Kitkat23

I have a question for you guys. I work with this one CNA who is very rude, selfish, cold, neglectful and lazy. She is sloppy too. Well, we work second shift and when we clock in and get our lists and reports, she'll start to to PM care on all her residents. I'm not talking about the ones who go back to bed for dinner/bedridden, comatose patients. She'll take the ones who eat supper in the dining room and do pm care and put johnnnies on them and then wheel them back to the dining room. So after supper, she'll just put them back to bed w/o changing them or washing thier faces and she''ll leave the bedridden patients unchanged and not turned. She'll hide in the dayroom watching TV with her feet up on a chair (like her living room) while the other aides and I bust our asses answering lights and putting residents to bed. One night I worked with her short of one aide; and she pulled the same stunt, finishing her pm care before supper and hiding in the dayroom. I had 3 hoyer lift patients on my list and she refused to help me stating she was on her break; which lasted until 10:00 rounds. I had to call a fellow aide on the other wing to help me since the nurse was busy with meds. :trout: She doesn't understand the concept of teamwork; despite being an aide for about 8 years. She's fresh and has a big temper. She doesn't take corrective, gentle criticism at all. She started working last fall; on her first day orientating with another aide on the floor, she kept snapping at her that she's not a retard and been a CNA for 8 years. The orienting CNA was just introducing her to the residents and talking about routines and showing her the linen carts and stuff. But she took it the wrong way. So she ended up with a list on her own. She obviosly didn't want to work with her orientator to help get residents up and hoyered; she said to the charge nurse, "I'm not a child, I work alone.":( I asked her why her patients were in gowns in the dining rooms and she snapped that her list is hard and she wants to finish early and to mind my own business. But one of the residents she had in a gown always had her son come over to feed her supper every night and he would be upset if he found her not properly dressed. I addressed it to the charge nurse and all she said was that I have to work it out with her and she was not a cna babysitter. Well, I try to set a good example with that aide by helping her out with patients and telling her that we work together as a team and not against each other. Teamwork actually gets work done more effectively and quickly. But she cops an attitude and calls me bossy and I'm not her charge nurse. She was written up last month for not putting on a tab alarm on a resident and refusing to check on him during rounds. The administrator is keeping an eye on her attitude and bad behavior after she yelled and screamed at another CNA and nurse.:uhoh21: She yelled at me a few times in front of patients and visitors for being bossy, interrupting her while she was on her socalled break, and for taking too long in the shower room. She hoyers pateints by herself but will tattle on other cnas who do the same. One day she was wheeling the hoyer lift to a residents room and I nicely asked her if she needed help, and she snapped, "What? Do I have the right to use the hoyer lift? Do you need it right now?" I was like, "Whoa, calm down. I'm just offering to help you. We're a team and hoyering patients takes 2 aides to do." She started cussing me out in French. (She's Haitian.) and told the administrator that I tried to snatch the hoyer lift from her. Now she's supposed to be watched by them, but they are afraid of her since it was rumored that she threatened to sue them and turn them into the state for discriminating her for her being Haitian. The charge nurse started to get tough and write her up for her bad attitude, but administration does nothing. I went to the DNS about the aide putting gowns on her patients before dinner but she told me to discuss it with the aide and I should worry about my own list and my work. I'm so F@CKIN fed up with everything!! I hate being one of the only aides that care and not being appreciated by the administration. Most of the other aides aren't much better than Miss Attitude. I work with only 3 good aides now. Most of the other aides I used to work with quit or went on night shift, or got fired for closing thier eyes for a second. Do you have any suggestions or comments about Miss Attitude's early pm care and bad attitude? :trout:

Sounds like the CNAs I used to work with in 3 years of CNA work. I was fired unfairly last month for "neglecting a resident". I put a resident to bed who's confused and has a history of falling out of bed and taking off his tab alarm. On my last night, I kept checking on him and he kept taking off his tab alarm, so I kept putting it back on him where he could not reach it. I had to take my half hour dinner break so I asked my fellow coworker to keep an eye on him while i ate supper. We were short one aide that night. She didn't. She is lazy, mean, and not a teamplayer. Her favorite quote is "not my light, not my resident." When I got back from break, my coworker and I started our final rounds and I found the patient sitting on the floor by his bed. His tab alarm was pulled off, but didn't ring. My coworker yelled for the nurse and tattled, "that was Kat's patient. She didn't put the alarm on him." So I was written up and I begged to write my statement, so I did. I wrote that the patient was found sitting on the floor next to his bed, not hurt and apparently took off his tab alarm. I wrote that I was constantly checking up on him, and found him with his tab alarm off and trying to swing out of bed. I could not get him to a chair because he was a hoyer lift patient and was sick with the flu, so he was on orders for bedrest. The resident is confused and has a history of trying to get out of bed and taking off his tab alarm as well. The next day I was called into the DNS's office and was fired. The administrator was there as well. I tried to explain my case, but they apparently didn't buy my story. They said I was making petty excuses and failed to put on the tab alarm, risking his safety! The CNA I worked with my last night, walked away from call lights going off under her nose and ringing tab alarms. She had her pm care done before supper, half her patients were in johnnies in the dining room and after supper she just tossed them to bed without toileting them or changing them. She sat on her ass watching TV in the dayroom while I was busting my ass putting residents to bed, giving showers, answering lights, shutting off tab alarms and keeping my eye on the patient who fell. The aide refused to help me hoyer or boost patients so I had to fetch an aide from another wing to help me. The nurse was too busy with meds/treatments and the lazy aide tattled that I interrupted her during break; 3 hours long! The nursing home I was fired from had no union or anything. The new administration pretend to care about residents but they only care about making money and hired any CNA that came into the door. The DNS told me that I don't work hard or fast enough and I got to close to patients; I work hard and quick enough, but I'm sweet and talk to my residents. Plus, I perform effective, excellent care. I've always put my residents first and loved them to pieces. I was their favorite aide and their families loved me. The DNS also had the nerve to tell me that the job is not for me and being a CNA is more than putting a patient on the bedpan and saying hello to them. CNAs have to think fast, move fast, and be sharp. I thought I was fast enough but don't take major shortcuts or neglect patients. If they wanted to prevent that confused patient from falling or taking off his alarm, they should have put a bed alarm under his bottom sheet or hire an extra CNA to be one-on-one sitter. But, they are being so cheap and money greedy, they stopped calling extra CNAs to do one-on-one care. They took our bonuses and overtime pay away and cut the aides on the floor. There used to be four aides on each unit, now its three. If their census is low, down two beds, they send a CNA home. And they stopped calling CNAs to pick up if a CNA calls out sick. That's the problem with nursing homes today. They are soo greedy for money and don't give a damn about the patients wellbeing, they overwork the CNAs to death and it seems like the good CNAs get the boot, and the bad, lazy CNAs are treated like gold. Since, they work fast and take major shortcuts. I'm so mad and now looking for another job. I'm taking college classes right now, but I'm not sure if I want to work in LTC. Comments people? :trout:

Oh and congrats on your Lifespan exam. I guess I'll be all jittery when I go through my prereqs, clinical labs, and clinicals. I'm so happy for you. :rotfl: :balloons:

I will be praying for you. You'll do well. I had a better day in clinical except it was a slow day for finding skills. There was only 2 IVs that had to be pulled in Same Day Surgery, but my instructor wanted me to observe my classmate pull. (She hasn't done an IV pull yet) and the other man had a lot of blood and drainage on the IV site so the RN had to pull it. PCTs and PCT students aren't allowed to discontinue an IV with a lot of drainage or blood on the site. There were no simple dressing changes, ostomy changes, and foley removals for me. I observed an colostomy bag change, did a bunch of accuchecks and Dynamaps/Pulse Oxes, and emptied a JP. I finish the course on Tuesday and I want to get the rest of the competencies out of the way. Yes, I'm a busy girl. I go to class 3 evenings a week (4-8pm) and work 4 nights a week at the nursing home (2nd shift). I hardly have time for myself. I've squeezed in Christmas shopping and decorating the house for the holidays. I won't have time to make Christmas cookies. My mom is graduating on Sunday with a bachelor's degree and I didn't get the day off approved. Nobody wanted to switch with me. I'm calling out; my mom gets her bachelors only once in her lifetime. My coworker wants to switch days with me so she can work for me on Christmas Eve and day and I'll work the New Year's weekend. I'm signing up for nursing school at the community college. I'll have to take the prereqs first, but I want to go for it. I've wanted to be a nurse when I was a little girl; but when I graduated from high school; I was undecided. I took the CNA course when I was 21 and knew I wanted to work my way up little by little. I wasn't the best in algebra and chemistry, but one of my friends say its a very good learning experience to become a CNA and PCT before going to nursing school. Good luck on your exams. When do you graduate? Are you a CNA or PCT? Write back to me. See ya.

Hi Jess. Hang in there girl. I know how you feel. I work as a CNA in a nursing home. I'm taking a Patient Care Technician course at the community college and started my clinical last week. I've been feeling nervous and excited. My stomach is full of butterflies; I can barely eat and I've been throwing up. So far I've been doing well in clinical. Today wasn't a good day for me in clinical. I discontinued my first IV tonight and I did terrible. I started to cry (not in front of the patient). Pulling the tape off was hard; especially when I had to hold pressure on the IV catheter at the same time. The lady had a ton of tape glued to the IV site. My instructor and the lady's daughter (who's an RN) was watching me and I guess I got nervous and my brain froze a little. After all that practice in the classroom, I thought I was ready. I didn't get all my supplies ready; stupid me! I ended up fumbling with the tape like an idiot and it was stuck to my glove and my finger kept slipping off the IV site. I pulled it out gently but quick; but I didn't do a great job. Tomorrow, I'm going to have to do another IV pull with the instructor and an experienced PCT watching me. I felt so bad; the instructor told me to listen to her more and not get defensive when she corrects me. I'm taking care of patients. I did well suctioning my patient. (Oral Suctioning).I'm doing well with emptying JPs and doing Accuchecks, Pulse Ox's, and Dynamaps. Plus I've been helping out on the floor as a CNA; passing trays, feeding patients, taking temps and vitals, boosting up patients, answering call bells, doing pm care, setting up rooms for new admits, providing emotional support to patients and their visitors. I fumbled with my first Accucheck, but I did well after I did a couple more. I practiced a lot tonight with my IV pull. (I stuck a pin in a sponge and taped it with a bunch of tape and practiced a lot and focused on correcting the mistakes I made tonight.) I felt like I failed during my IV pull. At the nursing home I work at; I'm one of the best aides and I'm so confident in what I do. I was so embarrassed; I cried and almost cussed out my instructor. I felt like she embarrased me in front of the patient and her daughter. I felt so bad, I was so angry at myself. But I want to do it again right. Then she had me empty out the JP and wipe the spout with alcohol; then I squeezed it while covering the spout lightly with an alcohol wipe. Plus I have my other competencies to complete: removal of a foley catheter, changing an ostomy bag, and changing a simple dressing. (Plus removing an IV right!) I'm so nervous; I want to get through the course and do well. I'm going to change my attitude and control my emotions. I thought the instructor was going to kick me out of the class tonight. I don't want to fail the class. Does anyone have any advice about handling my PCT clinical jitters?

Hi there! I'm a CNA working in a nursing home and I love it. It's the best job I've ever had. I love taking care of the residents and making their days brighter by showing up and talking to them. They love my smiles, my scrub tops, my chats with them, and the way I take care of them. It can be hard at times, but I do my best. It's so hard; I get so attached to patients. They're like family to me. Their visitors appreciate the care I give to them and say I'm very devoted to my job and take pride in what I do. It's so hard when we're short of cnas and I have a heavier workload and can't provide the best care for my patients. I have to rush and start putting some residents in before supper so I wouldn't be killing myself during pm care after dinner. I'm a float aide but the unit I mostly work on is hectic. It has patients who's nonstop on the light or screaming for the nurse and tab alarms go off like crazy. I have patients who love playing with the call light and it drives me so crazy that I feel like taking it away for good. (I don't.):stone :uhoh21: We have a patient on the hectic unit who won't wear a brief despite being a heavy wetter. (She'll rip them off!) So she pees her pants so the aides have to change her pants on rounds. When I come in and she's dry, I put her on the toilet and run the water so she pees. When she has a bm in her wheelchair or bed, she'll smear it and throw it around. The aides call it digging. I always toilet her on first rounds and pm care; especially when she's on the MOM list (Milk of Magnesia). I'm getting off the subject. I love my job, but it has its not so great moments. Right now, I'm taking a Patient Care Technician course at the community college. (I took my CNA course there as well and I have the same instructor again.) I had my first day of clinical today at the hospital and it was great. Hopefully it doesn't snow tomorrow so clinical isn't postponed. I'm thinking about enrolling in nursing school prereqs. I'm 23, single, and I don't have kids so I should go for it. :)

PCT stands for Patient Care Technician. It's an advanced CNA course at a hospital or community college. They learn more advanced skills and the course I'm taking is excellent. I'm learning to discontinue foleys and IVs, bladder scanning, emptying JPs and Hemovacs, simple dressing changes, sterile techniques, using the pulse oximeter and Dynamap, changing a colostomy bag, oral suctioning, applying oxygen equipment, suicide watches, accuchecks, collecting urine, stool, and sputum specimens, caring for postop patients, etc. I finished the classroom portion and will start clinical at the local hospital on Monday. I'm very excited but I'm very nervous at the same time. :chuckle

Hey there, I'm back. I finished the classroom portion of the PCT program. I start clinical at the hospital on Monday. I'm excited, but very nervous.:stone On the first day of clinical, I get my student badge, learn bladder scanning, accuchecks, Dynamap, and the pulse oximeter, and get oriented at the hospital. I know my way around the hospital by doing volunteer work last year. Plus we will shadow a PCT on the first day and do our CNA skills such as pass trays, feed, answer bells, do pm care, empty bedpans, etc. I did very well in the classroom. I've got A's on my quizzes, labs, and my anatomy project. I got a 100 on my final exam. I'm nervous about the clinical and getting a good grade. I want to do all my competencies without any mishap. I have 2 partners in clinical and they've became good friends to me. We'll help each other out. :) The instructor is sweet, but is strict and doesn't take bs with anyone. I had her when I took my CNA class two years ago. She'll be watching every student like a hawk at the hospital when we do our competencies. She's the Queen of Infection Control. (No gloves in the hall or dirty linen/briefs tossed on the floor!) I wish she was supervisor at the nursing home where I work. Some of the cnas suck and don't belong in the nursing field. Most nurses are easygoing and put up with their bs, attitudes, and rough handling. If they had my instructor as supervisor/charge nurse, they wouldn't last and they'd be out the doors.:angryfire I've been an aide on and off for over a year. I did private-duty homecare for 3months and worked for a pool agency for a few months, and know I work in a nursing home. I've worked there for almost 8 months. I volunteered at the hospital for a year. (I stopped due to my dad's illness, long hours at work, and now my class.) I'm so confident as a CNA at my job and know I'm a nervous, scared to death student all over again. Any tips on how to deal with PCT clinical stress? Should I introduce myself to the patients as an aide or student PCT while pulling foleys and IVs and doing my basic CNA skills? I have butterflies in my stomach. I don't want to puke at the clinical site. Any advice on how to deal? Thanks, I'll appreciate it very much.:)

I know I'll have a bad day at work when it's a full moon night. I'm an aide in a nursing home and the unit I mostly work on is the nuthouse.(Patients on the call light nonstop and confused residents setting off tab alarms or screaming for the nurse) On full moon night, it's total xxxx. On full moon nights I've worked, the hallway would be lit like a Christmas tree, tab alarms would go off like crazy, residents screaming for attention and playing with the call bells, getting bruises from combatative patients, nobody wants to eat at suppertime, getting trays thrown at me, total care patients puking and xxxxxxx their beds like crazy; total beds time (my favorite-not!) and patients refusing care and showers. Yup, they'd rather sit in a dirty brief and smell like dead fish than get cleaned up. We used to have a woman on the "nuthouse" unit who'd call the police on her phone if nobody got her a bedpan or answered her call light at a certain time. She got one aide fired so 2 aides had to be in the room with her during care. She'd call the cops and say the cnas hit her and the nurse poisoned her with meds. She yelled like a banshee if a cna barely touched her during care and nobody liked doing care on her. Her daughter was worse than her; she'd be cussing out the nursing staff for not caring for her mother and would watch the aides near the window. She passed away last year. I wasn't there when she was alive, but the aides told me she was the worst patient on the unit.

Hi there. Actually I do her showers in 20 minutes. I guess I was exaggerating. She's a minimal assist. She can get undressed, but needs help with her socks, shoes, and pulling her pants and pullups off. I have to supervise her when she can get into the shower chair. She's not a fancy woman, she only wants a tiny bit soap and shampoo, and she hates lotion. I had offered to give her lotion since her skin is dry but she complains it's sticky and makes her feel unclean. She loves hot water and scrubbing herself till she bleeds. I worry because she's so fragile and caused herself some skin tears. I do what she tells me, but I learned to get her early so I wouldn't go nuts putting in my other patients. I'm not trying to be mean and rush her, but she's clean enough; she'll tear her skin up. Tuesday night is a busy night for showers and we have only one shower room. I try to start conversations with her and ask her about her family and interests, but she just glares at me or makes bitter remarks. I'm not God and I can't reach out to everyone. She never smiled, but I know how she feels giving up her house for a small room and a hall full of nutty patients and lack of privacy. I agree with Michelle.

Hello. I agree. Night shift may be easier than day or evening, but it's not the easiest. I work during the evenings, but sometimes do a double and stay on night shift. There is one aide per hall at night and not everybody sleeps. The bed alarms go off and people who are more alert ring for the bathroom or painpills. It's hard when you're doing rounds and 3 call lights go off and a bed alarm and the nurse hardly helps you out. Plus you have to get one patient up and washed. At least on days and evenings, you have more staff to help you out. I had to bug the nurse or the aide on the next wing for a boost or help with a deadweight, uncooperative resident. I agree Marie. Someday they'll be in a nursing home or hospital and they'll appreciate CNAs more. But I get so mad when a great proffession gets looked down at.

My pet peeve is how certain people look down at me for being a CNA and working in LTC. They said that all I do is wipe peoples' asses and empty bedpans and it's a gross job. They don't look at it as being a caregiver and caring for people who can't care for themselves anymore. Somebody has to do it. I like my job and except for my few snotty friends, I'm appreciated by a lot of people mosty my residents and their families. I'm thinking about nursing school and I'm taking the PCT program (Patient Care Technician) at the community college and the clinical will be at the hospital. I'm very excited, I needed at least 3 months experience as an aide in LTC. But I'm proud to be an aide. It's an honest and noble profession; the first step in the nursing field.

Hey Nikki. You do sound like a great aide. Too bad you don't work with me. Congrats on being employee of the month. You deserve it. Some aides I work with are so lazy and uncaring that I don't know why they're still working. Anyway, I'm sorry about your difficult resident. She's so young. I had a patient who was 54, except he was a rehab patient with two broken legs. He died in August when he had sudden kidney failure. anyway good luck in your job and don't worry about the mean one. You can't reach everybody, you're not god. :wink2:

:balloons: I remember I was stuck working on my 23rd birthday in May and it was full moon night. I was never really superstitious, so I didn't think much about it. Well when I walked in at 3pm, the unit was chaotic.The Med Nurse told me it was full moon and the floor is total hell. Residents were screaming and shouting, they kept hopping out of their wheelchairs and sounding off thier tab alarms, and everyone was on the bell nonstop. I remember this one lady kept unbuckling her seat belt, pulling her tab alarm off, and walked to the front door trying to open it. Two confused patients kept playing with the call light and I was so mad that they kept saying that they didn't need anything or that they didn't push it. One would push the bell and wheel away from it and the other had the bell glued to her hand. I wanted to take their call lights away and stick them where the sun didn't shine. When I passed out dinner trays, one of the residents shouted that she wasn't hungry and threw it on the floor. She planned on throwing it at me, but I moved out of the way. I didn't want to wear food on my nice new scrubs. Plus during feeding time, my patients didn't want to eat or picked at their food. One spit her carrots out on my shirt. ICK! Gross! I ended up wearing food for the rest of the night. One of our short-term residents didn't like the supper and everytime I got a different meal, she would toss it at me and tell me to get something else. I told her egg salad, tuna fish, or peanut butter sandwiches is all we had and that's final. Most of the patients I put to bed that night was either cranky or combatitive. One of my favorite patients whose known for occasional mood swings was very verbally and physically abusive. I was washing her up for bed and when I finished, she yelled that I didn't wash her and to come back here. She took off her johnny and threw it at me. I put it back on her and told her that I washed her up, changed her brief, and gave her a backrub with her favorite lotion and that I had to go to my next resident. The bells were going off again-probably my other resident ringing for the toilet. She threw her johnny at me and cussed me out saying that she'll tell the nurse on me for not washing her up and when I tried to put her johnny back on, she punched my arms hard. I had two big bruises for a week. I covered her with a blanket and I told her if she wanted to lie there naked, fine, but was getting the nurse. I had it and I didn't have to put up with her behavior. I was so mad and almost cried. This is my birthday present? I got the nurse to calm her down and she told me to take a break. On last rounds one of the total care patients threw up all over her bed and had runny diarrhea seeping out of her depends. She was heavy and I had to clean her up, yup total bed and everything; her johnny, pillowcase, topsheets. What a night, but I did survive. :imbar