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Discussion

RN working as a CNA...

Hi guys, after few weeks of rotations I've realized that nurses do most of CNA work especially in med surge and ICU etc... why do nurses work as a cna???

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    • Featured Replies

    • Experts

    Because there are no CNAs to delegate the care to? And CNA duties fall under the scope of RN practice?

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    define "CNA" work? If you are referring to toileting, cleaning the patient, vitals, assist them from bed to chair, that is a nurses job. I can't imagine an ICU that every time a patient needed to be cleaned up that the nurse would sit and wait until the CNA came and cleaned the patient.

    If CNA work is beneath you, time to drop out of nursing school.

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    ^

    The truth.

    It also depends on where you work. The ICU in my hospital does not have CNA's so the nurses do ALL the work. I have a friend that works at an ICU at another hospital nearby that has CNA's in their ICU. Not sure about med surge, but all the med surge places I came across during nursing school clinical and at my work have CNAs. It was mentioned already, but I'll say it too. CNA work is under the scope of practice for nurses. If you're CNA can't do it, you should be doing it. But most of all, you all should be working as a team...hopefully.

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    • Guides

    Because it is in their scope of practice?

    Because they are liable for it getting done?

    Because short staffing is a fact of life?

    Because when it comes to patient care there is no "that's not my job"?

    Because it is the right thing to do?

    Take your pick.

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    • Moderator

    Those "CNA tasks" are my responsibility as a nurse; if there is someone to help me with things that are my responsibility, then that's a good day.

    Don't go into nursing with the illusion that there will always be someone to share that load.

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    • Author

    You guys are just ridiculous! I've never said it working as a CNA beneath me. As a med surg nurse when you are taking care of 7-8 patients, you don't have time to do CNA tasks! That's all!

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    • Moderator
    You guys are just ridiculous! I've never said it working as a CNA beneath me. As a med surg nurse when you are taking care of 7-8 patients, you don't have time to do CNA tasks! That's all!

    So what do you do when there is no CNA? I never said anything about you thinking you were too good for those tasks, I just highlighted the reality that whether or not you have assistance, those tasks are still on you.

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    I've never said it working as a CNA beneath me. As a med surg nurse when you are taking care of 7-8 patients, you don't have time to do CNA tasks! That's all!

    That is not what you said in your initial post

    Hi guys, after few weeks of rotations I've realized that nurses do most of CNA work especially in med surge and ICU etc... why do nurses work as a cna???

    CNA tasks are under the duties of an RN, so we are not working as a CNA, we are working as an RN. If your unit does not have CNAs, you are short CNAs, or they are busy, it is your job to to do the "CNA jobs". You seem to have the attitude that RNs should not be doing CNA work, thus the comment: "Is CNA work beneath you?"

    Yes, in an ideal world, you would have 5-10 CNAs on the unit help you out, but that's not reality. It is one of the reasons that I don't do big (bigger than 8 pounds) people. We don't have traditional CNAs (our PCAs restocks cabinets and fetches equipment for us) and we don't need them.

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    • Experts

    Because it's more cost-effective not to hire CNAs, especially since CA law mandates nurse/patient ratios. If a nurse can only have a certain number of patients, the facility has to limit the number of patients they take (not an option as patients make them money) or hire enough nurses. If they're throwing all that money at nursing staff, why would the facility spend even more money on floor care, especially since there's nothing a CNA does that isn't under the nurses' scope of practice?

    Here in CA, a med-surg nurse can have a max of 5 patients (though I'm not a M/S nurse, so if I'm wrong, please correct me). Some facilities such as Kaiser have nursing unions who managed to get that ratio down to 1:4. The facilities argue that a nurse with only 4 patients should have no problem doing total care nursing. Whether that is actually true is debatable. But it is what it is.

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