I have great cna's.I have to say I have had only one try to give me trouble,in 15 years..I try to let them know,I am here to help them when possible,so I get a good result.I have written up a few,and they have always seemed to respect what I did,mainly cause they knew they deserved it.I give verbals,then writtens.My cna's bust their a--!I blet them have down time,when possible.They really have a hard jog,I mean you can make tires on an assembly line,and make more in a day than they make in 2 full days{with overtime}If it was not for them where would we be????
I agree with leslie that this thread is asking for trouble as it's targeting only one group of health care workers.
I have worked as an aide and as an RN and i have seen lazy, uncooperative workers on both sides of the fence. I have been in situations where management refuse to deal with the person because they are either friends, the person has been there a long time, or they are related to them. It's frustrating but an unfortunate part of life. My philosophy is that if you can't change anything because the management don't want it changed, then you either have to learn to live with it or just move on.
What is the point of this posting. I can truly say that some RN's are the same way as aides. Some times RN's think they don't have to do anything. When I was on shift yesterday I saw two RN's on the internet shopping for watches and cameras!!! I couldn't believe this. Our unit was extremely busy and the Nurse wasn't going to bathe any of her patients because she was to busy spending her money on the internet. I think this issue goes both ways. Aides are treated very poorly in the medical field. I know for a fact that some RN's think that they don't know nothing else and have no degrees like them. I'm so sick of this!! Our patients lives are at stake because no one can work as a team. I know some units in my hospital work in groups (nursing teams). Can someone post something about RN's they are human to not GODS!!!
who "wins"? usually i do, sometimes they win the battle, but the war is mine.
it doesn't seem like anyone would win in this scenario? dave mac were you ever an aide? it is hard work, and extremely un-appreciated work. if i worked with someone who had the attitude of "the war is mine" i dont know how hard i would work to help them either. i would probably want to run and hide too.
was i ever an aide, yes i was an orderly back in 1977. i have also been a mental health tech, rehab tech, unit clerk, transporter, and have also done the jobs while in the navy of house keeping, plant management, and emergency response, both nuclear and regular. i am one of the biggest supporters for aides, cnas, pct, tech, what ever name is put upon them. during the seminar class while i was in adn school, the instructor did not believe in aides. she felt msns should be directors, bsn managers, adns floor nurses, and lpns doing patient care. no cnas. my paper for the class was on using patient care techs to help fill the nursing gaps. there are many areas where they can shine. my reference to it being a war may not be the best way to word it. for the most part the aides will do work for me that they won't do for others. when they have a problem with a nurse, i am the one they come to, to talk it out with. what gets me is when the dons say that aides are a dime a dozen. last time she said that, i and one other manager reached in our pockets and handed her a dime each. this broke the tension and she agreed that was an understatement. the don we have now let all the aides go except for 2 on days. 1 worked 12 hours on m-w-f and the other worked t-th. she had to work the floor one day and now they are looking for new aides. i did not mean to sound like i was talking down about aides. i have worked as an tech more than once since becoming a lpn. adn, & bsn. any nurse who will not help in this area is missing a big chance to get to know their patients.
As an aide soon to be nurse (June), I understand that every facility as their lazy aides, I've worked with a few. However, I personally got very burnt out at my last aide position due to have 20 or more patient per shift (this was in-patient med-surg), with the majority of the nursing staff acting as if I should be able to do vitals, I&O, feed, change, etc on that many pts with no problem. I'm a hard worker, and I have no problem doing my job, but if you have one aide and 20 pts, the RN's need to help out. Further more, the more pts I have, the less likely I'm going to be able to check on pts regularly, increasing risks for falls and other accidents. Yet the nurses I worked with would do anything they could to get out of doing "aide work." Please, don't forget your hard working aides!
This is the problem I had. The nurse manager even had me follow another tech around to see how she gets it all "accomplished". I followed her around and realized she half as**d everything. She even used white out on the vital sign sheet and acted like she didn't do it!! I left the facility.
I appologize if I came accross wrong..... As an agemcy LPN, the CNAs are my right arm, and my eyes and ears... It is just frustrating to see such behavior as I described, and as an "outsider" not sure where I should draw the line, or where I need to be outspoken and demand the proper treatment for our clients.
I too have worked with many different titles of folks both good and bad. God Bless the ones who do the very best that they know how in whatever capacity they are working. It takes someone special to truly love what we do.... (BTW -- I do love what I do... )
What is the point of this posting. I can truly say that some RN's are the same way as aides. Some times RN's think they don't have to do anything. When I was on shift yesterday I saw two RN's on the internet shopping for watches and cameras!!! I couldn't believe this. Our unit was extremely busy and the Nurse wasn't going to bathe any of her patients because she was to busy spending her money on the internet. I think this issue goes both ways. Aides are treated very poorly in the medical field. I know for a fact that some RN's think that they don't know nothing else and have no degrees like them. I'm so sick of this!! Our patients lives are at stake because no one can work as a team. I know some units in my hospital work in groups (nursing teams). Can someone post something about RN's they are human to not GODS!!!
You said it. There are good workers and lazy workers in all areas.
Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
I can see the point of how this thread can me misinterpeted. I don't think that the OP, and I know I wasn't criticizing the input of the aides that care, anymore than I would say negative about RNs and LPNs that are really trying their best. I think that it was a vent that hopefully doesn't get too carried away. Maybe we should focus more on PEOPLE, no matter what title they are employed in that are very difficult to deal with.
For the aides that are really caring, and are team players, I thank you from the bottom of my heart and soul.
Specializes in Medicine, Geriatrics, Pedi,ICU, Oncology.
No one seems to run my floor. I've just come from 6 years as a DON in LTC to the hospital. My floor is intermediate so it is primarily RN's. Today we had a tech and he was doing the never ending vital signs for us. This afternoon an MD asked me about pt X and I gave him an update...stable..no change..pre-op... A few minutes later this MD asks me if I thought a temp of 101.1 was stable. I was confused and sure enough when I checked there was a temp charted an hour before (too early for the V/S) for 101.1 by the tech. When I asked the tech if he forgot to notify me he said "No. If you don't like it I guess I can go home and cry and you can do your own vitals". I was speechless. When the doctor asked me what the tech said I repeated it. The doctor went after the tech and told him how it is. As a DON I really hadn't had anyone speak to me that way and can't recall that in the 10 years before either. All the other nurses thought it was horrible that the "sweet" tech got into trouble. I left tonight asking myself how nursing has come to this. Nothing will happen to the tech and it blows my mind. If I had the authority he would have gone home. https://allnurses.com/forums/images/smilies/uhoh3.gif
I have worked at a number of facilites (both LTC and acute) in which the aides run the units, mgmt knows and does nothing, and nursing complaints fall on deaf ears. This is pretty common in health care.
This has also been a major factor in why I have quit a number of jobs.
Management is usually scared of the aides. We had one that did absolutely nothing but give attitude and hide. She left patients dirty and made up false vital signs. She would leave the floor for hours at a time. She threaten several nurses. Finally when she was fired security had to escort her out.
Do you ever clash with your aides? Yeah, I finally had it out with her last week, she's been ok every since, but she will start sliding again.
What about? What not about. She complains about everything, tried to bend the rules all the time and tries to get me to do her job for her.
Who "wins"? I finally did when I stopped trying to be the nice person.
Do you have friendships among your subordinate staff? What about with other coworkers? Yes and yes. Most of my subordinates act like adults, know what there job is and just do it.
Have you ever had an aide tell you she's refusing your direction to do this or that? Have you ever called your supervisor for back up? What happened? No, they tend to be passive aggressive about it and just not do it. But they all sign their assigment sheet saying they did all the duties, so it on their shoulders if something isn't done.
Are you in a long term setting or acute care with quick patient turnover? Long term on a respiratory unit.
Is your staff pretty stable or do you have a frequent load of new staff who don't really know the job yet? Pretty stable at this point.
When I was on days, I had a bit more sympathy for the day aides. They were always short and we have very heavy patients. On the night shift, I tend not to be as sympathtic. This is why:
I come in and start to work immediately counting narcs, passing meds, setting up tubefeeds, etc. Meanwhile the aids are talking on their cell phones, paying bills, eating etc. Sometimes they might have to answer a light or two.
I sit down for a few minutes and eat my supper/study for a bit. At 2am we do rounds with the aides (we are the only unit that does help). Most are greatful and do all the dirty work, some don't. We are done around 2:30-3am. I then sit for while and study in between setting up for the last med pass, charting, stocking, etc. Some aides are sleeping, some study, soem read, some watch TV and some hide - hopefully someone is around to answer lights. At 5am we do rounds again with the aids and they go on to get two-three people ready for the am (maybe one bath or shower) and leave them in bed. I pass meds and am busy up and to the time I leave. Some aides get done early and run and hide and some actually sit at the desk and answer lights. Meanwhile a few aides come in at 6am to eat breakfast, chitchat and maybe answer a light or two.
I don't mind that there is a lot of downtime for them, I do mind them trying to get away with not doing the job they have to do. But luckily this is the minority and the majority are awesome workers that I am lucky to work with.
proud2b1
125 Posts
I have great cna's.I have to say I have had only one try to give me trouble,in 15 years..I try to let them know,I am here to help them when possible,so I get a good result.I have written up a few,and they have always seemed to respect what I did,mainly cause they knew they deserved it.I give verbals,then writtens.My cna's bust their a--!I blet them have down time,when possible.They really have a hard jog,I mean you can make tires on an assembly line,and make more in a day than they make in 2 full days{with overtime}If it was not for them where would we be????