"My Tech" or "My Aide"

Nurse Leigh · Jun 4, 2015

^^^ Um, part of an RN's duties and scope of practice is to delegate appropriately. Also, to be a CNA, one must go through the training -unless allowed to skip it if they've completed the first semester of nursing school etc. - then sit for and pass an exam. A nurse who delegates appropriately is not on a power trip - they are doing their job.

ConfusedAmanda1 · Jun 4, 2015

Who will get "their feels hurt"? My title is not CNA, far from it. I do everything an RN does, aside from IV meds. I start IVs and can hang saline, but that is as far as I can go with IVs. Everything else is within my scope of practice.

Your sarcasm is proof of your ignorance.

Am I nurse? No. Do I want to a nurse? Nope. If I would have directed all of my education towards nursing, I would be an ARNP now. And you would "assist" me. One more year and you will, call me Doctor. 3 more years I will be a independently practicing Doctor of Physical Therapy.

springchick1, ADN, RN · Jun 4, 2015

Who will get "their feels hurt"? My title is not CNA, far from it. I do everything an RN does, aside from IV meds. I start IVs and can hang saline, but that is as far as I can go with IVs. Everything else is within my scope of practice.
Your sarcasm is proof of your ignorance.
Am I nurse? No. Do I want to a nurse? Nope. If I would have directed all of my education towards nursing, I would be an ARNP now. And you would "assist" me. One more year and you will, call me Doctor. 3 more years I will be a independently practicing Doctor of Physical Therapy.

So what is your title then?

Purple_roses · Jun 4, 2015

Who will get "their feels hurt"? My title is not CNA, far from it. I do everything an RN does, aside from IV meds. I start IVs and can hang saline, but that is as far as I can go with IVs. Everything else is within my scope of practice.
Your sarcasm is proof of your ignorance.
Am I nurse? No. Do I want to a nurse? Nope. If I would have directed all of my education towards nursing, I would be an ARNP now. And you would "assist" me. One more year and you will, call me Doctor. 3 more years I will be a independently practicing Doctor of Physical Therapy.

If you would like your path to Doctor of Physical Therapy to be a smooth one, I would suggest that you stop it with this inferiority complex. Seriously. I am a CNA and I can assure you delegation is entirely necessary, appropriate, and NOT a personal attack or power trip. It's the chain of command. It's how things work. Everyone has to start somewhere.

ConfusedAmanda1 · Jun 4, 2015

One last time. The word "delegate" is being misused. To delegate is to allow another person to represent you. You are using it, to describe authority over another person, in a sense of telling them what to do. You can ask the "assistant " to do something as can the "assistant", you. If a CNA say "hey this person is showing signs of an MI, would you take it seriously?

When someone is showing signs of a TIA, do you explain the symptoms that has caused that assumption? Or do you just say "if something is different with patient X, come get me"?

If an "assistant " asks you to help clean a patient up and reposition them, do you help, or do you look around for 10minutes to find another "assistant"?

springchick1, ADN, RN · Jun 4, 2015

One last time. The word "delegate" is being misused. To delegate is to allow another person to represent you. You are using it, to describe authority over another person, in a sense of telling them what to do.

Delegate has more than one meaning:

delÂ·eÂ·gate

noun

ËˆdelÉ™É¡É™t/

1.

a person sent or authorized to represent others, in particular an elected representative sent to a conference.

synonyms:representative, envoy, emissary, commissioner, agent, deputy, commissary; More

a member of a committee.

verb

verb: delegate; 3rd person present: delegates; past tense: delegated; past participle: delegated; gerund or present participle: delegating

ËˆdelÉ™ËŒÉ¡Ät/

1.

entrust (a task or responsibility) to another person, typically one who is less senior than oneself.

"he delegates routine tasks"

synonyms:assign, entrust, pass on, hand on/over, turn over, devolve, depute, transfer

"she must delegate routine tasks"

kalycat, BSN, RN · Jun 4, 2015

Giving the benefit of the doubt to this evolving conversation, I would like to say that there may be some confusion regarding job titles and scope happening here. In my state, we have both CNAs (certified nursing assistants) who assist RNs and LPNs; that is their core job role and they often report to the same nursing leadership a the RNs. While the RNs and LPNs delegate, and in a sense, supervise the CNAs, they aren't "the boss" of "their" CNA teammate per se. It is well within the scope of an LPN and RN to delegate to the CNAs and is even in the job description for both the nurses and CNAs. Depending on department, some CNAs may have phlebotomy skills or other added tasks as part of their daily duties.

We also have many different types of technicians...what we do not have are the unlicensed patient care assistants as mentioned earlier in the thread. Our ED techs often have a considerably extended scope compared to our CNAs, but I know in other regions, the terms tech and aide or assistant are pretty interchangeable. Additionally, I work in the OR, and we use surgical techs extensively for scrubbing....anesthesia uses anesthesia techs to assist with some of their duties....radiology has their techs, and so on. For each of these roles, there is a different scope, different duties, and a different reporting structure. To confuse matters more, some of the large teaching hospitals here use nursing techs, who are nursing students at a certain point in their program. Their role is different from that of a CNA. While we often refer to "our techs" in my job, no one truly believes that the surg techs work for the RNs in the room; it's usually used to describe the techs within that surgical subspecialty or call pool, in a specific room for the day, or as a term of endearment. One primary difference in our hospital network is that those with the title of technician or CNA do not assess patients, interpret vital signs or labs, etc. (and some other less tangible descriptors that have little or nothing to do with the "tasks" one is assigned).

confusedamanda1, I can see you're pretty passionate about the idea of hierarchy and job descriptions. That said, please be aware that there are many, many differences in structure, role, delegation, job description, and reporting structure based on state licensure, hospital policy, additional certifications, and more. In many cases, it is well within the scope and daily practice for RNs and LPNs to delegate and supervise support staff; in fact, it is expected. This doesn't mean that all nurses who do so are on some power trip or out to rule the world or that people are out to attack you on this thread. Teams operate based on everyone having different roles. They're all important, and all team members deserve respect. Without delegation, things would be crazy tough in healthcare (and in many other fields!) it's not a dirty word, and even being referred to as an assistant (in any field!) is not somehow inherently derogatory.

ConfusedAmanda1 · Jun 4, 2015

I might have a chip on my shoulder. It.is from past experience as a CNA. 75% or nurses in LTC, treat CNAs like garbage, like they are the personal slave to the nurse. Do you know how many.times I had seen a nurse stand under a buzzing call light? Is this task not "delegated" to them? How many nurses toilet patients, clean them, when they have soiled themselves?

I have the BEST nurses ever. My last postion, as a CNA, my nurse would not only toilet patients, they would shower them. They would jump to a call light. That is nursing, my friend.

Oh I left another thing out. If nurses use CNAs to help care for the residents they "care" so much about, why have I seen 100s of nurses, ignore chair and bed alarms? If their "assistant " isn't around , while the nurse is ignoring that blaring noise, the patient falls,.breaks a hip and dies. Is that the CNAs fault?

kalycat, BSN, RN · Jun 4, 2015

I'm really sorry you've had those experiences. That's really crappy. Just speaking from my personal experiences in nursing, I have seen a bit of that, but my facility is very clear that nurses are to provide FULL patient care. Even on med onc, there might be one CNA for the entire unit, and all of the nurses do their best to foster a team environment and back everyone up. I'm not saying that there aren't some bad apples/poor teammates out there who spend more time looking for a CNA than it would take to just answer the damn call light, but luckily it seems most of the units I have been on have solid team dynamics in place and in fact very low turnover with their CNAs, which is awesome. So much trust and camaraderie is built when you have employee retention.

Ps: edited to add re: bed alarms: it is the policy of our facility that if a bed or chair alarm goes off, everyone in the vicinity, and I do mean everyone, who is not in a patient room, runs directly to the source of the alarm. When the situation is resolved or you see at least 2 other people have made it there to assist the patient, you can head back to what you were doing. Falls are bad for everyone...most especially the patient!

springchick1, ADN, RN · Jun 4, 2015

Oh I left another thing out. If nurses use CNAs to help care for the residents they "care" so much about, why have I seen 100s of nurses, ignore chair and bed alarms? If their "assistant " isn't around , while the nurse is ignoring that blaring noise, the patient falls,.breaks a hip and dies. Is that the CNAs fault?

Just because you worked with some bad nurses doesn't mean that ALL nurses are like that. I've see CNAs do the same thing. Does that mean that all CNAs are like that? Absolutely not. It means there are some cruddy nurses and CNAs out there.

Purple_roses · Jun 4, 2015

I might have a chip on my shoulder. It.is from past experience as a CNA. 75% or nurses in LTC, treat CNAs like garbage, like they are the personal slave to the nurse. Do you know how many.times I had seen a nurse stand under a buzzing call light? Is this task not "delegated" to them? How many nurses toilet patients, clean them, when they have soiled themselves?
I have the BEST nurses ever. My last postion, as a CNA, my nurse would not only toilet patients, they would shower them. They would jump to a call light. That is nursing, my friend.
Oh I left another thing out. If nurses use CNAs to help care for the residents they "care" so much about, why have I seen 100s of nurses, ignore chair and bed alarms? If their "assistant " isn't around , while the nurse is ignoring that blaring noise, the patient falls,.breaks a hip and dies. Is that the CNAs fault?

I completely agree with your description of what a nurse should be: when he/she is able to help, he/she does. You've had crappy experiences with nurses, so I can see where your view is coming from. Please please understand that not all nurses bad; not all of the want to sit on their iphones while they tell you to clean up someone's brief. And when a good nurse does indeed delegate, it is for good reason. The nurse has a different skill set and can do more for a patient than a CNA can. Therefore, when a patient needs something that only the nurse can assist with, a good nurse needs to get to that task, while the CNA needs to be ok with doing some of the less attractive tasks. It's the way it has to work.

ConfusedAmanda1 · Jun 4, 2015

I work in ED. I triage (ED term for assessing a patient) When labs are brought up , I read what is in range or out of range for each particular patient. I draw labs. I do EKGs, I can read them as well, I know if I have a stemi, however, only a DR can sign off on them. I can pre order labs, EKGs, and 02. I give medication,except IV meds. I clean and pack wounds as well as measure and stage the ulcer. I have saved lives.

I.apologize,.I.do not tell families when their loved one has.died.