What if CNA won't work?

Specialties Geriatric

Published

Hello. I've had something on my mind for a while and I was wondering if anyone here could give me some input. I will be (God willing) an LPN in three months. I intend to work in long term care upon graduation. I have been working as a CNA for some time now and have come across other CNAs who couldn't care less about their work and are guilty of flat out neglect and abuse. Y'all certainly know what I'm talking about so I don't need to list examples (a CNA working 11-7 who makes his first round at 0530 would be a good one). I know this doesn't apply to all or even to most CNAs but I've seen enough of these types to make me worried about how to handle it when (if) I become an LPN. Is it possible for an LPN to get into legal trouble and even be barred from nursing if neglect by an aid on his/her shift is proven? How can you possibly keep up with 30 something residents being clean, dry, repositioned, etc. as well as pass meds, do treatments, and chart? Today I worked with an aid who sat and watched basketball while her resident's brief was falling to her knees. The nurse mentioned it to the aid and her response was that the resident belonged to another aid (not true) so the poor woman just stayed like that till shift change. If you had been this nurse what would you have done? How do y'all handle this type of thing? I dont want to be a hard a** but I more than that dont want to loose my liscense! Thanks for any responses.

Specializes in Geriatrics.

I bet all your problems are with are with African American workers, if I am wrong please let me know cause I would love to be wrong on this one....

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I bet all your problems are with are with African American workers, if I am wrong please let me know cause I would love to be wrong on this one....

You are. My problems were all with white women.

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:nurse: I have a question for you guys. I work with this one CNA who is very rude, selfish, cold, neglectful and lazy. She is sloppy too. Well, we work second shift and when we clock in and get our lists and reports, she'll start to to PM care on all her residents. I'm not talking about the ones who go back to bed for dinner/bedridden, comatose patients. She'll take the ones who eat supper in the dining room and do pm care and put johnnnies on them and then wheel them back to the dining room.

So after supper, she'll just put them back to bed w/o changing them or washing thier faces and she''ll leave the bedridden patients unchanged and not turned. She'll hide in the dayroom watching TV with her feet up on a chair (like her living room) while the other aides and I bust our asses answering lights and putting residents to bed. One night I worked with her short of one aide; and she pulled the same stunt, finishing her pm care before supper and hiding in the dayroom. I had 3 hoyer lift patients on my list and she refused to help me stating she was on her break; which lasted until 10:00 rounds. I had to call a fellow aide on the other wing to help me since the nurse was busy with meds.

:trout: She doesn't understand the concept of teamwork; despite being an aide for about 8 years. She's fresh and has a big temper. She doesn't take corrective, gentle criticism at all. She started working last fall; on her first day orientating with another aide on the floor, she kept snapping at her that she's not a retard and been a CNA for 8 years. The orienting CNA was just introducing her to the residents and talking about routines and showing her the linen carts and stuff. But she took it the wrong way. So she ended up with a list on her own. She obviosly didn't want to work with her orientator to help get residents up and hoyered; she said to the charge nurse, "I'm not a child, I work alone.":(

I asked her why her patients were in gowns in the dining rooms and she snapped that her list is hard and she wants to finish early and to mind my own business. But one of the residents she had in a gown always had her son come over to feed her supper every night and he would be upset if he found her not properly dressed. I addressed it to the charge nurse and all she said was that I have to work it out with her and she was not a cna babysitter.

Well, I try to set a good example with that aide by helping her out with patients and telling her that we work together as a team and not against each other. Teamwork actually gets work done more effectively and quickly. But she cops an attitude and calls me bossy and I'm not her charge nurse.

She was written up last month for not putting on a tab alarm on a resident and refusing to check on him during rounds. The administrator is keeping an eye on her attitude and bad behavior after she yelled and screamed at another CNA and nurse.:uhoh21:

She yelled at me a few times in front of patients and visitors for being bossy, interrupting her while she was on her socalled break, and for taking too long in the shower room. She hoyers pateints by herself but will tattle on other cnas who do the same. One day she was wheeling the hoyer lift to a residents room and I nicely asked her if she needed help, and she snapped, "What? Do I have the right to use the hoyer lift? Do you need it right now?" I was like, "Whoa, calm down. I'm just offering to help you. We're a team and hoyering patients takes 2 aides to do." She started cussing me out in French. (She's Haitian.) and told the administrator that I tried to snatch the hoyer lift from her. :madface:

Now she's supposed to be watched by them, but they are afraid of her since it was rumored that she threatened to sue them and turn them into the state for discriminating her for her being Haitian. The charge nurse started to get tough and write her up for her bad attitude, but administration does nothing. I went to the DNS about the aide putting gowns on her patients before dinner but she told me to discuss it with the aide and I should worry about my own list and my work.:nono:

I'm so F@CKIN fed up with everything!! I hate being one of the only aides that care and not being appreciated by the administration. Most of the other aides aren't much better than Miss Attitude. I work with only 3 good aides now. Most of the other aides I used to work with quit or went on night shift, or got fired for closing thier eyes for a second. Do you have any suggestions or comments about Miss Attitude's early pm care and bad attitude? :trout:

Document all incidents thoroughly and objectively to CYA, then report her. For example: On (date, time), (CNA name) used the Hoyer by herslf to transfer (resident name) even though we are supposed to have two people there, and when I offered to help her, she stated (inappropriate statement). Or on (date, time), (CNA name) put her resident to bed without toileting them and took a break from (time) to (time), and ignored the call lights in rooms ( room numbers). Not much can be done without the documentation to back it up. Also, go up the chain of command, and even up to the state.

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I bet all your problems are with are with African American workers, if I am wrong please let me know cause I would love to be wrong on this one....

Yes, you are wrong! In the facility I work in now, we have a mixture of black and white, and for the most part, the problems are caused by the white girls.

My best CNA, a black gal, was pulled to evenings for a few weeks to 'mentor' the evening CNA's, because she's the best CNA I've ever had. Those girls are mostly treating her like crap, even tho it wasn't HER idea to do this - it was the administrators.

Were I one of those evening nurses, I'd be handling that situation.:madface:

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

Well I am African American and its good to hear that it's not true, just what I have encountered. Not many Europeans working as Aides by me...thanks

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Specializes in Geriatrics and emergency medicine.

what would I have done,,or maybe it is what did I do. As an LPN, would first do care on the woman, change, take to BR, then handle the CNA by directly calling the super and DON to come to the floor, state my case and go from there.

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as a LPN house charge nurse you should remember that you are there for the patients and not to make friends with the other staff. you are a supervisor. you dont have to be a nazi about it and you can be friendly with the other staff but you will have to have their respect above all else. if they respect you they are more likely to do as told or asked. they also must have your respect.

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I just passed my cna class. I did this 22 years ago too. In between I was a EMT1A. If cna's won't work, the LVN,LPN should check on pts when meds are passed. Thats what one nurse I work with does. That way we have communication back and forth. CNA's give each other report, and the licensed give their report at shift change. Hope this helps, Lisa W

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