RN who wouldn't be CNA

MKFaizi · Aug 23, 2005

To Matt's Mom,

Excellent post. Most aides are very under-appreciated. If you care about the aides, you care about the patients. If you help the aides in their work, you help the patients.

If you work against the aides, you forfeit the welfare of your patients. If you overburden your aides, you burden the patients. If you help your aides, your aides will help you.

A good CNA is worth their weight in gold. I think that is how good aides should be treated -- like gold.

You must be a rare and exceptional nurse.

Marsha Faizi

Super_RN, BSN, RN · Aug 23, 2005

hello all~
i've noticed that a lot of people on here recomend being a cna for anyone who is interested in becoming a nurse. i was talking with my cousin, who is an rn, and she said she would have never been a cna but she loves being a nurse - that cna was just to boring and to much 'dirty work.' just wondering how many rn's out there feel this way.

:nono: all that i have to say is that i wouldn't want to be a cna working under your cousin. apparently your cousin isn't around to help when things get down and dirty in nursing, which is most of the time. any nurse that works on the floor and can avoid "dirty" situations constantly--well, is nobody that i would want to work with. :eek:

showbizrn · Aug 25, 2005

Hello All~
I've noticed that a lot of people on here recomend being a CNA for anyone who is interested in becoming a nurse. I was talking with my cousin, who is an RN, and she said she would have never been a CNA but she loves being a nurse - that CNA was just to boring and to much 'dirty work.' Just wondering how many RN's out there feel this way.

:nurse: ALL NURSES DO IT THIS WAY!

Sounds familiar? But there is no one road or pathway to nursing. It depends on the individual and one's circumstances. Of course, a large portion of the content in the Nursing Fundamentals course is reflective of the clinical work of a CNA but in RN school the focus is different.

If someone told me that in order to become an RN, you MUST do the CNA to LPN to ADN to BSN route, sorry...I don't have the patience. :roll

SkanauxRN2009 · Aug 25, 2005

ALL NURSES DO IT THIS WAY!
Sounds familiar? But there is no one road or pathway to nursing. It depends on the individual and one's circumstances. Of course, a large portion of the content in the Nursing Fundamentals course is reflective of the clinical work of a CNA but in RN school the focus is different.
If someone told me that in order to become an RN, you MUST do the CNA to LPN to ADN to BSN route, sorry...I don't have the patience. :roll

I have been an Aide for most of my adult life. I am only now able to afford to go to college and become a Registered Nurse. I have read all the posts and I just wanted to add, that everyone working as a team, makes the job alot smoother on that shift. On my floor there are 4 Aides on day shift, 3 on afternoon shift and 2 on midnights. There is always someone calling off. Well on a few occasions I have been the only Aide on the floor, and without the help of the nurses, I don't know how I would have cared for 30 plus patients. I had to answer all the call lights, do all the vitals, all the blood glucose testing, all the cleaning of the dirty bottoms. It is not easy and I was never bored. We also do the post mortem care. Most of the RN's were extremely helpful. The nurses that would let their patient lay in poop until an Aide could come clean them up, were not very good nurses in my opinion. I have seen nurses like that. They would let their patients lay there for a long time, until the Aide discovered it. Some of these patients were already covered in bed sores. Then there were the nurses from the old school. They did all of their own patient care. They would recheck their own vitals, clean dirty bottoms, etc. Some hospitals do not use Aides, so I guess the nurses who were from that era understood. I will be one of those nurses. I think I will want to recheck all of my own vitals, etc. Some of the Aides were 18 years old and I would see them, just guess at a blood pressure if they could not hear it. Aides are very hard workers, but so are the nurses. It just goes a heck of alot better if everyone works together.

SkanauxRN2009 · Aug 25, 2005

I have been an Aide for most of my adult life. I am only now able to afford to go to college and become a Registered Nurse. I have read all the posts and I just wanted to add, that everyone working as a team, makes the job alot smoother on that shift. On my floor there are 4 Aides on day shift, 3 on afternoon shift and 2 on midnights. There is always someone calling off. Well on a few occasions I have been the only Aide on the floor, and without the help of the nurses, I don't know how I would have cared for 30 plus patients. I had to answer all the call lights, do all the vitals, all the blood glucose testing, all the cleaning of the dirty bottoms. It is not easy and I was never bored. We also do the post mortem care. Most of the RN's were extremely helpful. The nurses that would let their patient lay in poop until an Aide could come clean them up, were not very good nurses in my opinion. I have seen nurses like that. They would let their patients lay there for a long time, until the Aide discovered it. Some of these patients were already covered in bed sores. Then there were the nurses from the old school. They did all of their own patient care. They would recheck their own vitals, clean dirty bottoms, etc. Some hospitals do not use Aides, so I guess the nurses who were from that era understood. I will be one of those nurses. I think I will want to recheck all of my own vitals, etc. Some of the Aides were 18 years old and I would see them, just guess at a blood pressure if they could not hear it. Aides are very hard workers, but so are the nurses. It just goes a heck of alot better if everyone works together.

One more thing I forgot to point out, if you are working as an Aide and the nurses know you are going into nursing, they are worth their weight in gold as far as showing you things that will help you with your training. The nurses are soooo supportive of you and will usually go out of their way to show you things they do, or let you assist them in other duties, so you will get the knowledge. Hands on is always a great tool.

MKFaizi · Aug 26, 2005

No, you do not have to be an aide in order to be a good nurse. Nothing is set in concrete.

However, some of the best nurses I have known and a couple of doctors have worked their way up from being aides and it seemed to make them more sympathetic to the more "lowly" workers.

I worked closely with one doctor who started out as an orderly in a hospital. Then, he became an xray tech. Then, he became a PA. Then, he became a pediatrician. Then, he became an anesthesiologist and made a wad of money. Then, he became a GP. Now, he teaches in a university.

The beauty of this guy was that he knew how to clean butts, do xrays, start IVs as an expert, give epidural injections, diagnose, give medicines; prescribe medicines. He could do anything a nurse could do or an orderly or an xray tech.

He expected his people to work as hard as he did. But, if you could do it, he treated you like absolute gold.

Why?

Because he understood very well the rungs of the ladders he had climbed. He achieved but he never became "better" than the orderly. He did not consider the work he did as an orderly to be dirty.

He was a team worker.

Of course, a doctor does not have time to clean butts on a unit. But, in a pinch, he could. In a pinch, he would.

Some won't. Many LPNs in nursing homes won't. I know of aides on night shifts who had to try to attend to sixty patients with no help at all.

I agree with the lady above that it really has to be a team effort. I can well understand a nurse with a BSN thinking that she did not get a college degree to clean butts.

Unfortunately, cleaning butts is a part of good nursing. No matter what you might do for a patient -- high tech stuff -- all that can be defeated with a patient lying in feces for hours. Bedsores kill.

psych_nurse_2_be · Aug 26, 2005

I personally have worked as a nurse tech since my first semester in nursing school and I believe I have learned alot from the experience. Basically I am a CNA, except one day I will be a nurse. I have told people that I think every single nursing student should have to work as a tech or CNA, even if it is just a week, to see what the job is like, especially if there is a nurse on staff who believes "that is not my job". I have been on both ends of that line and I have a profound repect for those who work as CNA's. No, it is not what I am going to do forever, but every part of their job is also a part of the nurse's job, except the nurse has other added responsibilities on top of those. Since I am in an ADN program and we do total care, my friends and classmates feel the same way. The only argument I ever have is with someone in a bachelor's program - not all of them, just the local ones. For instance, while working one day, there was a clinical group there from a bachelor's program and we were one tech short. I assumed everything would get done because there were 10 students there and I thought they did AM care. What I did not know was that AM care to them was 0900 meds. I expected that the students would bathe or change diapers or empty foleys on the 4 out of the 14 patients I had on an orthopedic floor. But, no, at the end of the day, I had to do all the true AM care because of the attitude "that's not my job". When I go to clinicals I am expected to do all the AM care, for not one, but two patients and I am happy knowing that I am caring for the whole person - body, mind, and soul - not just the diagnosis. :nurse:

Nurse7Son · Aug 26, 2005

Being the RN you get more respect than a CNA, not to mention better pay (pay is pretty crappy for all that you do as a CNA), and not having someone push duties on you that they just don't want to do. I didn't think I ever wanted to do healthcare again after being an aide for 3 years.

I had nurses tell me they would never do my job/be a CNA. Sometimes you just can't predict just what you will do in life or when :idea: ! I at one time had said I would never ever do healthcare and be THAT close with "strangers" :rotfl: :roll

Now I know that I can do it! After being out of healthcare now for 9 months-I realize that I have to be an RN. I really don't think I could do CNA again though. You honestly aren't treated the greatest-even by patients. The experience is very valuable though, not just to be in healthcare, but even general life experience.

I've had patients passively thank me for assisting them with their bath (which took 25 minutes because they were incontinent twice during-resulting in 2 gown and chucks changes), spilt the bin of water all over their bed (3 gown, 3 chucks, 1 full bed changes), took a phone call and made me wait while they talked for five minutes to the grandson that comes to visit twice everyday anyways) etc. etc., but give the nurse holy high praises after passing a Vicodin, and act like I'm an oversight. This does hurt, and others (especially that know how hard you work) can see it. So I know why she says she would never be a CNA. Things that that can be disalarming and you feel like "I hate this job!"

--Or the patient that gives little gifts to all the RN's when she is finally discharged, but you don't get one, because you are "just" the aide.

--How about unexpectedly walking onto the floor at 7am to an overstressed night RN that screams at you down the hallway to get a call light because she has had a lousy night with patients and the night aide (and I mean screams).

There are many stories like these from CNA's, and it's a shame if you're good at it. I accepted that it's just somehow the culture of the position-though I don't understand how it got this way!! (and chalk it up to experience).

I have had other RN's be my advocates to unfair ones . You do give more when you're with someone who makes it positive, and know that they respect you, and that they really care for their patients (the action of cleaning up vomit or urine when they know you are busy).

So I hope this person can be a positive role model seeing that the CNA position leaves a lot to be desired.

NurseCherlove · Aug 27, 2005

Cool - where is this and what kind of unit?

VERY good point! The RN is ultimately the one who is responsible for all her/his patients, regardless of if they have an aide or if their aide is incompetent or not. That is why the RN should be checking and assessing on their patients regularly and not rely on their aides to do that part of their job. I don't mind, as an aide, assessing while I am performing ADL's, but ultimately, at some point in the day, the RN should be doing that as well if they aren't already. I know of a local hospital where they have a low RN to patient ratio, so they do not have any aides. The RN's do EVERYTHING!! "Dirty work" and all. So, that is why in RN school, we do the basics; so that if we end up working in a place like that, we will be able to function as an aide as well as an RN.

adagiogray · Aug 27, 2005

Cool - where is this and what kind of unit?

Critical care units (ICU, etc) in general tend to be that way - smaller patient load of 2-3, RN responsible for total care, no NAs generally...if that's what you were asking.

thecitadel80 · Aug 27, 2005

I didn't have a choice. The mortgage still had to be paid while I was in nursing school and CNA work was the only type that paid $10.50/hr with flexibility for my school schedule.

I have found in the following years that my knowledge of how to turn, lift, pull, tug has been helpful. It has also given my perspective that there really is life outside of the hospital. I still prefer the ICUs but can understand the pleasure others get in SNFs.

jab3da · Sep 4, 2005

As a PN student and CNA, I think the experience will helpful in clinicals and will give me alot of respect for CNA's once I'm a nurse. I don't think it is necessary, though.