursing). Ya could offer me 100 grand/year and I wouldn't do it. I hold myself to a certain level of professionalism and expect the same of my co-workers. Guess I was expecting too much. And is floor nursing considered a "professional" career anyway? I dunno...

I took a chemistry pre-req at a community college during a short 7 week summer term. I was absolutely shocked with some of the inconsiderate, rude, and downright disrespectful behaviors that I saw! Students carrying on conversations about trivial things or even the homework while the professor is lecturing is rude and shows disrespect towards the professor and fellow classmates! And these kinds of behaviors were occuring in the second and third rows! At one point I couldn't take it anymore and told two of the young men to "shut up!". Which lead to one of the guys telling me "no on tells me to shut up! ..." At that point I proceeded to point out his rudness and disrespect toward the prof and fellow students! The idiot finally shut his trap. The next day that class met the two idiots sat on the other side of the room. I think they thought I was crazy, hehe! The professor never did notice our argument or the classroom chit-chat. He had to of been in his 70's and was probably a bit hard of hearing. And can ya believe some of these chatty cathy's had the nerve to ask the professor if he would give some extra credit assignments in order to raise their grades! Ha! The prof quickly shot them down on that idea. I'm guessing that these kinds of behavior's are more common at less competitive and/or open entry schools (?). Seriously, I've never experienced this kind of crap at the university I went to for my bachelor's degree. Profs would immediately tell these kinds of classmates to leave the room. My other pet peeve is the noise that some students make while they're eating in class! I find it very distracting to hear chip bags opened crumpled, Dorito's munched, drinks slurped. And the cell phones ringing...argh!

As a nurse aide I've had to do post-mortem care in the nursing home and hospital. It's no big issue to me. However, I did find it upsetting when a fellow patient care aide at the hospital didn't want to properly perform her duties when her patient died. One of which included inserting the deceased's dentures. Geesh!

I was a few classes away from my first bachelor's degree when I was hired as a patient care tech. And that was two years ago!:) From my experience hiring manager's don't seem to think I'm overqualified (with a B.A. degree). The manager that hired me seemed excited about bringing me on board since I'm planning a career in nursing. And I did have prior nurse aide experience from many, many years ago. I can't imagine anyone with a college degree doing this kind of work for the fun of it. Most of my co-workers in my job category are studying for nursing or other allied health careers. And a few of them are like me and already have BA/BS degrees. One of them is studying for her master's degree. I recently applied at two different hospitals for patient tech and clerk positions. I got a call back for the tech and a call back for the clerk position. Amazingly the interview scheduler for the clerk position tried to get me to consider a patient care tech position! And my prior work experience (before tech) and college degree would be more useful in a clerk position. Well I decided to just stay with my current employer. It would seem that I've pidgeon holed myself into the tech/aide career category, UGH! Anyway, I'd have to say that hiring manager's wouldn't think that you're overqualified. Especially if you've indicated that you're planning a career change to nursing. If you're not getting any call backs it could be due to a few things. If you don't have prior experience or certification that could be an issue. But from what I've seen if you know someone (hiring manager or someone that know's him/her) you can get a job w/o any experience.:angryfire I've also noticed that some job positions are just merely advertised and a job candidate has already been "chosen". At my facility when a new tech is hired on our unit the first thing we think is who does he/she know or who are they related to.:icon_roll Without prior experience that's the only way to get hired. Or so it would seem.

I'm a PCA with a bachelor's degree (behavioral science & health policy). So it's not always the case of the RN having more education than the nurse aide. Only once did I receive public humuliation from a charge nurse who was working the previous shift who incorrectly assumed that I was attempting to change the patient assignment sheet that she created. Several of the nurse aides were looking at their room assignments and one proclaimed "this isn't right!". Nurses and aides are usually assigned the same patients when working consecutive days. Well this charge nurse literally ran up to me and yelled directly at me "Just WHO do YOU think YOU are?" It was clear that she was implying that I was inferior. Or rather SHE thought of me as inferior. I was still rather new on the job and just looked at her as if she was crazy. I didn't say a word. But tears did well up in my eyes. I walked away toward my assigned rooms. That nurse that yelled at me didn't apologize. She sent someone else to do it. I was hesitant to take this sort of job because this is EXACTLY the kind of treatment I thought I would receive. And I was humuliated! I have a college degree and am working what some may consider to be a "lowly" job. And I actually have more formal education than the woman who yelled at me. My plan was or maybe is to get another bachelor's degree in nursing. But after seeing how some of the nurse's treat each other and how some of the docs treat the nurses I'm seriously reconsidering my career plan. Another interesting situation occured in a patient's room. I was caring for the patient (behind the curtain) in bed 2 while the RN was assessing the patient in bed 1. That patient's family member made a comment to the nurse about how nice it must be that the RN doesn't have to waste time doing the dirty work because she went to school and has a DEGREE.:icon_roll I felt like ripping that curtain open and telling that woman a thing or two! But I just quietly giggled to myself...'hehehe!! I have twice the degree and gee I must really enjoy cleaning up poops and peeps! Almost all of the RN's that I work with treat the aides Maybe I'll go to human resources later this week and request the letters "B.A." be added to my name badge. I take my job seriously but often play the bubbly airhead persona. I'm just a cheerful smiling idiot, hehe! I'm still trying to figure out why some of the docs don't even look at me or acknowledge me when I pass them in the hallway and greet them with a "GOOD MORNING!" or "Hello!". Maybe I smell like poop or something?

At the hospital where I work the nursing staff is responsible for cleaning up the obvious fluids, chunks, etc.. which may be on the floor, walls, toilet seat, bed rails, and other possible areas. Once we clean up the obvious housekeeping will then come and do an "area clean" which is basically sanitizing. As a patient care aide this is usually my responsibility. On occasion an RN who doesn't have a superiority complex will assist. A few days ago there were student nurses on our hospital floor. As I was walking in the hall toward my patient who was on a bedside commode I overheard one of the students comment "Wooooooo! SOMETHING smells!". Well there sure was something that smelled and it was the BM in my patient's commode. Later that evening I realized that the student that openly (and in my opinion unprofessionally) commented on the odor was the student assigned to that particular room!:angryfire I didn't see that student in that patient's room all evening. Perhaps she wasn't required to do any direct patient care that evening. But it sure was nice of a male student to offer assistance with getting the patient on the commode even though it wasn't his patient. It appears that some of the student RN's don't want to get their hands dirty! Perhaps direct patient care experience or CNA training should be an entrance requirement of all nursing programs. I've noticed that some are now requiring CNA certification as a pre-req. I have a bachelor's degree and plan on going for a second bachelor's in nursing. Sometimes when I'm cleaning up chunks and puddles I think "WOW! I can't believe I'm cleaning this stuff up! What the heck am I doing here." And studying for another degree and will still be cleaning this kind of stuff up! But ya know what? This is my choice. And getting my hands dirty IS part of the nurse's job!