Published Aug 20, 2010
fsaav
98 Posts
I'm a nursing student graduating with my RN in December. I worked as a nurse extern during the summer and now that that has ended I applied as an CNA on the same floor. I'll be starting my new position tomorrow and am really nervous about this. Honestly, I see how hard the CNAs work, how many patients they have, and how much they get done and I just can't even imagine how they do it. I will now be one of them and I want to do just as good of a job. The downside is that since I externed on this floor I don't get the same "orientation" as someone who would be starting brand new and I know more is going to be expected of me since I've already been working there, and I worry that I won't be able to live up to that. The problem is that I have never seen the entire picture of what the CNAs do so I was hoping for some insight. I'm thankful to have gotten this position though, because I never wanted to be on of those RNs who didn't understand the other side of things and how much work the CNAs really do and what they have to put up with.
Anyway, I was hoping you could give me some tips/pointers or anything to keep in mind to be a good CNA. I work on a busy med/surg floor with each CNA usually having 10-12 pts each and quite a few of the pts on this floor are actually total care. I wondered if you could tell me what your priorities for your shift are, how you ensure that everything gets done (like if you have 3 total care patients and all need to be fed at the same time...what do you do???), how you stay organized, etc. Thanks so much for the help.