Speaking for myself on this topic I'd like to go over what is going through our minds on a day to day basis. And the Dos and Don'ts of delegating....
1. Is the most important of them all, please if you see us techs with an ekg machine, or a phlebotomy cart, or something important DON'T ask us to stop what we are doing to go help room 20 to the commode or to get them a beverage. DO get it yourself because chances are we have more things to do.
2. DON'T tell us oh room 20 just needs the channel changed in the room. Knowing that the PT really has to be changed, wants the channel to be changed, and would like food. DO Just tell us ahead of time keeping that information from us and then hearing the PT say oh I told the nurse I needed to be changed she said she would get someone is really irritating.
3. DON'T talk down to us, can't tell you how many times I've seen it where a new grad nurse talks down on a tech then a few months later they are colleagues both with an RN degree and the tech is a better nurse than the new grad.
We are all team mates looking for one thing, great patient care. I love my establishment now because the doctors and nurses and techs all sit together and we all speak to each other on a first name basis. DO delegate tasks to us techs in a respectful manner meaning do not micro manage have faith in us, and say thank you after we are done with said task. That means the world to us.
4. If we are walking into a room together and you start talking introduce yourself and myself with appropriate titles. I am no longer a CNA down in the ER. I am a Tech, just like doctors and nurses have specialties I too am in a specialty. Plus if you tell a PT I am a tech, rather than a CNA they won't think of me as their personal assistant having me fetch them drinks and blankets just because. Of course I will do all of that but it deters them from thinking all i do is wipe butts and wait on their hands and feet.
Of course not every nurse does this in fact in the hospital i work in there's only one nurse who does this. I love my staff and i consider myself apart of a functioning team. Please dont take this list the wrong way its just ones Techs opinion. Thanks!
Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.
And the fact you think you are busier than me just shows you treat your "techs" like ****.
Its not a case of being busier, its a case of the fact that while I can do your job, collect stuff, wipe butts, ecgs, take bloods, there is alot of my job that you are not able to do.
If I ask you to do something its really because I am simply not able to get to it myself and need assistance from you. If I ask you in urgence to go put Mrs Smith on the bed pan, its because I know a code brown is possible and its far easier getting you to stick her on the pan than both of us having to clean up poo from armpit to feet.
If its good enough for an RN to clean up poo, why are you such a special snow flake that you seem to think its beyond you
Looks like i hurt a lot of feelings in this post, i did a great job of bringing out the prideful rns who cant seem to get over the fact that what im saying has nothing to do with competency. And you just reinforced my post by calling me lowest paid in the ed. That may be true but does that give you a right to 1. Give me an attitude when i have a patient with chest pains with the ekg in my possesion, and you tell me to go and get your little old lady some blankets and put her on a bed pan and i say i cant right now? No
2. Do you think because im "lowest paid" in the ed that you have to lie to me to go to a pts room for something else when you could just be honest with me and ill prioritize my tasks? No
Like i said treat us like ****, we wont work hard for you. Dont lie to us, and dont micromanage. Being a tech is a specialty we wouldnt be here f we didnt know what we were doing. Im not taking anything from you guys so why is it hard for you to understand this concept?
You don't like the truth, which is that you are not the boss. You are not in charge. Maybe you love most of the staff. It doesn't matter. Do as your bosses tell you to do.
If you do become a nurse, you will then understand how hard it is, how miserable it is, and why nurses who lack cajones and courage and hate dealing with your attitude might use coercion instead.
Sorry, but you are wrong.
BTW, many, many nurses started as aides, techs, whatever you want to call UAP's, so we know it can be frustrating to be told/asked to do stuff you don't like doing.
Never think that being on a first name basis makes you other than an assistant. You might be great at your job, but you are an assistant, not the boss.
And a lot of nurses dislike being the boss, but the law says we have to be, like it or not.
And unfortunately people like you never get help because you think you are high and mighty. Like i said. I love my staff, only one nurse does what i explained. Literally everything you said has an attitude attached to it. If you knew me personally you would know i go above and beyond. And the fact you think you are busier than me just shows you treat your "techs" like ****.
You know, nurses have a really bad job. Regardless of the emotionally enmeshed caring, nurses take lots of orders, busy themselves about, and do a multitude of undesirable tasks. Of course, since "care management" is the domain of the nurse, there is a greater liability absorbed along with extended administrative functions that must be served.
This was never about hurting anyone's feelings. It's just basic businesses strategy. For a successful outcome, a manager must delegate tasks that it doesn't require a manager to do. Anyone can set leads on a warm body, and anyone can wipe a butt. A nurse SHOULD always delegate simple, time consuming tasks to yield a higher quality outcome for all involved.
This means as a tech, or CNA such as those I've sent home, you're going to have to do all of the thoughtless, time consuming tasks, hastily, that a nurse either hasn't time or desire to do. It's the tech's job to do simple chores for nurses and patients. There's nothing else to be said. Sure, communication and tact is great, but not everyone comes from a politically correct outlook.
Nurses aren't being arrogant. Believe me, we take it in the back too from day one to year thirty. It's not vindication or projection either. Do your job and don't worry about "feelings" or fairness. Concern yourself only with doing your assignments in the absolute best way you can. Don't think. Just act.
Sounds like you've found yourself cursed with the, "I'm too important," ego. Everyone's seen it before, and a lot of us have had it ourselves at one point. Whether you find yourself out of it is up to you. It will be a very challenging and unfulfilling career for you, if you don't.
So,are you saying I should risk my license and lose my job altogether because I get a med error for being late on meds so I can wipe someone up?
Or I should lose my job because of failure to rescue , say someone in acute chest pain, so that I may go get a family some sadwiches in stead?
Thats why there is UAP's. Thats why the job exists. And the way things have been going, dont worry- lots of places are reducing/eliminating techs/aides/uaps anyhow in favor of more nurses. At least where we are.
Im sorry you feel disrespected. I sure as heck wouldnt want to be a UAP when I could work at Red Lobster or walmart for the same hourly pay. Actually hate being a nurse too, but thats another story.
healthcare sux. Surprised you havent noticed that yet. The hospitals are now telling pts this is the hotel/customer service experience. They are going to ask for sandwiches ,sodas, etc. Its what they have been told to expect.
DO delegate tasks to us techs in a respectful manner meaning do not micro manage have faith in us, and say thank you after we are done with said task. That means the world to us.
First, as a charge nurse, it's my job to micromanage you. You know why? Because when the poo hits the fan I'M the one who's going down in flames not you because legally YOUR performance is MY responsibility. Don't believe me? Why don't you google the laws related to delegation to unlicensed personnel.
Second, why on earth do I have to thank you for doing your damn job?!! This isn't elementary school where you get a gold star for every task completed. I WILL thank you if you go out of your way, unbidden, to take care of something but for performing your usual tasks? At the end of the shift I will thank everybody for their teamwork but to thank you for every little thing you do? Not. Gonna. Happen.
And before you launch. I am the nurse who cleans up her own patients unless I absolutely can't. I am the nurse that defends the techs from hostile patients/families. I am the nurse that will show you an interesting procedure or disease process when I know you are in nursing/medic school. I am the nurse that will show you tricks learned from decades of nursing. I am the nurse that will drag you into the clean utility room and give you a hug when you need it. But I am not the nurse who will pander to an inflated sense of ego. Here's a little hint. If you have to say "don't take this the wrong way" you might want to rethink what you're about to post otherwise be prepared to catch a whole lot of deserved heat.
And unfortunately people like you never get help because you think you are high and mighty. Like i said. I love my staff, only one nurse does what i explained. Literally everything you said has an attitude attached to it. If you knew me personally you would know i go above and beyond. And the fact you think you are busier than me just shows you treat your "techs" like ****.
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Well...since I am as old as dirt AND an ER nurse, I have a point of view as well.
First. No floor, ward, or ED can function without multiple levels of professionals. Each person has a job to do and each job is specialized. Yes....there are such beings as ED techs....and no they are not CNA's. In many ER's across America, ED techs are usually EMT's and are given specialized training to be ortho techs for the ED. These individuals are specialists in the department and do all splints and crutch walking instruction who also do EKG's and transport most non monitored patients admitted. Blood draws are everyone's responsibility, mostly on the RN's to obtain when they start IV access.
I realize that most ED's are not the well oiled machine as the ED's I have managed (tongue in cheek) with specific triage criteria for patients care before the ED doc sees the patient. ALL nurses are responsible for bedpans and patients needing changed. Interestingly enough I have found this a newer belief among newly graduated nurses that once they have become THE RN...they no longer are required to participate in actual patient care. As a nurse, supervisor, and manager I find this one of the least endearing qualities of newly minted RN's.
Oh I have heard the usual outrage that THEY are busy and that they CAN do the tech job but the tech can't do THEIR job but what I believe in is that these patients...that bedpan...that EKG is everyone's responsibility with THE PATIENT being the most important of them ALL. I find that the poor tech's are spread thin. The ortho Doc wants them. The ED doc wants them. The nurses want them yet usually there are only one or two of them to the 6-8 of us.
What I find helpful, and require of anyone I work with, is respect. If you are busy...changes are EVERYONE IS BUSY! Language that I find respectful is...Tech1, can you help me with....EKG, blood draw, bedpan? I need to give xyz and MNOP to Trauma two and give LMN to bed 2. then we can clean up bed 4 together? THANK YOU!
YOu get a lot more bees with honey than you would with lemons.
Tenebrae, BSN, RN
2,021 Posts
Its not a case of being busier, its a case of the fact that while I can do your job, collect stuff, wipe butts, ecgs, take bloods, there is alot of my job that you are not able to do.
If I ask you to do something its really because I am simply not able to get to it myself and need assistance from you. If I ask you in urgence to go put Mrs Smith on the bed pan, its because I know a code brown is possible and its far easier getting you to stick her on the pan than both of us having to clean up poo from armpit to feet.
If its good enough for an RN to clean up poo, why are you such a special snow flake that you seem to think its beyond you