What is the difference between a sitter and a cna???

Nurses General Nursing

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well i work with an agency and i am a cna. sometimes i get hired as a "sitter" and am payed a few dollars less an hour to do this. last night another cna that had been hired as a sitter was upset because the regular cna's at the hospital were not checking on her patient and she had to do everything including changing and showering the patient. i also was told by the regular cna's that they had sooo many people that the nurse said that I had to change and do for the TWO patients that i was supposed to be sitting with. i have no problem with this, but i said i will be paid the cna rate. i am very confused because when i talked to my supervisor she said when you are hired as a sitter you are a sitter nothing more, but the regular cna's think because we are certified that they can neglect the patient. they told me that the other cna wasn't doing anything, i told them that there is a differnece, if we get hired as a sitter that's all we should do, if we get hired as a cna then we do the cna stuff. idk, i never had a problem with it because i ALWAYS did everything regaurdless, but seeing the way the regular cna's think, then that ****** me off. the other cna was only being paid to sit not to cna, yet they expect her to do everything, i would have only been paid to sit if i hadnt said anything, but i made it clear that i would be paid for cna since i did everything, short of leaving for a long time, for the 2 patients. idk, does anyone understand how i feel about this? and what do you think?

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Specializes in LTC.

I agree with you. If you are a CNA you should not expect the other CNAs to be toileting/bathing this person when they have other people to attend to, but you should be paid accordingly. That's like paying a private nurse CNA wages even though she is passing meds etc.

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If you're being hired as a sitter then you shouldn't be changing and toileting the patient. You need to let the staff know at whatever facility you're working at that you are not being paid to do so and that they need to change or shower the patient.

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Specializes in Float.

Hi misspink789

When I first started as a Tech @ the hospital, I was told that when the Techs do 1:1's they do all the care for the patient. I was also aware that my being new was a way for the Techs to take advantage of me and get me to do the vitals for the patient cause I didn't know they were supposed to do it.

So one day when I went to give the machine to the 'sitter' of one of my patients, she looked @ me and said 'I don't do that', to which I replied, 'do you work for the hospital?'. 'Yes', she said and then I pushed the machine to her and said, 'you're supposed to'. She didn't do the vitals and when I spoke to my manager about it, I was informed that 'sitters' are hired to just sit with the patient. Imagine how I felt having to go back in there and take that patient's vital signs :imbar. I did however and also apologized and now we are really cool.

The problem was, when describing 1:1's the term 'sitter' is used interchangably with 'tech', but once it was explained to me I had no problem doing my job. I say all this to say that I agree. As a sitter, you should only sit and your co workers shouldn't use the fact the you are a licensed CNA to get out of doing their job. I know that you would have no problem doing the care if you were sitting in the CNA capacity so you shouldn't feel guilty or anything else negative because you are aware of the differences. Good for you for being aware! :yeah:

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Specializes in EMS, ER, GI, PCU/Telemetry.

where i work, if someone is sitting with the patient on a 1:1 basis, they are responsible for total care... but that is only if they are sitting with just that one patient, and only if the sitter is also a CNA/PCT. sometimes we have just sitters come who are unit secs, monitor techs, etc, who are "comped" to sit with patients.

sometimes we have a room with multiple patients who require a sitter and the sitter has a 2:1, 3:1 or 4:1 ratio. in that case, the sitter's only job is to watch the patient, not to do any patient care, because they may miss something that one of the other patient's is doing.

we used to have the tech sitting in the quad room be responsible for sitting as well as patient care. they stopped this when the tech was giving one patient a bath and someone else got up and into the bathtub and hit their head.

if you were hired on only as a sitter, and not as a CNA, and you aren't getting paid to work as a CNA, then i don't see how they can hold you responsible for doing the CNA duties. it seems they are trying to squeeze extra out of you. i would clarify this and tell your agency that if they want you to act dually as a CNA and a sitter, they need to pay your regular wages.

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Specializes in MSP, Informatics.

at our hospital if you are hired as a sitter, regardless of what your job title is, you get the sitter rate, and are only there to sit with the patient. You can hand them stuff--like things on their stand. but you are not expected to bathe the patient, toilet the patient. Although many CNA's that are sitting do care for the one patient, knowing how busy the floor can be. But if you are sitting, don't get pulled into doing more than you are being paid for.

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I am a CNA who works for a senior homecare agency. I was assigned as a "sitter" last week to a resident in a long term care facility. I ran into the same issues as you. The CNAs employed by the facility expected me to provide the resident's personal care, including toileting, grooming, etc. However, I was advised by my boss for the agency I am employed with that I was NOT to provide personal care. When she needed personal care, I was instructed to call for her CNA. I did that, but occasionally I ran into some CNAs who did not want to bother with the resident since I was there. I just talked to the nurses and explained to them that I was hired only to be a "sitter" and that I was not allowed to provide any personal care, per the instructions of my boss. That seemed to eliminate the problems.

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thank you! yes i beleive that too, i would do everything, partly to help out the floor cna's and partly because i wasnt 100% sure about what i should do, till i was told that the pay differed a FEW DOLLARS!! i was likw WHAT! i mean i DONT mind helping out, but it's rude, annoying, and frustrating when the reg cna's are expecting you to do everything, and DONT EVEN BOTHER trying to help. i know now, for sure, i spoke with my supervisor and she is gonna set them straight, i will NOT be going above and beyond, because other people think that i HAVE too, i mean it's not even a big deal, till i was told by the other cna that was sitting, that she overheard them saying that "they are not doing anything" i was like WHAT?!?! I HAVE DONE EVERYTHING! and even if i didnt, i didnt have too. it's all about principle really, i would never even had thought much about it till all this....just glad to know that i'm not just being a whiny baby. lol

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thank you! sooo true! i had never had a problem because i did everything all the time. the other cna who was sitting with me last night ran into that prob. she said she would call them and they would never come, that she asked for linen and that they dropped it off at the door! she did everything for the patient basically because she was forced too, do to the fact that the other cna;s wouldnt do anyhting. i wasnt going to fight about it, i just said pay me my CNA rate and we have NO PROBLEMS. i rather private cna anyways. but when they start acting like your not doing your job and that your lazy or wahtever then that isnt right. i told the girl to talk to our super, since we are from the same agency, but since i already called idk if she will. idk. just annoying and i know when i go back there as a cna that i will be met with annimosity. that is what i want to avoid, but i wont be taken advantage of. not to mention that they told me they had sooooo many q2's that i HAD to take care of the two i was with. i worked the floor the night b4 and we only had 6 q2's, and this is the night shift! so if they didnt get an overload of new admits then that means they only would have 3, since i was with 2 of the q2's and the other cna was with 1 q2. that leaves 3 for TWO CNAs!! now that i think about it, i am even more annoyed and upset! thanx for reinforcing my thoughts on this!!

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I read through all these posts, but just for clarification, does a 'sitter' just 'sit' with a patient?? Like just sit there and do nothing but watch the patient? In what situations would a 'sitter' be needed? What do you do while you're sitting? Chat w/the patient? Watch TV w/them? Sorry, I have only recently heard of this...

I start nursing school in Jan, so I'm sure I'll learn all this during clinical exposure, but I'm trying to gain as much fundamental hospital knowledge as possible. Thanks!

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Specializes in Float.

cheska:lol:

You sound like I did when I did when I first heard of sitters. :hhmth:Yes, they just sit there and observe!

I've wondered myself about what they would do if a fall risk patient suddenly got up out of bed. Would they grab for them or just let them fall! :lghmky: How soon can someone actually get there if they do call?!

All laughs aside though, I'm not sure how that works but the OP shouldn't be paid sitter price for CNA work.

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Speaking from personal experience they are necessary for certain people. My grandmother was a wanderer, meaning she would like to get up and leave against doctors orders. It was impossible for the family to be there 24hrs and its not the nurses job to watch her at all times as they had so many patients so my family hired a private sitter at night through an agency.

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