CNA1012

"Also different are the tasks I am allowed to perform. I remember when I worked in the nursing home they wouldn't even allow the CNA's to apply medicated creams and powders such as Nystatin; we also weren't allowed to take part in CPR which, looking back, seems pretty crazy to me. In the hospital I can check blood sugars, remove foley catheters, remove IV's, apply telemetry monitors, perform non-sterile dressing changes, empty drains, check vital signs, and perform CPR along with other tasks. All in all, I highly prefer the hospital environment to the long term care environment. I start nursing school next month and I believe it will be a bit easier to make the connections among certain concepts because you see such a wide variety of patients working in a hospital. There also is a lot of interaction between you as the CNA and the nurses and even the doctors, physical therapists, speech pathologists, laboratory technicians, etc. In the nursing homes where I worked, the nurses treated us like we were the scum of the earth. In the hospital teamwork is a lot better. You certainly will feel like you are back at a nursing home at times with your patient load but the good thing is that it doesn't last forever and often times you will get to meet new patients every time you work and even during the duration of your shift." this stood out to me a lot, thank you for taking the time to reply! I honestly went home crying because of how the nurses and some of the other aides treated me. I did everything in my power to try and do my best and try to make the work load for everyone a little easier. One of the nurses ******* me out because I had a patient who needed to use the bathroom but their nurse was nowhere to be found, so I flushed her NG tube, just how I was trained to do. I was trained by my CNA instructor when I took the course, another nurse at the care center, and all the other aides flushed tubes that the patients had. But her nurse was so infuriated with me she made my boss send me home. Another time a nurse made me go on lunch while we were doing rounds, and my "partner-aide" was so mad when I told her the nurse told me to go on lunch she complained to my boss and almost got me fired. Those are two of the instances that made me second-think being a CNA. I'm glad I stuck it out and now I absolutely love where I'm at. Mostly because I either babysit (in pediatrics) and do care when needed (ADLs, (feeding, changing, etc)) other than that I sit and chart and/or wait when I'm needed. When I was in the carecenter, the work load didn't usually bother me as much as the staff did. Id love to learn to do those things. When they emailed me they asked which unit I'd be comfortable in and I told them medical telemetry was a big interest for me. Knowing that you can do that stuff, hopefully that's how it is at this hospital because then I'll be trained to do those procedures even before nursing school, which I think is a big privilege/advantage for those who want to go to nursing school. I like keeping busy because in homecare I can get bored sitting and waiting around. Thank you for replying!

So I've been a CNA for almost a year now, I've worked in assisted living, long term care/rehab, and now that I'm the legal age, homecare. In August I start my prerequisites for my BSN. I've applied at one of the best hospitals in my state when I was a barely new CNA just to see if they would hire me. I wasn't 18 then, but now I'm 18 and have almost a year of CNA experience, and in different aspects of CNA work. The hospital then emailed me and asked me to come in for an interview so they could get me on the floor as soon as possible because of my experience and age, which is a really good thing in my state since we're one of the lowest paying states and hospitals usually don't come to you, basically offering you a job. So I felt really lucky to get that email. I had a bad experience in long term care, I cared about the patients, but the nurses and other aides made it really hard for me. But now I'm in homecare and absolutely love it. I mostly work with pediatric clients we have and I enjoy them all and I have worked around the medical needs they need like G Tubes, oxygen, etc. I'm wondering what it's like to work in a hospital. My mom worked as a CNA in a hospital and has told me about her experience. But that was almost 20 years ago. I want to know what it's like nowadays, could I work as a patient care tech also? What's everything like?