CNABESS

Cell phones. Leaving the room during pt. care to answer the phone and chat for 10 minutes. Or worse, having that danged phone up to your ear the entire time you are caring for someone. Put the dang phone away until you are done! This pt. and I do NOT want to know why it was so urgent for you to take that call. We do not need to hear about your friends cheating husband, lousy landlord, terrible job situation etc...Being on the floor and working means taking care of pts. now hang up that phone and get busy doing your job!......sorry...just ranting

going into a pts. rm. and fluffing sheets and pillows does NOT count as patient care. That pt. still needs help w/ ADLs. Do not count on his lack of short term memory to save you, especially when I went into his rm. 2 minutes after you left and found him on a dirty sheet with dirty underwear on. Did you forget that I would be giving him the back rub I promised him? Just because he has brain cancer, you assume he does not deserve full care because he wont remember anyway? You are lazy and a disgrace. Please quit and get a job selling movie tickets. That way you can sit on your ass for hours and still get paid. Oh, you already do that here don't you?

My niece is married to a man who is deaf from birth. He has a 75% hearing loss. His mother says it is because she went out to a july 4th celebration while she was pregnant, and the fireworks across the river were "so loud it ruined his eardrums". And no, she isn't joking.

To JADELPN, as a CNA, I thank you. I work with fantastic nurses on my rehab unit and NEVER hear, "thats for the aides to do". They are all brilliant and well educated people and so willing to help when I need it. With the exception of 1 or 2 shamefully lazy CNAs we all work nicely together. I hope your CNAs appreciate you as much as you appreciate them.

I wish you knew how smoothly things are running these last few weeks since you have been on leave for surgery. So much gets done and everyone seems to do their job and not mind. Nobody even misses you because you are so lazy and useless when you are here. Funny how little drama there is when you are not around, Believe me, management has noticed.

PS. Our shift is 3p-11p. Do not announce at 10:15 that you have to go because you forgot to do so and so for your invalid husband. We all see him picking you up in his little sports car.

You are lazy and a waste of time and space at this hospital! How dare you go into pt. rms. and change the tv. channel to your own preferred show, then have the gall to sit and watch it! All the while we are all out here running our collective tushes off. Yes, the pts. like you because you are so friendly and they enjoy your company. Thats because THE REST OF US are busy doing your work while you are in an air conditioned rm. on this 98 degree day enjoying Oprah. The pt. does not know that by spending 20 minutes behind the closed door chatting it up and pretending you are working, you are slacking. BTW when I finally was able to take my first break at 9:30 I did not appreciate the fact that I couldn't because you had decided to "take a quick one" and go outside for a smoke WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE. You really are a waste of time and space here, and as I am sure the hospital will figure out, a HUGE waste of their money. You still can't figure out why you are on probation status here??????????

OH Man! Please, please, please come to work with me. I would love to have you stay with the gentleman furthest from the nurses station, fall risk, insists he can get up and go to the bathroom on his own, because he isn't in much pain from that fracture (thanks to the heavy dose of excellent drugs) and will NEVER push the call light for help. Or sit with the extremely depressed woman who tries daily to prove she can do everything for herself to get out of the place sooner, and has fallen twice. She will not be going home soon after her readmission from the second fall. Please, come to work with me and I promise you, we will bow every time we walk past the room you are in and the pt. is SAFE.

As a CNA I can honestly say it would be the LVN. Why? Because when you are the nurse "everything" is you fault. It is a lousy truth, but still a truth. When something goes wrong it goes up the ladder from the CNA to the nurse, and down the ladder from administration to the nurse. It is an ugly fact. The nurse is the dumping ground for problems in a SNF, no matter what the cause. A CNA is held responsible, yes, but then the nurse is responsible since the CNAs work directly under his/her supervision. The lousy understaffing only creates problems.

You filthy old man! You say awful things to the nursing staff about your wife(while she is sitting right there) and then proceed to grab my behind while I am attempting to transfer your 265lb. Jabba the Hutt frame into the lift. Then giggle about it when I reprimand you! You are disgusting. BTW, that was me that immediately reported you to the administrator who then came in and told you if you handled another CNA like that you would be charged with assault and shipped off to any facility that would take you. And No, I do not appreciate your filthy jokes about nurses and "oral fixations" you filthy creep. You are here to rehab from a stroke you brought on yourself by eating nothing but Big Macs and fries, washing it down with a six pack of beer for years and smoking 3 packs a day. You are NOT here to fulfill your sick fantasies about nurses. How that poor wife of yours has tolerated you all these years is beyond any of us. If I could, I would provide her with a recommended diet of super high fatty foods and tell her to up the insurance quickly. Then let your filthy appetites do you in. You are such a creep.

I have a degree in a completely unrelated field, started nursing school many years ago, did not finish because my first son was born and was sick. I stayed home and had another child. Never wanted to go back to work. I LOVED being a stay at home mom! After raising my boys (who are now adults and on their own), I decided I wanted to do something worthwhile and work part time. I chose not to go back to nursing and am very happy in my part time CNA job at a rehab hosp. I love the work and I do not regret one bit my decision to not continue on. I do not need to make a living at this job, so that may make a big difference in how I feel. I am able to take those French classes I always wanted to take and still work my part time hours. So it is a wonderful mix for me. I am always amazed by people that cannot accept the decisions other people make. As far as the butt wiping comments go, I always respond with, "SOMEbody needs to wipe butts, and I am not so high myself that I feel I am too good for such things. Some day you will thank the person who is willing to wipe yours." I wish you all the best and hope you are happy and content in your decision.

I am CNA in a busy rehab hospital. We have lots of hips, strokes, cardiac rehab, brain injury, some SC injury, some just in need of reconditioning after serious illness and weeks in the hospital (wound vacs and PEG tubes). My job is pretty low key, but fast paced, except when someone goes south on us, but I Love it. I must say, I work with the absolute best nurses on the planet. They are so quick thinking, dedicated and caring. The PT and OT staff are exceptional, too. Most of my fellow CNAs are dedicated to this type of unit and would not want to work anyplace else. Since we have pts. stay from 3-8 wks. we get to know most of them pretty well, and it is wonderful to see the progression to home. I love my job, the people I work with, and the atmosphere. Really, I could not ask for better.

Oh, and rectal temps. EVERYBODY in the facility had to have a rectal temp. done for vitals. Young, old, did not matter, no temp but a rectal temp was accurate. Man, I am glad we have better equipment today!

As mentioned on another, similar thread Yes, white uniforms, and they better be crisp and ironed! White stockings under your skirt, and those ugly nurse mates oxford shoes. Even as a NA and a student nurse, we were expected to look "professional and super white". For years after leaving nursing school (to have a baby), I did not wear white anything! Now that I am back to work, all my scrubs are blues, greens, and purples. I also remember the "no gloves except for a sterile field" rule. We were not supposed to make any pt. feel like we were not willing to touch them. Oh, and having to do the blood sugar. HORRIFIED at what was considered a reading "1+ 2+ 3+" Man, having had two diabetic parents, I cringe now. As a student nurse, I also remember the lectures about "you represent the nursing profession. Do not be seen out at bars and running around town. Pt. families may see you and think less of nursing" This was 27 years ago. Imagine, now there is Facebook to worry about! There was no such thing as HIPAA. We talked about pts. to anyone and told families and friends anything. We were expected to answer all questions. Man, now if you leave the room without resetting your portable vitals to zero, you get written up for making information available to anyone. Things have changed so much. Oh, and if you still have a unit secretary, count yourself as blessed.

I am sorry. It was meant to be funny in a very facetious way. The reason things are truly funny is because they are true. I am certainly not belittling any of the people I have had the privilege to help take care of over the years. I hope nobody reads it this way. I apologize in advance if that is the way it came off. I just remember some of the ideas we had then, and how utterly foolish they look now. Also, the idea that health care facilities can do without those wonderful people that helped run things so smoothly, and the nursing staff can pick up the slack, is just as ridiculous!