Thanks to the CNA's

meownsmile, BSN, RN · Mar 18, 2005

I agree, but more importantly,, work as a team and HELP them when you can. Talk is cheap, get out there and show them.

Getting in there and actually helping them do turns, help with toileting, linen changes answer call lights, etc says a whole lot more than standing there at the end of the shift telling them how much you appreciate them.

And i do practice what i preach.

stidget99 · Mar 18, 2005

I agree, but more importantly,, work as a team and HELP them when you can. Talk is cheap, get out there and show them.
Getting in there and actually helping them do turns, help with toileting, linen changes answer call lights, etc says a whole lot more than standing there at the end of the shift telling them how much you appreciate them.
And i do practice what i preach.

I couldn't agree w/ you more. I also get in there, get down and dirty. I don't mind wiping bottoms, answering call bells, cleaning someone up, etc. All I was saying.......it's different when your whole job is that of a CNA. When I was the "official" CNA this morning, it was a real eye opener. Made me appreciate the aides even more than I already do.

KimberlyT · Mar 21, 2005

I couldn't agree w/ you more. I also get in there, get down and dirty. I don't mind wiping bottoms, answering call bells, cleaning someone up, etc. All I was saying.......it's different when your whole job is that of a CNA. When I was the "official" CNA this morning, it was a real eye opener. Made me appreciate the aides even more than I already do.

I took a job as a CNA in a nursing home the summer before my last semester of nursing school (I'm an RN). It is clear to me that CNAs are the hardest working people on the planet! I was running all day and still behind. If I stopped and spent 2 minutes to help a resident or talk to them, it put me way off track. No wonder nursing homes are such sad places. No one has the time to just get to know these lovely people. One lady was struggling so much to button her shirt and she finally looked up at me and said "I have a college degree." She was so embarassed by how little she could do for herself, I think she thought I would think less of her. But I ultimately quit that job within 6 weeks because of the nurses working there. They were the laziest, cattiest women I'd ever seen. They would sit on their butts all day yakking about personal stuff and if I'd say "can you please help me transfer this [400 lb completely immobile] resident?" they'd stop, look right at me like I was crazy, and say "you'll have to get another CNA to help you, I'm a nurse." So then I'd spend 5 minutes tracking down another CNA, who is of course, really busy with her own residents, to help me -- and they'd come as soon as they could, but it was still 10 minutes, which made us late to get them down for lunch, which meant the CNAs didn't get lunch..... God, it was horrible. I didn't need the money from this job (good thing, because it paid squat), so even though I loved the residents and my CNA coworkders were pretty cool I finally decided I'd had enough and quit. I don't think I would ever have treated anyone the way CNA's were treated at that place, but now I am sure of it. I KNOW how hard CNA's work!

brudjazz · Apr 7, 2005

I believe that NO ONE should be allowed to enter an LPN or RN program without having first accumulated at LEAST six months of CNA experience. In my own experiences as a CNA in the past, and from all the stories that my wife (who is an LPN with 19 years of experience in geriatrics, 5 of them as a CNA) has told me, I'm very much convinced that those that have never worked as a CNA make HORRIBLE LPN's AND RN's. Those are the ones that believe they are above doing any dirty work.