RN who wouldn't be CNA

labman · Sep 24, 2005

I think CNA's are important in the health care field. I think it is terrible to say. CNA's are very vital to the health care. If there weren't CNA's you would have to do your own dirty work. As a RN you have to do some of that dirty work.

With boring! I don't think CNA is boring. You get to meet many new people and get to help them with their activities of daily living. It is very tough and very demanding in a lot of ways.

Well I hope when you become a nurse you have respect for every CNA they are very neccassary and vital for health care and espically for RN's.

Good CNA's can come and are worth their weight in gold. Like many others have said but if you dump on them and you have no respect for them their moods can change quick.

Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN · Sep 24, 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.

Great post. I've said for years that the most articulate, detailed, beautifully written care plan, and the most high-flown theories don't mean crap if the pt is lying in their own waste because everyone is too busy to clean them.

chadash · Sep 25, 2005

There have been a lot of post about why nursing assistants that are not always committed to there jobs, get discouraged etc.

My mom was in hospital recently, and the night nurse was discussing when my mom could leave the next morn. I said, I could take her home before 8:30, or after 11:30, because I had a home health patient that morning between 9-11a. She said: whats the big deal, you are just giving her a bath.

I am sure if I had been working for her in the hospital, she would have not taken that attitude about my showing up for work. But her attitude seem to be that what I was doing for a living was not important. That showing up for work and fulfilling my responsibilities to my employer was no big thing. I had been with my mom almost constantly for the 10days she was in hospital, so I was taking that obligation seriously too.

I guess my point is this, if health care professionals do not see the tasks preformed by nursing assistants as valuable, then it would follow that the assistants will not either.

DutchgirlRN, ASN, RN · Sep 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.

I will admit that I feel that way. I love being a nurse. I was never a tech. When I was younger I would get pulled to tech and felt that it was boring. I don't mind cleaning up patients but I don't have the patience to deal with people who have to pee or poo every 5 minutes. When I get that way I think I'd rather go to my reward. With that said......I've been a nurse for 30 years now. The other day I came in to find that I had been pulled to tech. I told the Supervisor to change my assignment or I was going home. My 50 year old bones cannot lift, tug and pull and making the beds, even in the higher position hurts my shoulders. You can be a good nurse without ever having been a tech first. I am good to my CNA's. I think they are incredible for all the hard work they do for such little pay. They could be selling clothes in a dept store for the same money. I respect them greatly.

icugirl33 · Sep 25, 2005

A CNA has nothing to do with studying to be being an RN. If you want to work while being in school, working as a CNA might help you get a flexible schedule. If you want to be an RN, why would you waist time earning a CNA certificate. Most of the time, after the first or second semester of school, you are eligible to work as a CNA.

lovingtheunloved, ASN, RN · Sep 25, 2005

A CNA has nothing to do with studying to be being an RN. If you want to work while being in school, working as a CNA might help you get a flexible schedule. If you want to be an RN, why would you waist time earning a CNA certificate. Most of the time, after the first or second semester of school, you are eligible to work as a CNA.

If it had nothing to do with studying to be an RN, they wouldn't teach those skills in first or second semester.

shamegs · Sep 26, 2005

CNA's are vital to the healthcare system. If nurses now were CNA's in the past, I believe that it gives them an appreciation for how important and hard working the CNA's really are.

kadokin, ASN, RN · Sep 27, 2005

I am a 2nd year Rn student and work as an Aide. I have worked as an Aide now for 2 years in a local hospital on a Med/Surg. floor. I have to say that although we as aides do do alot of the "dirty" work persay, we also learn alot. I found that alot of my fellow RN students did not know what a "G" tube was, or what a "foley" cath was until we covered it in lab class. I have learned alot about skin care, transfers, surgery preps, IV caths, foley caths, G tubes, chest tubes, Kpacks, SCD boots, CPM machines, etc. etc. etc. just by being an Aide. We get paid crap, we do alot of the work, we are the eyes, ears, of the RN's were I work, and we also are the people who see the patients the most. While I give bed baths, I see the patients' skin and look for tears, decubitus ulcers, fungus, bruises, etc. I also see if the patient is in pain when I turn them, transfer them etc. I also can observe how they are acting "mentally". If they have a change in mental status from the day before when I worked, etc.
I am very grateful for my Aide experience, it has helped me immensely. I get a sense of accomplishment when I help my patients. I vow that when I am an RN, I will value my aides, I will help them in any way I can possibly help them, and I will "listen" to my aides when they tell me about the patients.
I think being an Aide is a very important job. Without us, the RNs would be lost. That's just my 2 cents worth. I hope I didn't offend anyone. If you are already an RN, please appreciate your aides, compliment them.
Thanks for listening.

This is an excellent description of what a cna does and you sound like a great one. I have often wished that I had had cna experience before becoming an RN >10 yrs ago. As for the assistants that Daytonite worked with, cringe!!

I fear changing the job requirement to include certification has not completely eliminated this element, either. My greatest fear is having to work LTC w/a crew like Dytnte described. It gives me food for thought, though. As much as we RNs and LPNs complain about the thankless and exhausting nature of our work, could some of this outlandish behavior from aides be the result of THEIR job stress. It is NOT an easy job and they get less in the way of respect and compensation than RNS, LPNS. Hmm?

Nikki69 · Sep 27, 2005

I am currently a CNA and I bust my butt helping my nurse out, doing the ADL's, and keep up with all of the mental and physical stresses. It is without any doubt going to help me advance in my career easier; as someone else also mentioned. And when I become a nurse, I will have more respect and gratitude for all of the "dirty work" that the CNA's have to do. The CNA is the one who holds the dying persons hand, and the CNA has an extreme amount more to do with the patients than most nurses ever will. I think being a CNA should be required before entering the nursing program.