Trying to avoid undesirable CNA duties

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Does anybody know of any CNA jobs where you don't have to wash the patients or or wipe butts? Also I'm a sophomore BSN student with an associates in engineering and 6 months volunteer work at a hospital and worked in plant engineering at another hospital. Might any of this helps with job oppertunities where I don't have to wipe or wash people?

The nursing home in our area marks rooms of infectious patients with a teddy bear picture outside the door.

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to orange juice > Well handling poop has gotten easier I think my main problem is fear of catching something. .

Unless you run around with open sores on your hands and wrists, you are more likely to catch something by someone's cough or sneeze.

Ever seen a picture of a slow motion sneeze? :lol2:

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Specializes in Peds and adult ED, trauma.

Essentially, if the OP really has an aversion to the nastier side of nursing (I.e. Body fluids and waste, not people), perhaps some long, hard reflection on her career choice is in order for her own long-term happiness and job satisfaction. However, if she's taken aback by some of the things she's already had to or will have to deal with and just doesn't know quite how to handle it yet, I think that's something we all can or could relate to at some point.

I've worked with plenty of nurses who refused to help with dirty jobs and I've seen a lot of new grads who mastered book knowledge but shied away from

more practical skills such as clean up. The same with experienced nurses who left all such work to techs. Learning to deal with the challenges of a job is one thing. Seeking ways to dodge them is another.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
The nursing home in our area marks rooms of infectious patients with a teddy bear picture outside the door.

I wonder why they chose a teddy bear for that. The Teddy Bear Anti-Defamation League is not going to be happy! Maybe cutesy symbols are the wave of the future. Several doors in the hospital my mom was at had cartoonish pictures of stars with short, wide "tails" in little card holders. My mother had one, too- so I asked the nurse. She said that meant "fall risk". Huh?:confused: Ohhhhh I get it now!! :idea: Falling star!! Clever!

I know this was the brain-child of someone who was insanely HIPAA conscious or thought their employees couldn't read or speak English. But think of all the possibilities little primitive symbols could communicate in code to other staff!! Muahaha. :coollook: ( Sorry for off topic :))

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Specializes in Critical Care.
I think mucus is MUCH worse than poop and pee. Try checking out a volcanic trach.

Agreed!!

That said, I really have to concur that if you want to avoid undesirable CNA duties, you may want to rethink your chosen major. At the very least learn more about nursing. How are you going to deal with cleaning out a trach? Dealing with C-Diff, major infections involving downright necrotic tissue, etc. etc. These are just a few of the many things a Nurse - not a CNA - deals with. It won't get any easier down the road... in fact I'd venture to say there are alot worse things than poop and pee.

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Specializes in ltc, med/surg.

One of the main aspects of nursing is keeping your patient comfortable and safe- which includes keeping them clean. Whether you are a BSN or a CNA- cleaning up after the patient is your job because skin care is a nursing task which keeps the patient comfortable (would you want your patient covered in BM?) and safe (from skin breakdown).

I work on a very busy hospital floor as a CNA. While I have tasks expected of me and delegated to me, I wouldn't say there are specific skills or duties called "CNA duties". A true nurse (and the majority of them) takes full responsibilty for her/his patient and will clean up after him before starting the IV or hanging blood or before doing whatever RN-specific task.

And when it comes to baths, it is my duty to get as many as possible done- to free up time for the RN to perform her duties- but if I can't get to a bath, then the RN will do it because it is her responsibility. That is what nursing is, taking care of the whole person.

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Specializes in PACU, LTC, Med-Surg, Telemetry, Psych.
I wonder why they chose a teddy bear for that. The Teddy Bear Anti-Defamation League is not going to be happy! Maybe cutesy symbols are the wave of the future. Several doors in the hospital my mom was at had cartoonish pictures of stars with short, wide "tails" in little card holders. My mother had one, too- so I asked the nurse. She said that meant "fall risk". Huh?:confused: Ohhhhh I get it now!! :idea: Falling star!! Clever!

I know this was the brain-child of someone who was insanely HIPAA conscious or thought their employees couldn't read or speak English. But think of all the possibilities little primitive symbols could communicate in code to other staff!! Muahaha. :coollook: ( Sorry for off topic :))

Kind of like.... Fast Food? Hey, some of those guys make more.

If you have ever worked fast food, they have pictures on the register instead of numbers. They have buzzers on the grills to tell you EXACTLY when to do each step.

Hell, I know one state where if you cannot read WILL GIVE YOU THE CNA EXAM ORALLY!

There is no critical thinking or decisions. Nor do they DARE want you too.

This is, beyond cleaning poop, an issue with CNA as a career. This is the problem I have with some of the more poop oriented CNA gigs like LTC, LTAC, Med-Surg, Telemetry, etc. It is the attitude along with the poo.

But... the RNs need you. BigMed needs you. Someone has to be the fall-guy and butt wiper so others can be "professional".

These "symbols" are still better than nothing, but treats the symptoms other than the problem.

When I was in CNA class, the book told me I would be part of an "Interdisciplinary Team" with input in the care. Instead, 90% of these places, your are not part of the team - you are someone who cleans the bleachers after the team has played.

What happened to that?

Yes, someone needs to clean poo. But, if you get treated like the poo you clean.... I think that is the true issue.

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Specializes in ltc, med/surg.

I'm a CNA and I love my job and do not plan on becoming a nurse. I have coworkers who have been CNAs for almost 30 yrs and I have friends who are retired aides. I think that all of us "career CNAs" don't appreciate so many people thinking our job is mostly associated with poop and pee. There is much more to our job than that. In fact, as many of you nurses know, there is so much to basic care for the ill and elderly that it would take hundreds of pages to describe what we do on a daily basis.

I think it is the people who aren't meant for this job or who lack respect for the job who say things like "wiping butts" or "grunt work" in regards to CNA work.

Perhaps its because we receive less education for the license, or because we make less money, that people think our job doesn't require "critical thinking" skills. I'm telling you, when you have a large load of dependent and needy patients- you are constantly needing to weigh the importance of each task- using your limited time correctly while trying to ensure everyone has been well taken care of. A good memory, multi-tasking, and observation is essential to being a good CNA.

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Specializes in Med Surg/Ortho.
And when you are on the "front line" or in flight line doing that "higher skilled"work requiring knowledge, and the pt vomits or pees or has a bowel movement, exactly who do YOU think is going to clean the pt? Are you going to have them land the plane, to find a CNA to handle the poop, or maybe that's the stewardesses job? You think that the copter goes to autopilot and the pilot comes back to do it? You think one of the medicos that has been running under fire, trying to scoop their buddies up, bloodied and wounded, and transport to your care, needs to stop that and help you clean urine? If there is pt that has pooped during surgery and you have a room full of surgeons, anesthesia, surgury techs, scrub nurses (in and out of sterile situations) and circulator nurse that does not have to be sterile, who do you think handles the bodily fluids?

I hate to tell you but the more skilled, you go in nursing (ICUs, circulator, BMT, NICU, flight) the fewer assistants that there are, and the more poop you handle.

A suggested experiment - perhaps the next time that you are ill, you should lie in your own urine/stools for several hours. It might change your perspective a bit. Or care for someone that was in the extended care of someone that was so busy doing "higher skilled" work that they developed a stage 3 or 4 decub.

You do not like the answers that you have gotten. That's understandable. But you go on to get upset that people have not been very receptive to your ideas of a job in secretion-free, dirt-free Nursing job. The fact is "exciting" nursing jobs involves poop, pee, blood and mucus, and cleaning, along with all those higher skills that you aspire to.

I just loved this post, thank you!

As for my 2 cents...I just finished my last day of clinicals in my CNA class, which I started 3 weeks ago. I have two kids, two dogs, and have worked as a vet tech for 10 years, so pee, poop, vomit and blood do not bother me much. I was still nervous about doing it, thinking it would somehow seem more gross in an adult human. But honestly, it wasn't that bad. It didn't even effect me the first time I had to do it. I figure it has to be done. Most of the residents in the nursing facility where I have been can't do it, can barely move, and many can't even talk. So it is so easy for me to spend 2 minutes taking care of a basic need that will make someone feel better. It actually makes me humble thinking how we take for granted all the simple things in life that we are able to do for ourselves. I am grateful to help another human being. It is not like you spend all day doing it. Yes, you will do it every day, several times a day on the people that are incontinent. But it wasn't even the majority of my day (I think I spent more time in the dining hall assisting with feedings, which I loved). And like my instructor told us more than once, if you have the chance to look at naked skin, look at naked skin. In a LTC especially, how often do nurses do that? Pretty much when the CNA informs them there is a problem. CNA's are the ones that spend the most time with them, toileting, bathing, pericare, dressing. We are the ones that will see a problem (where a bed sore, a bruise that was possibly abuse, infection, whatever). It is so important, and we can save lives by doing it. At the very least, we are making the quality of their life that much better by caring.

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Specializes in Med Surg/Ortho.
from what I've been told they don't have to tell the CNA's what contagiouse diseases patients are able to transmit to you because privacy laws etc. You just have to use "standard precautions" which i think is unfair because I believe the nurses know so how come CNA's arent privy to that information? Just to sum it up , just in case you guys havn't figured it out my reasons or my main concerns with quote "undesirable CNA duties" (I apologize again) is fear of catching something. Anybody out there with POSITIVE helpful info feel free to reply.

Did you take a nursing assistant class? Because if you did, they should have gone over standard precautions and how important it is to wear gloves and wash your hands between residents so you don't catch anything, and you don't spread anything from one resident to another. And if you are working with the resident, you should know everything about the resident, including what health issues or diseases they have. How else could you properly take care of them?

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
QUOTE=ctmed;4447496]. . . . .When I was in CNA class, the book told me I would be part of an "Interdisciplinary Team" with input in the care. Instead, 90% of these places, your are not part of the team - you are someone who cleans the bleachers after the team has played.

But in reality you are part of the "interdisciplinary team" and people who treat you as an untouchable are not only rude but very short-sighted. The only reason I can think of that a nurse would snicker at a CNA or roll her eyes if they asked a question about the patient's diagnosis or what came up on their wound culture or whatever is that they are immature and insecure. It may be a hospital policy-- but the demeaning comments are not. In my first job I worked at a place that actually did not have very many CNAs and we were the primary nurse, which meant that we did everything for our patients, both the RNs and the LPN/LVNs.

So it never occurred to us to divvy it up in our heads. I've never been a supervisor and have no desire to be one, but I would hope no one would feel disrespected because of their job title, and nurses who seek out and value the input of the CNAs create a win-win situation for everyone. If something is "off" that a CNA notices- how comfortable they feel with the nurse may make the difference on whether they report it or not. Those little "off" things are often the harbinger of some very big "off" things. . . . .now tying on my cape to save the world. . . ha ha just kidding don't want to sound preachy but I just don't understand people shooting themselves in the foot that way.

Did you take a nursing assistant class? Because if you did, they should have gone over standard precautions and how important it is to wear gloves and wash your hands between residents so you don't catch anything, and you don't spread anything from one resident to another. And if you are working with the resident, you should know everything about the resident, including what health issues or diseases they have. How else could you properly take care of them?

There are facilities that ban nursing assistants from knowing the patient's diseases and looking at their charts. I don't think it's right, but they do.

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.
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Yes, good handwashing technique, gloves etc should always be used, but can we get real just for a sec here? If you know someone has c.diff or MRSA or Hep C or whatever, you are going to approach it in a more alert and careful manner. A nurse who knows a patient has a blood-borne infection will approach their task in a more alert and careful manner. It's human nature. I don't know if basic microbiology with an emphasis on common nosocomial infections is covered in most CNA courses, but I don't know any reason it shouldn't be.

Some of us ARE being "real".

After years of learning 4 or 5 monthes down the line that someone has a bloodbourne disease, some of us treat ALL pts like they have something infectious. And as far as MRSA or CDiff, care instructions should be placed on the door for proper contact care - there is no particular need to know the specific disease, though we notify ALL care givers.

"Human nature" as an excuse gets people seriously hurt....and it is just that, an excuse. The vast majority of people in the world that have a bloodbourne disease - the staff will not know about it. Most people with MRSA - the staff will not know about it. A friend that works in a major University health system, found huge percentages of students cultured for various medical issues came up positive for MRSA.

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