I hate nursing students that haven't been an aid before, nursitis was running rampant. I had a 350 lb that needed a hibiclense prior to heart surgery. I asked if the nursing student extern, could help me with the bath as the patient said she was dizzy and unsteady. The nurse extern said that baths were the aides job and why was I asking for help. So, I reminded her that I was a nursing assistant....that all jobs from head to toe were Nursing duties and that it was my job to help with those duties. You could tell she had never been an aide, I believe that she felt that she was a nurse after all and above helping to do an aides job.
I did tell her that:
1. As a CNA I already realize I'm at the bottom of the healthcare ladder, no point in being blatant about pointing it out.
2. Catch me on a bad day and you may be doing the baths anyway as aides can and often do quit, making low wages at Walmart is a lot easier than making it as an aide.
I did complain to the charge nurse and nurse manager, of course that is a total overreaction on my part, I guess it's just that I hate nursing students and being reminded of my lowly status as an aide, especially by a student nurse.
Of course all nursing students struggle at first, but it's all in how you handle it too. There are alot of factors that come into play as you take on and learn new things. :heartbeat
This comment really bugs me. I've been working for as a CNA for over 4 years and I've gone through my first semester of clinicals in nursing school. Maybe it's just because I had an amazing nursing instructor who pushed the idea that if we weren't doing anything we were supposed to be buddying up with the nurses and aides to observe treatments, medpasses, and be involved with pateint care. We were told to make friends with the CNA's because they were the ones who knew the most about that patients ADLs.
Nursing students are in clinicals to learn. Bathing someone for surgery is a great time for things like skin assessment and education. I've noticed that patients have a lot of questions during scrubbing for surgery.
Gosh, I know what you mean! I'm also a CNA (for the past 2 years) and in my last year of nursing school. I even get irritated with my classmates who have attitudes like that towards CNAs when we're doing clinicals. It's hard work! I for sure will never treat a nurse aide like that. I know how it feels, and I think nurse aides are essential!!!:wink2:
I was told straight up at orientation that we will be doing "CNA work" for the first semester of clinicals. With that foundation it would be hard for me to expect them to do something I wasn't willing to do, yk?
As I have the opportunity to move into nursing school and advance my training, I reflect upon what I will miss as my job responsibility expands. Frankly, I feel that the CNA work that I do is the heart of patient care. I am certainly not trying to minimize a nurse's duty, but it is when I am doing a complete bath that I have the opportunity to chat with a patient and get to know them more. I think that person-to-person contact is what draws many people into the profession. With the high level of technology, though, and intense patient loads, RNs don't have the time to have extended patient contact. I respect my nurses greatly when I see them taking advantage of the time that they do have. My hospital has some amazing nurses that initiate assisting me with my tasks. Oh my word - one nurse in particular, in her energizer bunny way, is absolutely involved and always available to take care of patients. When we work together, we get our baths done right off the bat as time permits. It truly is a partnership.
So I'm partial to CNAs, but I'm also very partial to RNs. It's not hard to tell a good, hard-working one after about 2 hours into the shift, although everyone has their day.
I would say that nursing student involvement largely depends on the school's initial instruction and the individual student's comfortability/availability. A nursing program from a local school has given us students that exhibit a range of intensities in involvement. When I have a nursing student working with my nurse and I, I do enjoy their help as well, but I make myself available to help with turns, BGMs, baths, toileting, etc.
When I have had one or two students who did not seem to be as involved when I called upon them to help me, it quickly became evident that it was not due to laziness or an adherence to a hierarchy, but due to a lack of real-life experience. Then, of course, since the job still needed to be done no matter what, and since I have been in that place myself as new CNA, fresh from school, I jumped in and just told them what needed to be done and how to do it. I myself "hug the sidelines" when I feel very insecure about my abilities.
I hope that when I am an RN, I will find the setting that allows me to still wipe a patient's bottom. Those cares are what truly can build a relationship with a patient and establish trust when it comes time to pass medications. If you aspire to make a living as a CNA, then I salute you! Mr. Jones would not have been able to eat his dinner when he did and Mrs. Grady would not have had an ear to listen to her stories for that 5 minutes you gave her, if they were solely relying on an RN who is still trying to give Mr. O'Brien his Ativan.
As a senior in a BSN program, I'd have to say that my experience as a CNA has really helped me throughout nursing school as far as understanding how hard the aides work and that they aren't just there to do the 'dirty work'.
On the other hand- as a younger student, I feel as though some aides just have it in for me. I've done my fair share of bed baths, brief changes, showers, lifting etc etc... but they just see me as someone who knows close to nothing. I'm reminded constantly that I need to be giving so and so a bedbath and just because I'm a nursing student doesn't mean I'm exempt from doing so. As a nursing student I'm also learning about meds, IV's, wounds, care plans, charting etc and I'd be happy to give a bedbath (it's a rite of passage!) it's just also important for me to master RN skills as well.
But!!! It is absolutely the truth that students could benefit from being a CNA prior to nursing school (or during) to really get a handle on the tasks that are sometimes 'relegated' the CNA's when they become RN's.
I've worked as a CNA, PCT, ER Tech, Monitor Tech, Secretary and phlebotomist for 8 years before becoming an LPN, then RN.
Everyone is important, but there are certain skills that need to be practiced at certain points in nursing school. During the first semester, I would jump on the opportunity to help the CNA.
Towards the end, my energy was spent finding assessment and IV opportunities. While I would love to help the CNA's, our limited clinical time meant the I might have to say no to helping with the bath, so I could spend more time deciphering doctor's orders or practicing strips.
Although I could see why the CNA would be bothered that I would not help, he or she could not truly understand why until he or she is in nursing school. That's similiar to me not understanding why a doctor can't help me with some of my duties.
Until you have a CNA rudely delegate accuchecks or baths to you, and you have to explain why you are sitting at the nurses station looking at a chart, you may never understand the student's standpoint.
Also, student's aren't paid to be there, we are paying for the experience. If my clinical instructor and I think that I will get more out of passing meds than bed baths, so be it. CNA's need to realize that they can ask for help, but don't have the legal right to delegate to nursing students. You have no idea the level or competency of the student, and they could harm the patient.
Also, as a new LPN or RN, you will treasure the time practicing passing meds and starting IV's that you got in clinical. These will take you farther than the bed baths...
I hate nursing students that haven't been an aid before, nursitis was running rampant. I had a 350 lb that needed a hibiclense prior to heart surgery. I asked if the nursing student extern, could help me with the bath as the patient said she was dizzy and unsteady. The nurse extern said that baths were the aides job and why was I asking for help. So, I reminded her that I was a nursing assistant....that all jobs from head to toe were Nursing duties and that it was my job to help with those duties. You could tell she had never been an aide, I believe that she felt that she was a nurse after all and above helping to do an aides job.
I did tell her that:
1. As a CNA I already realize I'm at the bottom of the healthcare ladder, no point in being blatant about pointing it out.
2. Catch me on a bad day and you may be doing the baths anyway as aides can and often do quit, making low wages at Walmart is a lot easier than making it as an aide.
I did complain to the charge nurse and nurse manager, of course that is a total overreaction on my part, I guess it's just that I hate nursing students and being reminded of my lowly status as an aide, especially by a student nurse.
Tony
Tony,
I'm sorry that nursing student that you came across was very "unprofessional" but as a nursing student I can tell you that our VN instructor has reminded us that we're in the last half of our nursing education and that bed baths, and basic nursing (CNA) tasks are in the past. She also reminded us that our job as nursing students is to soak up as much actual nursing skills as possible. She DOESN'T want us doing basic care anymore because we're beyond that level. I'm sure that's what that nursing student meant. But unfortunately she handeled it in an unprofessional way. Had that been me, I would have approached the situation in a "professional" matter. I would have stated:
"I'm sorry, but I'm just way too busy with the actual nursing component of our rotation to help you right now. As much as I'd like to, we're advised by our instructor to focus more on the nursing aspect since our clinical rotation here is such a short amount of time. If you have any issues or concerns feel free to please speak with my instructor. If she allows it, then I have no problem helping you. But as of right now, I can't and I apologize"
You must explain to your aide why you can't assist them. I'm a CNA right now and I NEVER turn down the chance to assist a patient, but if I'm busy I always let my nurse and other aides now why I can't help them. I'm not a lazy CNA and I do admit I go above and beyond because I believe that patients have the right to basic care and they have a right to be treated with respect and shouldn't be shoved aside due to the fact that it's not my job type of deal. I've run into nurses who will hunt me down because they checked a patients peri area and they want it cleaned up.... I have an issue with this because if I were the patient and you're going to check my peri area, don't sit there and tell me you're going to get the aide. You checked it, now clean me up. It's about patient dignity and to me, that would belittle them...Just my opinion....
Another word of advise is that even though you may dislike that nursing student, just smile and roll with the punches because you never know that nursing student might just be on your hiring committee or might be on the interview panel for nursing school. I hope I helped. Good Luck!
She DOESN'T want us doing basic care anymore because we're beyond that level.
I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound like I'm saying that we're beyond the CNA as a person and worker. I just mean that in our clinical rotations, we've already mastered the CNA part and we have to move on to the more nursing component....I'm sorry if I made it sound negative towards CNA's. Hey I'm one, why would I do that? I know what it's like....
I am an LPN student and I start work tomorrow night as a CNA. I don't even think I want to mention that I am in nursing school (LPN) because a lot of the cna/lpn or rn drama.
I am an LPN student and I start work tomorrow night as a CNA. I don't even think I want to mention that I am in nursing school (LPN) because a lot of the cna/lpn or rn drama.
You might be surprised how supportive your co-workers might be. True, some might be jealous but don't let them stop you from your or your schooling. Good Luck!
Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
I remember when I was a new grad orientee on med-surg. I had to work on med-surg for 6 weeks before I went to the clinic I am assigned to work. I was told that I had to make safety rounds when I got in, especially since most times, I was there by 6:45am. While making rounds, I would discover that patients wanted to use the bedpan, get cleaned up and many other things. I would help when I could, but I had to get to the nursing rounds most times at exactly 7am. I was familar with some of the CNAs because some of us got hired together as such, and unfortunately, there were some that felt I was being too snooty when I would ring the callbell at 6:55 to say that a patient needed to be changed. It was not because I felt better than they, it was that I was a NEW nurse and the purpose of me being there is to gain that independent work ethic as a licensed person, and I had so much to learn.
Sure, I learned how to hang an IV in school, but I didn't know their pumps, where supplies were, had to listen to the entire report, because some of these people would become my patients for the day. Listening to report helped me to prioritize my day...who was leaving the floor for a CAT scan, who was on falls, or seizure precautions, who had an allergic reaction to antibiotics, who was being discharged, etc... It took me longer to check orders, obtain medications, call the doctors, consult with the RNs and other things that I had to get together within those 6 weeks. For the first few weeks, I was not to do anything on my own.
I definitely believe that we are a team with the CNAs, LPNs and RNs. However, it was equally as important that I learn EACH of my job responsibilities when I am on that floor, because I was accountable and liable for that level of care. Once I got the hang of things, I discovered it was easier to be able to pitch in and give the CNAs a hand without losing track of what I had to do as well.
Certainly, the way that the nursing student spoke to the OP was inconsiderate and it should have been addressed by the clinical instructor, and she will pay dearly for her response. I am just trying to also explain to the CNAs, who are intergal to our team that it is not always personal when we can't respond the way we'd like to sometimes.
Melinurse
2,040 Posts
Of course all nursing students struggle at first, but it's all in how you handle it too. There are alot of factors that come into play as you take on and learn new things. :heartbeat