The Truth of being a C.N.A

[C.N.A2291]

Hi. I've found this site by couple of friends to share about there experiences. So i figured I share as many as possible while I'm in the healthcare setting. Now, i just want to share my personal experiences right now as a C.N.A , and i hope i can get some replys.

So, this is where reality hits. This is where all those signs and posters of people smiling and enjoying there jobs are nothing but a big scam. This is the truth and a fact. Being a Nursing Assistant is one of the worst and lowest degrading jobs of all time. In fact, it almost beats working at burger king and McDonalds. The thing is, unlike those jobs, people actually GO to school and PAY actually money and TAKE A STATE TEST. That's what I've realized these past nine months working as a cna.But no one cares, as i've learned. Now, i don't want to share story after story about this job since i have a ton of them, but i want to share the outcome. Maybe some short stories but that's it.

DISCLAIMER- Before i start, i know people will read this, and yes, i will be criticized . I will respect everyone's opinions, but if someone gets out of hand, ill erase there comment.

I work at a hospital. I will say this. The only reason why working at a hospital is a good place is mainly the environment. It's cleaner, wider, and feels more safe. But if your a cna, the outcome will ALWAYSbe the same. We are nothing but low-life scum doing the dirty work. We are the eyes of everyone basically. Everyone watches us and if we screw up, we are the ones who pay.

Where i work is like a nursing home. I'm literaly saying this. I work at a rehab center. and yes you know what that means. Maxs and totals. people who cant walk and we have to be the one's who do everything. most of the time therapy is there during the weekdays, but the weekends, we have to do ALL of the ADLS and weigh them. oh yeah, and FALLS. cant get enough of that! Some nurses are wiling to help, but you can't trust them. Yes, iv'e said it. There are some nurses who i can't work or trust with because they have a attitude. For example, just the other day right before shift was done, the jerk of a nurse said i had to feed him. as if i didn't have enough to do. I had to weigh one more patient, and get the rooms ready. so, i decided to feed the patient, but when i went inside, i smelled something bad, and he wet himself. God i hate incontinent patients... anyway i pressed the call light and ask the nurse to help me because the patient was confused and tried to get out of bed a lot. you know what she said? she said "oh you can change him by yourself", and walked out of the room. Believe me, i wished i would've gave her a piece of my mind. so i had to change the patient all by myself. but i knew things like this was going to happen. there's nurses you cant seem to associate and work with, and in this job you'll have to deal with it...

Another thing on my floor which is completely bull, is that our boss wants us to comply with so many things and to go above and beyond for our patients. the whole nursing staff has to be responsible for it. We(the cnas) have to pass out the trays to the patients. yes, we have to. as if we have nothing else to do. and if we don't we get in trouble. We also have to put on ted hose on all the patients for therapy.. but here's my problem with it.... usually therapy gives the baths in the morning.... so why cant they be responsible for putting it on?? i mean there getting the patient ready, so i think it's only fair that WHOEVER is getting the patient ready, they are the ones who are responsible for putting them. on.. again... were busy, do you think were going to have time to follow the petty rules? i swear, there just doing that to **** us off. the boss also wants us to work as a team, but you know they say that and you know the outcome lol.

Oh, another bogus thing on our floor, floating. You see, our floor is fully staffed with nurses and cnas. you think that's a good thing right? WRONG. if were not needed, then they send us to other floors that's just as bad as our floor, making it 10 times worse for us. Sometimes we get lucky, but most of the times we go to crappy floors where we get 10-20 patients. on those floors, we have to do vitals every four hours, and depending on the blood sugars you have to do, you gotta do them. and if there's no other floors to go, they cancel people who actually need to pay for bills, families, schooling, etc... some teamwork right? I used to work night before days, and we had to do all that, PLUS weigh every single patient we had. Did the nurses help? NO!! they didn't do squat. They were sitting and chatting while WE have to do everything else.... they talk about team work there, but it's the complete opposite! All they care about is themselves and making money!

My first time going to another floor, some people told me that it's going to be tough and probably fail miserably. when i mean people i mean the cnas. So when i went to that floor that night, i had 15 patients and i never worked so hard before in my life. i was behind, tired and wanted to go home. but i had to stick with it. After like 3 times going to other floors, i finally as getting the hang of it, but sill hated it. and since were working for the whole hospital, if we get in trouble, we answer to the floor's manager and our boss. Really. One night i went to another floor and it wasn't a bad night. Then the next day i show up to work, my boss tells me that i got written up in a incident report. Why? I didn't chart one simple thing in my vitals. i did everything else, but because of that i got in trouble. then the next day, she told me they did a report on me 9 times... NINE TIMES!!!!!! ALL BECAUSE OF ONE SIMPLE MISTAKE? and the funny thing is, it was my first time going to that floor and no one told me anything about that. that's nursing for you guys.. looking our for yourselves. I could share more about that, but think I've said enough.

Now about the nurses, some i can work with and some i cant. in fact there's only a few nurses im actually friends with because we can work together as a team.. but i feel even sometimes they don't want to help me because they feel it's my job.. yes, to the nurses out there don't deny it. If you don't want to help don't bother . i am friends with some people too, but i don't get too attached to them. maybe only about a couple of people i can trust, but that's it. im just saying not ALL nurses are bad.

in closing, i really hate this job with a passion. Yes i still want to help others, but how can i do it by being overworked and unappreciated. Some people might say,"Oh your a caregiver, and your doing it because you care".. let me say this... shut up. Listen, when i was starting, i used to think the same thing, but after all this time, and a recent back injury, i think otherwise.. i gotta look out for myself, and my future... right now, it's in the storms that im trying to get out of. but i cant, because i have nothing else. this is ALL i have. and im not gonna keep being miserable for the rest of my career. i shouldn't be doing that. every time i come there, all i think about is going home. i feel angry and upset, and stress starts to come out and i really don't need that stress. In fact, sometimes i plan to call off.. just so i cant be at that hell hole. and to be honest, im tired of feeling sorry for patients.. why, because im not doing anything with my life right now. im stuck with little money, and if i have to go back to school, i have to pay for it with my own money. i want to be at a job where people actually respect and understand how and why your job is important. you know that nursing assistants only get one day of recognition, and everyone else gets a week? HELLO? WE ACTUALLY WENT TO SCHOOL, WE PAID ACTUAL MONEY FOR CLASSES,AND WE ACTUALLY TOOK A STATE TEST!! AND YES, WE STUDIED AND PRACTICED ON SKILLS LIKE YOU GUYS DO TOO! what do you think we are, janitors, transporters? if you treat us as that, there as might as well be no such thing as a nursing assistant. believe it, i said it. the nurses should be the ones who need to do everything, since they sit around and talk after passing meds. Honestly, I've told some people time and time again that i wanted to quit, but i can't. mainly because of school. But i only have to save for a few more paychecks, and im turning in my two weeks. Until then, i try to stay positive, but the outcome is always the same. After next year, im going to be a emt-b, to see where that goes, becuase i feel we get a little more respect on what we do, more than cnas. i just can't wait to get out of this job.

well, that's it. comment, say what you feel, and dont regret it.

[yorkieluv]

Go for your RN!!!!!!!!!!!!

[nonnocere1988]

Oh my god. Please stop.

[juniperpearl]

If you're looking for glory EMS is not the place for you. If it's not in you to be a caregiver then get out if healthcare. I have my EMT-B & I'm in CNA class. In this field if you can't accept your own pat on the back as your reward for a job well done you aren't going to make it. Want to know what people call EMT-B's? Ambulance drivers. There's some respect for ya.

If I'm being hard on you it's because you need a wake up call. Crappy employers & crappy co workers are going to be at any job you have it's not just at hospitals & not just because you're a CNA. If you think working at Burger King will be more fulfilling, who's stopping you?

[havehope]

Well, I couldn't read the whole thing. However, what I did read it just sounds like you are venting. When I started out for my CNA I worked at a nursing home/rehab. The staffing is awful, because like you said...most are total care and you can not provide the best possible care for your residents when you have 10 or more. That being said, I left and went to a hospital because I did not like the fact I could not provide the care I wanted to for those residents. What you said about the nurses, you have some that are exactly like you mentioned, but don't forget about the amazing ones that will help you. I have found most nurses at the hospital are amazing and will help with anything, as long as they know you work hard and do your job. However, you said "God I hate incontinent patients" Lord forgive this child. I hope you never become incontinent when you get older. Ever since I became a CNA I have always made a commitment to myself to treat everyone like I would want my grandmother or mother taken care of. I would never want anyone leaving them in a soiled diper/brief. Nor, would I want someone like you taking care of them. God Bless you, Child. I never like to talk bad about people nor look down on them, but I hope to God that you get out of healthcare, do it for your patients/residents. Best of luck to you.

[Nathifalr26, LPN]

I don't think healthcare is for you at all. From what I gather from this post. The comment about incontinent patients is sad to read. My Mom was one of those incontinent patients when she was terminally ill. I would never had wanted a CNA, nurse, or doctor like yourself around. My Mom was a CNA for over thirty years when she was alive and most of those days were in a nursing home. Was she stressed? Yes. Did she complain? Yes. But she never loss sight of the goal of who she was there for. She didn't get along with everyone. She didn't enjoy everyday but she made the most of it and took care of her residents/ patients. I'm a CNA and MA and plan to my LPN soon. In my CNA clinical I watched CNAs that had the same attitude as you. They are burned out and stressed out and take it out on everyone. Maybe you should reevaluate to figure out if healthcare is for you. And if you are looking to be appreciated at any job, I don't care if it is or isn't healthcare, you are going to keep looking.

[kaydensmom01]

Exactly, go work at Burger King then. We are all overworked! Yes you may have a more manual job then the nurse but that is because the nurses job and the CNA's job is DIFFERENT. She has to do things that you can't do other than med pass like looking at labs, reports, completing a plan of care, making assessments, calling the doctor, following through with what the doctor ordered. How can the nurses respect you when you obviously have no respect for what they do!!!!! You are not seeing that because the nurse is not doing as much manual labor that she is not working just as hard- again that is due to the fact that the nurses job is DIFFERENT then yours and if you don't like it go back to school or go into a different field.

[Marsha238612]

I feel sorry for you. Not because you're a CNA but because you don't like what you do at all. There's times when we all complain but I think you're just in the wrong field all together. I'm starting Nursing school this January but I'm taking CNA classes meanwhile. I did my first clinicals this weekend and yes being a CNA IS HARD WORK, but at the end of the day I felt as I did something great for those residents who really needed me. I don't think you'll ever feel like that because healthcare is not for you.

Do yourself a favor and quit your job as soon as possible so you can do something that makes you happy. Life is too short.

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses.com

[Glycerine82, LPN]

OH Boy! Where do I start?

Well, first things first. I suggest you learn the difference between there, they're and their if you are ever going to advance in you career and not work such a degrading job.

Secondly, you my friend, are NOT a caregiver. You "hate incontinence patients"?! are you KIDDING me? I am sure they urinate in their brief just to make your shift a little bit harder.

I worked in an acute rehab much like you describe. Well, pretty much exactly as you describe and I LOVED it and was really good at it. The comments that you have made tell me that you have absolutely no business what-so-ever in healthcare.

Being a CNA is hard, yes but so is being a nurse. I never had a problem with my nurses because I was willing to work. When I told them someone needed attention they knew I meant it, when I asked for help they knew I needed it.

You absolutely could have changed that patient by yourself (and you did). That is your job, and the Nurse can't stop what shes doing you to help you with an assist x1.

The patients in acute rehab are strokes, amputees, paraplegics not "totals" who make your day harder. They are human-freaking-beings who are at the very lowest and worst points of their lives. They went from walking, talking, driving, working to not being able to speak or use half of their body. They can't feel anything from the waist down because they are PARALYZED. They have diabetes and now are MISSING A LEG. They are not your "problems" they are your patients and they need someone to take care of them and help them do the things they can't do right now but are hoping to be able to do again.

Whats sad, is you're missing the awesomeness of working rehab and being able to take part in someones recovery. You are missing the fact that they are walking in one way and likely leaving a lot better only to get even better as time passes. You should be encouraging them to help themselves, brush their own hair, use the urinal alone, whatever.

I really don't think you were meant for CNA work, and there isn't anything wrong with that. There is however, something very, very wrong with your attitude.

Oh, and you can't "delete" comments. This isn't Facebook.

[C.N.A2291]

did i hurt you? dont like my opinions, you didnt have to reply back :)

[C.N.A2291]

I understand and i respect your opinions. but my opinions are mine. and to be honest, there's people likee me who hate the job but do it. why? MONEY.... look at the job market today... they have families and other priorities and sometimes, they have to look out for themselves... and what i meant by inconcent patients is that i dont hate them... i just hate cleaning them up when we have so many things to do.

[C.N.A2291]

why do you think im saving up for college and emt classes? :)