What you love/hate about your assistants

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Specializes in Trauma/Tele/Surgery/SICU.

I love the aids that care about the patient's. I also love the aids who tell me things I haven't seen for myself yet such as "pt. A's butt looks a little red, you may want to check that out." I love the aids who approach their work with seriousness and who strive to do a good job. I also love the aids who stock the rooms!!! Love them! I love it when they include me in their tasks..."I would like to bathe your pt. can you tell me a good time for you?" As opposed to i am bathing your pt. now if you want to see his skin you need to get in here. Finally I love the aids who appreciate it when I do tasks that are normally considered "their" jobs and because they know that I will help them when they are in the weeds they help me EX: Pt's on insulin drips and Q1 hr. BS are the nurses responsibility but when my other pt. crashes and I am tied up with them they show up in my room and say BS in 1 is done and was xyz. I could kiss them!

I hate the aids who lie to me. Seriously if you did not get something done please tell me, do not look me straight in the face and lie to me because I will never trust you again. I hate the aids who yell at, are rude too, or hide from the patients.

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Specializes in Psych.

I love how one of the aides I was working with realized how swamped I was and how "wrongly" staffed the unit was. Had enough staff to maintain the ratio of staff to patient, but not enough of the right type of staff to do everything. Without me needing to delegate she did the assignment assigning the aide who typically works nights to do most of the observations while doing as much of the admission process as she could for me ( setting up charts, getting the patients from the other floor/ er, and getting consents and vitals done).

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This thread makes me kind of uncomfortable because they are not "my" assistants. They are my co-workers, and even though are jobs are different, they are my equals in terms of importance to the team.

So I don't feel right making some kind of sweeping judgement about a group of people based on their job title, as if my job title gives me the right to do that.

Feels wrong on a gut level. But that's just me, so carry on.

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I understand why people on this board hesitate to call CNAs "my assistant", but the matter of the fact is, they are. I mean, it's even in their job title: Certified Nursing Assistant. If you're a nurse, then they're your assistant. And that doesn't mean they're less valuable or less intelligent than you. It just means that's what they do.

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Agree. You say not "my" assistant, but turn around and say "my" co-worker. So you don't own the assistants but you own your co-workers? I don't think that is what they mean by saying "my" and its taken a little too seriously and we need to lighten up a little. Just taken wrong way.

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Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.

Undoubtedly, no unit in our hospital couldn't function without the assistance of our tech's. Moreover, in particular it seems that they were hand picked; because all of them are well aware of what is expected of them, and they deliver 100%.

However, recently one particular tech that is no longer working for us, tried to corrupt the rest of the tech's, and she found herself with a pink slip after several warnings. One of the issues that I had with this particular Tech was, when a pt. called for pain meds. or any other nursing procedures she would say "Let me check with your doctor & I'll bring you that pain medication or I'll send someone to give it to you" or in several occasions she would enter a patients room and say I'm your "Nurse today" or she would add, "I will be back to help you with your bath since we are short handed and I don't have someone to assist me today" In addition, when the actual nurse would come into the pt.'s room the pt. would say "The other nurse went to get my medication you don't have to bother she's on top of things". Having say that, I don't mind working with all levels of staff, however, if you're a CNA, NA, Tech, Orderly, LPN, RN, be proud of what you have accomplished, don't misrepresent yourself to the pt. and their families; be familiar with the scope of your duties and what is expected of you.

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If you don't say "my" CNA, what language do you use to indicate the CNAs whom you are responsible for, the ones you supervise, the ones who are working under your license? Probably due to convenience nurses are just used to saying my CNAs, vs. "the CNAs working in my section," or whatever. They are our coworkers, yes, but don't have the same position as another nurse would have in relation to us. We are responsible for all the care they give since they have no license of their own. They are extremely valuable members of the team, yes, and should be given the respect they deserve. But I haven't heard any CNAs complain about being treated disrespectfully just because this terminology is used.

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Thank you all for your input thus far. Sorry for the extreme usage of my language; I built this thread so I could check it every so often and hopefully pick up tips on how to be a good/great CNA and what not to do. This is great to hear. All the "little" things are going to help me tremendously.

Interesting note: The extreme language (Love/Hate...Your CNA's) was quite a bit more productive than the "What do you look for in a CNA" thread (please do not dig into this and find an insult, I'm aware of many of the variables).

P.S. becoming a CNA, and having been in the workforce before, I find it completely fine to be addressed as "your CNA." as a by product, it may be that it aids in a solid chain of command.

Again thanks.

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Love Love Love when aides keep meticulous beds on the bedbound patients. Love when aides coordinate care with me ex. "I am putting Mrs. X to bed first tonight do you need to look at her foot dressing before I do?"

Love when aides give me a heads up on early skin issues, new complaints, BP's that are off, possible areas of concern that they noticed etc.

LOVE to see aides treating residents with care, concern, and respect and anticipating their needs.

Love when aide helps me with my job because she sees that I am swamped (re-fills the juice on my med cart) , and knows that I will help her with hers whenever I can.

Hate hate hate when I ask for a BP and get the sigh and the eye roll because they already did their rounds and I should've asked sooner. ( Maybe I didn't need it then.)

Hate hate hate when aides let the patients lie in a messy room all night until JUST before morning shift comes on they run in and tidy everything up.

Hate when aides go MIA and don't let me know where they are. (What if I have an emergency and I need you??)

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Specializes in Pedi.

Ok, I'll bite.

I love when they take the time to look up the patients and realize everything that needs to be done without my telling them. I love when my VS are documented on time and when I'm notified of abnormal results.

I hate walking into a room of a total care patient at midnight to do an assessment, hang a new bag of fluid, hang a tube feed, etc, see that the aide has just done VS and yet the patient is lying there in a soiled diaper and in the same position I put them in 2 hours earlier. Is it really too much to ask to flip the patient and change her diaper while they're in the room? These are things that they're supposed to do, but 99% of the time, they don't. I hate when I finally sit down at 2am, look at my VS and see that my patient's temp was 39.2 at midnight and I wasn't notified.

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Specializes in LTC, med/surg, hospice.

I love an assistant that

-does their rounds

-reports changes they notice to me

-will take a manual BP and not just tell me what the machine said

-doesn't see me as an enemy or automatically assume that I believe I'm superior for being a nurse

-doesn't need many reminders on tasks that should be done

-doesn't mind doing something extra at times that's not their "job" (taping some dangling IV tubing, reinforcing a dressing, pressing the silence on an IV to give me time to get in the room, etc.)

I don't enjoy an assistant that

-doesn't do their rounds

-doesn't relay important info to me (c/o pain, SOB, nausea, painful IV)

-doesn't take initiative

I always thank and appreciate the nursing assistant; they are a very important part of the team. I've worked without them before and I really do know this.

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Specializes in Med Surg - Renal.
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I love the good ones: THANK YOU GUYS!!

I hate the bad ones: YOU GUYS SUCK!!

PS: I was one of the best CNAs you ever saw in your life.

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