That ain't my resident! I am dumbfounded...

[lovingtheunloved]

So I was orienting a new CNA the other day and as I was explaining our unit's routine and such, the ADON came in and needed to float one of our aides to another unit. This CNA said "Oh, I bet there's gonna be a battle over this!" I was confused until she told me that she "Don't float. I only work my hall. If they're short that's their problem." I was speechless. And an aide trotted right over to the other hall to work. Then, later, one of a coworker's residents was yelling that she had to pee. So I went to go toilet her, and this CNA said "That ain't our resident. Why don't her aide take her?" What the #%@#! Who cares? I guarantee the resident didn't care WHO her aide was. (her aide was with another resident at the moment) When I explained that in this facility, ALL the residents are ours and if the resident needs something that is in your scope of practice, um, you meet the need, the CNA was horrified. She made comments like this the whole shift. I guess I'll either break her or she'll quit, which may not be a bad thing. I'm just...that's just weird.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

It has been 14 years since I've worked in LTC. Since that time I have worked in hospitals or units that are all RN. Its too bad that LTC can't pay CNA's what they need to make a decent living. We have two nursing homes in my area that pay CNA's very well and as a result have little turnover. They are also the nursing homes that have the highest "private pay" patients. When I was an ER case manager, one of my jobs was to find nursing home beds for ER patients and if they were private pay, I could always find a place. If they were Medicaid, usually I could but they weren't always the best places.

My mother in law was in the county nursing home for 5 years before she died. When she died my husband and I went in the next day to clear her stuff out. Several of the aides came in the room and hugged my husband and gave him little anecdotes about her. I thought that was so very caring and nice. He really appreciated it.

CNA's do make a difference.

[nurse_wannabe]

Unfortunately, that's not simply a lack of teamwork. That's survival skills in the CNA world. Let me tell you how it is (in some nursing homes):

If you really believe that "all" the residents are "yours," you'll find yourself taking care of "all" the residents, and you will be completely run over by CNAs who do not lift a finger to help you in return.

The result is, YOU burn out, and they're still there 10 years later.

It's very frustrating and it makes me angry to even have to think about it, but it is so true in too many places.

:yeahthat:

Unfortunately, the attitude the OP has described is the norm, not the exception, based on what I have personally seen. I have enough trouble getting the CNAs at my LTC to take care of their OWN residents. I can't even imagine the horror that would ensue if one was asked to toilet a resident assigned to someone else. And going to the DON about it is a joke. They are not going to fire anyone short of being forced by the state to do so. It is not easy to get people in to do that kind of work for $5.55 an hour, which is what my facility pays.

There are good CNAs, but soon enough they get tired of doing all the work and leave, and that's a very sad thing.

[buildingmyfaith57]

you know what else is really sad is when you're down working the hardest hall and you're so call co-workers got the easiet hall they get done before you do, than their sitting at the desk charting, or they in taking a break . do you think any of them bother to come down and help you to get done? how often do you have other aides that would sit at the desk and watch you answer all the lights and etc etc?

[Megsd, BSN, RN]

Unfortunately, that's not simply a lack of teamwork. That's survival skills in the CNA world. Let me tell you how it is (in some nursing homes):

If you really believe that "all" the residents are "yours," you'll find yourself taking care of "all" the residents, and you will be completely run over by CNAs who do not lift a finger to help you in return.

The result is, YOU burn out, and they're still there 10 years later.

It's very frustrating and it makes me angry to even have to think about it, but it is so true in too many places.

Amen to that. I often found myself doing little extra things like taking "someone else's" resident to their room, toileting them, answering call lights, etc. Then I noticed that A) no one else was doing that for anyone else's residents, including mine, and B) other people stopped even faking lifting a finger because they assumed I'd do it.

One of the aides finally said to me, "You realize you're the only one here who works hard, don't you?" because I was basically doing the work of other CNAs in addition to managing my own case load without any help from my coworkers.

I finally did burn out and leave the unit all together. All of the aides that stepped all over me are still there and have been for over 20 years.

[Plagueis]

Depending upon the state where one works, the educational requirements for CNAs all too often does not include all the skills needed for good job performance. When this lack of proper education is compounded by completely unrealistic patient loads, wages low enough to qualify the person for food stamps, and general lack of respect from the nursing managers and administrators, it shouldn't be surprising if CNAs burn out quickly from overwork.

You're right. The lack of proper preparation for real CNA work often causes people to leave the job. When I took my class last year, us students never got to toilet, dress, or shower a combative, screaming resident. We only had cooperative residents, which left some of us unprepared for the reality in a nursing home. I know many people in my class who got jobs quit because they didn't realize how difficult it is to handle residents who punch, kick, or swear at them. The pay doesn't help, either. My place and others that advertise pay between $8 to $10 per hour, and that barely covers rent and utilities. Four hundred dollars a week is not a lot of money; if you are able to qualify for food stamps, then you don't earn a lot.

[squeakykitty]

The bottom line is that there needs to be some sort of law that nursing homes should be forced to provide more staff. I do not know how much longer I can work as a CNA, honestly. It is ridiculous.

I couldn't agree more. If there's too many residents for a CNA to take care of, not everything gets done that needs to get done.

[squeakykitty]

Sorry, accidently posted twice.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

Unfortunately, that's not simply a lack of teamwork. That's survival skills in the CNA world. Let me tell you how it is (in some nursing homes):

If you really believe that "all" the residents are "yours," you'll find yourself taking care of "all" the residents, and you will be completely run over by CNAs who do not lift a finger to help you in return.

The result is, YOU burn out, and they're still there 10 years later.

Yup. Back when I was a CNA, you'd occasionally get a coworker you could team up with. (Which makes everything easier. Much quicker and better on the back to have two people doing rounds on two halls together than each one doing one hall separately.) But you can't do everybody's work. And that's exactly what happens if you start answering "someone else's" call lights. Because the favor won't be returned. Even better, you'll get behind on your own work, and get in trouble for not answering your own lights quick enough!

[rambisisking]

After many many years of working in nursing homes, I saw some things that started to make sense to me. Some of you are very right, it's hard to find someone to do the work that a nurses aid is asked to do for 5 bucks an hour or even a little more in some areas. I started to look at the people doing this work, and for most it is not a choice. I saw people who were burning the candle at all ends of their lives trying to support their children alot of single mothers, alot of people with little education and alot to give, people with low self-esteem, and alot of people who really didn't get it...I mean didn't really understand that we do things for a reason for the people we take care of.

For instance, I used to do the patient care inservice for CNA"s and during one

had several girls ask why we turn people during the night. I was dumbfounded and realized that I needed to do somethings in our facility to improve this. I over heard one Aide say one day that she would do anything for me because I help the aides. I realized that they really didn't understand that what they are doing there was not for ME, It was for the people that lived there. I started to do somethings...for instance, I would start conversations with patients and talk about qualities of some of our aides and they would agree with me or would point out something good about them and then I would take that comment to the aide and say.."You know, So and So said that they really felt good when you did... or some such thing that the patient did say.

Some of the hardest aides started to soften, and would even stop into patients rooms to just have a conversation with them, because now they felt some selfesteem. In our inservices we talked about things and in some of them we actually did things to each other like, feed each other and let the food run down their face, blind fold someone and splint their leg and drag them through the hall, restrain an aide in bed for the length of the inservice so she could not move or change position, so they could understand the significance of what they saw as tasks, like turning people who could not move themselves. The Aides started to get very involved in the whole team work idea only they didn't know that's what it was, they just felt better about what their role there was, We are not just completing tasks. We are caring for human beings and their frailities, along with that we have our own frailities to deal with. There is much nurses can do to help this situation and it does take some thinking and some work but the results are wonderful and much needed. I worked there for 16+ years and some of those aids even went to nursing school and are Rn's now.

Now believe me, I realize that not all aides need this or are in this situation, I told this story because it happened and it could help in some situations. Please don't think that I think I have all the answers, this is just my experience. However I do promote the idea that we're all part of each other in my daily life, and I do believe that attitude helps me be a better care giver and a better person in life.

[gcruz]

Could someone tell me if anyone on this earth has ever heard of "TEAM"work.This should be taught in school.I don't care what letters are behind your name.If everyone just helped each other when they could,most work environments would be tolerable.The phrase that just makes my blood boil is "That's not MY job" .PLEASE!!!!! Get off your butt and join the game.These patients rely on everyone,noone is too good to take someone to the restroom,whether its their job,assignment,whatever.Just remember that could be you one day,and pray you don't get that CNA.Report her or correct her way of thinking.

[ms mimi]

i got a job as a cna as soon as i turned 18, it was about the only job around that paid more than minimum wage and i needed to pay for my new apt. i did not go into it because i truely cared about the people, really i just wanted to pay the bills. and being so young; bathing, cleaning, and feeding the elderly people wasn't my idea of great. so i did kind of have this bad attitude, i was as professional as a 17-18 yr old could be. i did what was expected of me but i could have done better. and there were so many other cna's like me or worse. this one i worked with said to me that she would hit this man (Alzhiemer's) if he hit her first. she didn't, but that was the attitude of some of them. looking back now i know that there were so many things wrong there, and i should have cared more. maybe if i do go into long-term care i will try and make a difference as best i can.

[buildingmyfaith57]

Could someone tell me if anyone on this earth has ever heard of "TEAM"work.This should be taught in school.I don't care what letters are behind your name.If everyone just helped each other when they could,most work environments would be tolerable.The phrase that just makes my blood boil is "That's not MY job" .PLEASE!!!!! Get off your butt and join the game.These patients rely on everyone,noone is too good to take someone to the restroom,whether its their job,assignment,whatever.Just remember that could be you one day,and pray you don't get that CNA.Report her or correct her way of thinking.

team work don't say that, that a nasty word. are you kidding it depends who you are working with. if you're my best friend or my buddy i will help you, or i could be the charge nurse relative.