Unruly CNAs

NedRN · May 21, 2017

I've been working on a Orthopedic Surgery unit for the past two and a half months and I'm having a really hard time with the CNAs. They're extremely rude and lazy. The majority of them are under 21 and are taking "pre-nursing" courses and feel like they know everything. On one occasion I was educating one of my patient's a the CNA started to talk over me like she was more "educated" in the subject than I was. I complained to the manager but I do think she addressed the issue. I only have three more weeks left on this assignment, but I don't think I can take it anymore. Has anyone else ever experienced this type of behavior with their aides???

Be happy you have aides. My suspicion is they all have friends. Thus their rudeness is your inability to relate, communicate, and manage effectively. Perhaps you think you know everything with 2 years of experience yourself. If you instead think 'what could I have done differently, or how I can communicate better, versus what's wrong with these people', you will have fewer of these problems. It is not easy, but far, far easier to change your own behavior than others. If you model best practices and behaviors, others around you will respond positively.

penlite28 · May 21, 2017

How dare you judge me for expressing my experiences with a difficult group of people. Maybe I should of labeled my article "dealing opposition on an assignment", maybe that would have better suited you, jerk!! I noticed you are some type of "All Nurses" troll and comment on on almost every single article. Maybe you should take a tip from you own advice and re-evaluate your own character. I have the upmost respect for "good" CNAs who actually "aide" and not make my job more difficult.

heron, ASN, RN · May 21, 2017

That went well ... :rolleyes:

NedRN · May 21, 2017

How dare you judge me for expressing my experiences with a difficult group of people. Maybe I should of labeled my article "dealing opposition on an assignment", maybe that would have better suited you, jerk!! I noticed you are some type of "All Nurses" troll and comment on on almost every single article. Maybe you should take a tip from you own advice and re-evaluate your own character. I have the upmost respect for "good" CNAs who actually "aide" and not make my job more difficult.

I get that perhaps you were just venting and looking for validation and did not appreciate what might appear to be "blaming the victim" response you got from me. I was attempting to provide constructive advice but you clearly didn't hear it. Probably wasting my time but here are some more thoughts for you.

If you had a problem with a strong personality at work and needed help on dealing with that person, my response would have been very different. What you actually stated is that you could not deal with an entire class of people at work describing them as "extremely rude and lazy". You complained about their behavior to the manager versus asking for advice on how to manage the situation. You may have complained/gossiped to staff nurses as well which could have gotten back to the aides as well. You feel free to label people and call them names (demonstrated by calling me names as well).

By the way, how on earth are the staff nurses dealing with extremely rude and lazy aides without quitting?

Think about how you might react if people treated you like that. You would probably avoid them right? That is likely what these aides are doing with you. At the moment, both your posts make you sound like a terrifying employee from a manager's perspective. Three weeks to go? You may have been lucky to have made it this far.

So yes, I think it is likely you are the problem here. I gave you some advice that is really more future oriented than this one assignment. It is unlikely your situation will improve in the next three weeks no matter what you do, but you have a chance every three months as a traveler to have a fresh start.

I will add one other thought should you decide to so some self examination versus "the world and Ned is against me". Are you of the same socioeconomic class and/or ethnicity as these aides? There could be a vast culture gap that prevents you from understanding and communicating with them effectively and vice versa. Until you make the attempt to understand them, problems will continue. Most of us get raised in a monoculture and don't really become exposed to other cultures, particularly as it relates to work, until we become working adults. Thus culture clash is common and can be huge. I say that with personal experience of discovering certain classes to not have my own work ethic and having to deal with it. You have to learn new communication skills and what they need from you to earn their respect.

caliotter3 · May 21, 2017

Well, it is rather nice to know that some people have never had to work around rude or lazy people. OP, your predicament is not uncommon. No, once you have taken it to the manager and they have done nothing, or nothing that works, all you can do is to survive the last three weeks of your assignment. Imagine having to work at that facility on a permanent basis.

chacha82, ADN, BSN · May 21, 2017

That escalated quickly.

If you have only 3 weeks left on the assignment, I would not start anything now. Be friendly but firm with them. "Please help me turn patient 7B." "Please let me know the fingerstick in room 14. Thank you." If they refuse, roll their eyes, say "Yeah, right" or something like that, ask them once, "So you are refusing to do this task?" If they do, you can document it and provide this to management. Other than that, keep it moving and I would just let the clock run out on this one.

Skippingtowork · May 22, 2017

OP, I have seen your predicament before. It is unfortunate that people behave that way. Like someone else said, be very straightforward with your requests, then document everything. I have seen an MA talk over an MD, explaining procedures and diagnosis as the MD was standing there. My mouth is still open. I hope these CNAs are not going outside their scope of practice. You only have three weeks left, so there is very little you can do. In the future, you may need to schedule a meeting with the nurse manager so that everyone understands their job description and who they report to. A CNA should not be rolling eyes or disregarding requests of an RN. Unless you are being very rude or inappropriate, the job of a CNA is do what they are asked to do, just as a nurse responds to the requests of a physician. Having friends has nothing to do with anything,as wolves often run in packs. As an NP, I had MAs decline my requests, just because they had that type of personality. I had to take them to a quiet place, to discuss quietly what was expected and why, and the consequences of such behavior in the future. I was thanked for my discretion and there were no further problems. I would be very curious to know if the other nurses are treated this way by the CNAs.

KelRN215, BSN, RN · May 22, 2017

When I worked in the hospital, nursing students were our best CNAs. They wanted to do a good job because they wanted good references or to be hired as nurses in the future.

It was the career CNAs that we consistently had problems with. They would hide in the locker room all day, vitals would be hours late, Foleys would never be emptied, at night we'd find them asleep in a closet or the treatment room, they'd roll their eyes at you when you told them that a patient was total care and needed to be turned or bathed. The hospital didn't have a transport team but most of the time nurses ended up escorting patients to tests ourselves because by the time we could find the CNA and argue with them about taking the patient to Radiology, we could be there and back already. At night, I just did my own vitals because I was usually waking the patient up for neuro checks anyway and the CNAs never listened when you asked them to do something a certain way- for example, "this patient is 3 months old, please take an axillary temp" and they'd do tympanic because it was faster. For the 5 years I worked there, any time anyone brought up this issue, the response was the same. "They'll never change, the culture was like this before we all came, we can't change the culture." Actually, I remember being warned about the attitude of the "career CNAs" at new grad orientation.

Since I left the hospital, I've worked in areas that didn't employ CNAs.

Beldar_the_Cenobite, CNA · May 22, 2017

I'm working on passing my CNA stuff and I'm also taking pre-nursing classes but as of this comment I'm 28 and former military. I'm quite aware of the responsibilities RNs have vs CNAs and if it was me in this position, I'd make a phone call to the BON about it because if CNAs give you attitude, that could jeopardize the safety of the patient. Here in NV, CNAs are monitored by our BON, don't know what it's like in your state but see what the BON says. Maybe they could do a little temporary license suspensure to get the CNAs attention and report them to their offices to remind them of where they stand. Off-hours, as a CNA or RN, I don't know anyone I work with and anything that happens to the patients is not my responsibility or under my care but when I'm on-duty, it's life or death between CNA/NURSE and the patient. Is this CNA capable of glaring at the grim reaper and say,"Not today my friend" because we all know RNs have less contact with the patients than CNAs? I'd report to the BON about it. If management doesn't do anything about it, report to the BON about them. This is an inhibitor in safety practice. "failure to communicate"

/username, BSN, RN · May 22, 2017

How dare you judge me for expressing my experiences with a difficult group of people. Maybe I should of labeled my article "dealing opposition on an assignment", maybe that would have better suited you, jerk!! I noticed you are some type of "All Nurses" troll and comment on on almost every single article. Maybe you should take a tip from you own advice and re-evaluate your own character. I have the upmost respect for "good" CNAs who actually "aide" and not make my job more difficult.

You reacting like this to a fairly innocuous post kinda highlights why you may be having problems with the staff, and really serves well to prove NedRN's point....

JerseyTomatoMDCrab, BSN · May 22, 2017

The name calling in this post is making me feel right at home (as an elementary school nurse)