Sacramento Hospitals with CNAs?

Nurses General Nursing

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I work at a hospital near Sacramento that does not have CNA‘s and I feel like this is not sustainable. Can anyone give me a perspective on which hospitals in the Sacramento area utilize CNA‘s or other helpers to care for ADLs? The workload is very high for nurses in general and adding on ADLs with the physical stress involved seems like it’s not a long-term solution. Any thoughts on this? Thanks!

Forgot to mention this is Med/surg

As far as I know, none of the acute hospitals in Sacramento area use many CNAs, and it has been like this for many years.  In my experience you might have 1 tech for a whole unit but the RNs have most of the responsibility for ADLs.

1 Votes
Specializes in RN, MSN, ex-CNA.

Is this UC Davis? I've worked at the VA, Sutter and Dignity and they all used CNAs. I've met some CNAs who work at Kaiser too. As far as I know UCD is the only one who follows the 'primary care'  nursing model and doesn't use them. 

1 Votes
37 minutes ago, Charlotteee said:

Is this UC Davis? I've worked at the VA, Sutter and Dignity and they all used CNAs. I've met some CNAs who work at Kaiser too. As far as I know UCD is the only one who follows the 'primary care'  nursing model and doesn't use them. 

No, I’m currently working in Stockton. When did you last work in a hospital in Sacramento? It is possible that most/all have dropped CNAs as Golden RN says. I could call recruiters or something.

Not ready to change jobs, but I can see that the level of care were “expected” to deliver is just about impossible to achieve with this workload and that the physical strain of trying to rush through things will lead to injuries. If UCDMC is a magnet hospital and hitting the quality metrics, not sure how they do it with bare bones staffing.

Specializes in Infusion Nursing, Home Health Infusion.

I work for Dignity and we have a few CNAs in medical surgical areas. Their use varies greatly by unit and shift.Some days and shifts they have none.I tend to see more on the day shift too.Since California has mandated ratios it is much easier for the RN to provide total care. I've experienced many types of nursing care models and my favorite is still the primary care model. What can you do differently to make it easier for you and get the work done.Where are you having problems or feeling overwhelmed? 

@iluvivt for me the problem is coming when I have a combination of total care of patients, “feeders,” ambulation orders, and then the rest of the tasks pile on too (e.g. managing blood sugars x4-5, lots of isolation patients, restraints). With CNAs I can delegate some of that or have an easier time finding help for turning, hygiene, etc. the actual nursing level tasks seem manageable, the problem is having to do absolutely *everything.* having broken tools, bad EHR, and no screening of phone calls doesn’t help, either. I don’t want to get hurt helping my patients as I race through all this. I also want to give them the care they deserve.

1 Votes
Specializes in Infusion Nursing, Home Health Infusion.

I totally. understand.I have been in hospital nursing for 40 years and about 30 years in home infusion. What makes it even more difficult now in some systems is the ability of your  employer to track the timeliness of care provided on the computer. For example, if you give your IV Vancomycin dose 3 hours late they have documentation of it. This can put a tremendous amount of stress on a nurse but you still must work with the system. I bring this up because it's critical for you on days with total care patients, a ton of blood  sugar monitoring, ambulation and turning schedules and other orders to prioritize medication administration and other critical orders and tasks ( eg: Once you work those into your schedule a lot of the other tasks can be done when you get to them) Do not give them the same priority level and allow them to stress you out! I know we live in this world where everyone  wants everything done right away and this is even more true in  healthcare but really think about each task.Once you realize that many tasks can wait it will ease your stress..Even feeders can wait! Put a note on the tray so no one takes it and you can heat it up. Broken equipment is unacceptable and you must report it immediately.You must have the tools to do your job! Try and group your tasks for each patient. Or in other words do everthing for patient due at that time. Also cut yourself some slack.Also get a buddy so you can help each other during the shift. The reality is that on some days it's way too much work to get done comfortably and you just do your best! Get the important work done and then do your best with what is left to do. 

Specializes in RN, MSN, ex-CNA.

@psych nurse in training I work at the VA and Sutter now and both have CNAs. Dignity was in 2019 so IDK what they do now. I'm in nursing school and classmates with clinicals at Kaiser said there are PCTs there. IDK how the UCD nurses do it either it seems rough and like too much, especially when there are isolation patients or BG checks or feeders! I'm sorry the work is so hard, I can see why you're overwhelmed. 4 patients and no aid is too much imo

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