sarah.e.foley

I work at an acute care hospital in the med/onc unit, was hired with no experience starting out at 13.37 an hour with 1$ differential each for nights and weekends. If we work an extra shift we get a 3.75$ differential for picking up, and if we work as a sitter then we get an extra 1$ too...... So one time, I picked up a saturday and worked as a sitter for $19.75. YOWZA! When I took my job I was ecstatic at the prospect of just making something more than Illinois minimum wage- this was a blessing from GOD :) It's all about how you feel though girl, do YOU think you're worth just $9/hour? One of the reasons I don't grumble and complain about my job like many other people in this world do is because I feel like the wage that I earn is worthy of my skills and effort... for 15.37 I'll give up my friday nights to do EKGs and bloodsugars, help pts with ADLs and wipe butts!

Hey all! I am a CNA, working at an acute care hospital as a PCT (already cross trained for accu check and EKG, working on getting my phlebotomy license this summer) in a Med/Onc unit. I love love love my co-workers (night shift peeps rock!) but this is not exactly my first choice of units to work in. I have known for a long time now that women's specialties is where my heart belongs, and I want to get my foot in the door now as a PCT to improve my chances of getting an RN job in L&D or M/B or NICU, and gain invaluable learning experience. How to go about it though I am not sure. There are currently not any PCT spots available in these units at my hospital (and I want to stay here for sure)... I want to ask my manager if she can help me make this transition, but am worried that she will be unhappy that I want to leave (as we JUST barely have enough staff for night shift to work comfortably as it is) and then she won't be very helpful. I am also worried, however that if I contacted the managers of M/B or L&D directly, when she found out she'd be feeling like I went behind her back, and maybe say or do something to cause me not to get the new position. Help! What should I do?!

Persistence IS key! I graduated my CNA program last June, and IMMEDIATELY started applying for jobs- didn't get one until OCTOBER! I applied to just about every LTC, hospital and rehab place in the county. I'd never had trouble finding a job before, and I was frustrated and sad. Then, on a whim I decided to apply to the one last place I knew of, a hospital that was a little farther away than I originally had considered commuting... I wrote a convincing cover letter, and BAM! Two weeks later I was hired :) Moral of my story: don't give up, and write a good cover letter! People these days over look them a lot since most places do online applications only, but usually there is still a way to submit one, and it can make allllll the difference as I've learned :) Happy hunting!

First of all, I feel bad that you work somewhere like that and are CLEARLY being made an example of. I work in a Med/Onc unit, and though we are VERY focused on patient satisfaction too, we would NOT get written up or suspended for what happened to you. It's something that is talked about in meetings and the whole staff is warned about, but no particular people are singled out for because it is TOOOOO hard to accurately pinpoint who did what, and honestly patients often blame the wrong person for things too. Keep your chin up girl, and definitely look for another job!!!

Where I work, a med/onc unit at a hospital, the crash cart (or code blue cart) is sent down to stat stores after each code incident/emergency and a new full one is brought back up with a "lock tag" on it (you have to break the seal to open the cart drawers- that way we know if anything in there has been used or stolen and the cart needs to be restocked). Since it is "locked" the only things that need to be checked are on the outside- the defibrilator and it needs to be verified that there is a full O2 tank on the back. Since things are done this way, I suppose that anyone on our unit could do the checklist, but it is technically the duty of the charge nurse (each shift), though she could delegate it to someone else if needed.

I felt the same way, basically the whole time during clinicals in my CNA course. We were in a med-surg unit at a hospital. Our class took half the patients, and the hospital CNA took the other half- we did not shadow anyone. My teacher would pair us up or put us in groups of 3 and give us 2 or 3 patients (class of 10 people), tell us to go get report from the nurses, then come back and tell her what we were going to be doing for the patient. If we had to do transfers, etc, we had to go get her, but most other things we did by ourselves, and she would rotate from group to group and spend a few minutes with each of us. Before we were allowed to start clinicals we had to pass skills tests on everything (shaving a pt, transfers, baths, range of motion, peri care, etc.) so when we were on the floor we were actually technically ready... mentally though it still felt like being thrown to the sharks! I never felt confident and secure in my abilities until after I'd already gotten a CNA job and finished my orientation (shadowing with someone)- THEN I knew I could do it and I wasn't so gun-shy. Hope it goes better next time for you!

I agree with northernguy! Here at the hospital I work at, patient satisfaction scores, team work and time management are all KEY. Explain to them how you are good at time management already; tell them how you will be good at taking care of so many more patients because you are used to taking care of these home health customers all alone, and when there is a good team around you you'll be able to get things done faster. Show them how your work experience makes you a better candidate over someone who they will have to train, someone who has NO idea what the job is really like- because even if you aren't used to their patient load, you KNOW how to take care of patients competently, just need a little practice with time mgmt maybe. Show that you are willing to learn, energetic, a team player, and care about patient satisfaction and I think you'll win them over :)

I live in Illinois, so I can't give you advice about the Alaska job situation, but here there are always plenty of night time CNA jobs available! Don't forget, hospitals are an option too- don't just look at LTC facilities.

I agree with the others, that though this will take some sacrifice, in the long run this will help you in the job market. For most places you need some experience if you want to get hired into a full-time position right off the bat- it's an unwritten qualification that I've discovered through chatting with my coworkers. When I applied for the job that I have now (which is my first CNA job) I pretty much just applied on a whim- it's a hospital with a high reputation, and I honestly didn't think I had a snowball's chance in hell at getting the job- I'd applied to every other place around and gotten nary a call back.... but with this place, I turned my frustration into a positive. I wrote a very convincing cover letter explaining why I deserved a chance at the job, and I was hired on the spot during my interview. I accepted a part time position (24 hours a week), and after 3 months, I was promoted to full time. I think back on it now and thank GOD that I didn't get those jobs that I applied for now at the other places, because I love where I work Best of luck girl!

First of all, 26:1 with how many nurses. just that one? I don't work in LTC, I'm at a hospital, but if we are short a PCT and have to have that many patients, there are atleast 6 nurses around! So if you don't have many nurses either, that's even worse (quit, quit now!!!!) and I feel your pain girl. HOWEVER, I have to say I disagree with some of the previous posters- there WAS a right choice in that situation. Where I work, we have bed/chair alarms too, and if we take someone to the bathroom, or are helping them to the commode, etc, and another alarm goes off, we stay put and keep helping/supervising that first person- end of story. You finish one task before you start another. I know that it is hard, emotionally to do this, but think about it this way: if you leave person A to help person B because her issue seems more pressing, then have to leave person B for C because C needs more help, have you really accomplished anything? You've left several things in-progress, instead of calling for back up. If that nurse really could've heard that alarm, she could've heard you yelling for help too I bet. If you don't have a cell phone/walkie-talkie system there, then just stick your head out the door and yell for help! Maybe I just see this differently because I work for an awesome hospital that really does have a great team, and we all depend on each other so much, but I think that if you call for help in a situation like that, and don't leave who ever you're with to begin with... then you can't be blamed for not rescuing the second patient- just because you have a 26 patient load doesn't mean that you can be in 26 patients at once! And THAT you cannot be written up for! I hope this helps, and I hope things get better at work for ya girl! :)

We are having a lot of changes lately with supervisors on nights, so many times we only have a relief charge, and I didn't want to ask our PCS manager because I didn't want to sound... greedy? I didn't want her to think that I'm doing it just for the money, cause I'm not- ever since I decided I wanted to work in healthcare, I knew I wanted to be in a Mother/Baby or trauma area.

I am currently a CNA working in a hospital (on a Med-Onc unit) and I am going to be taking classes to start on my phlebotomy certification this summer. In my hospital, if you want to work in the ER or a Mother/Baby unit you are required to be trained in phlebotomy- if somehow you get hired and aren't trained, they'll train you but it's a compressed course... and your chances of being hired to one of those positions if you're not already certified are SLIM. SO, I am getting certified. What I wonder is, before I move to one of those units where it's required, will I get a raise for this cert in my Med-Onc unit? There is virtually NO possibility that this new skill will be able to be utilized in my unit. I work 8 hour nights (11p-7a) but we have a night time phlebotomy tech pool, and the nurses do RN draws from ports at night if needed... so if I won't actually get to use my new skill, will I still get a raise just for the virtue of having this certification?

Hey girl :) Congrats on graduating! I myself am not yet an RN, I'm a tech (CNA) working on RN liscense... at the hospital that I work at here in IL (Medical/Oncology unit) I am on night shift, and often times the night RNs (who work 7p-7a or 11p-7a) have 6 patients when we are at full census. Unfortunately this can be extremely taxing for the nurses, I know from observation and their words. Some people (incorrectly) assume that just because a nurse works nights means that she has it easier and can handle a bunch more patients- and it's not always true. There are nights when things are easy breezy, and nights when we all wanna pull our hair out and cry! Sometimes there will be a group of patient(s) with: one on dialysis, one with a PCA, highly unstable sugars, a patient getting aggressive chemo, a combative person, and a super confused one that wants to crawl out of bed or get naked every 10 minutes. Yes, it happens, but not every day. All I can say is I hope you have good nurses to partner with, and take FULL advantage of your techs! The only way that the nurses survive having 6 high acuity is utilizing the techs, helping each other out (the RNs) and if you have a good charge nurse, using him/her too. Where I work at least it's totally acceptable, and even encouraged, that the nurses ask the charge for help when they are swamped. If you work there for a while, and feel that it's just too much, talk to your manager! Our staffing model was recently updated because we all banded together and brought our greivances to the manager, and had meetings, and things were resolved. Maybe you'll get there and find out that the other nurses feel overworked too...Or, maybe they'll have some good tips for you as to how to handle 6 patients- talk to them! Good luck :)