What you'd REALLY like to say....

[ICor9:24]

Ok, so I know I can't be the only one who dreams about just for ONCE saying what's really going through her mind! I love my job, and I do it for the love of my residents, and I always give 100% to make sure they are safe, happy, and cared for. However, I am also extremely sarcastic by nature - and sometimes, well lots of times, I think one thing - but of course say and act completely polite and professional!

Let's see what we all are really thinking in those times of complete stress and chaos we all know too well! I'll start....

To the A&Ax3 perfectly coherent pt who is mean and obnoxious and thinks that he is at the Ritz not a nursing home, and thinks every CNA is his personal assistant / slave::angryfire

DO NOT under any circumstances hit your call light for me to come and pick up your breakfast/lunch/dinner tray - the NANOsecond you finish eating!!!! REALLY! You KNOW that at some point during the 20 other times you call me in there, that I will pick it up on my way out!!!! This drives me absolutely up the wall. Same goes for your urinal (with all 5 cc's of output)!

Stop calling the poor confused residents filthy names. Just because you choose to sit in the hallway all day long doesn't make you the hall monitor! Just because they aimlessly walk or wheel around doesn't mean they are stupid. They are confused. Telling them to get the hell away from you and go back to where "they belong" is nasty and uncalled for. I sometimes secretly hope you will become exactly like them. Soon.

When you ask for an appointment at the barbershop at 8:50 am and they don't open until 9 am, don't hit your call button at 8:55 and ask if I got you a 9 am appointment! I know this may come as a shock to you - but you are not the center of the universe!! You will probably get scheduled sometime later that day, or - GASP - maybe even the next day!

To those wonderful family members we all love so much:

Just because you have an internet connection and access to WebMD, doesn't make you a medical professional. Why the Docs and DON's entertain your completely idiotic and unfounded requests - I will never know. Do you know how hard it is to keep residents properly hydrated? Yet you insist your loved one is over hydrated, and insist he only have one glass of water at every meal. AND you come in during meals and pull a bottle of sea salt out of your purse and dump handfuls onto his food. Hmmmm. OK!

You haven't been to visit grandma in over a year. Grandma is completely contracted, hoyer lift, check and change, with aphasia. When you come and tell me that she told you she has to go to the bathroom and you want me to "take her to the restroom", I am not sure whether I want to giggle or slap you.

...

Keep em coming! Just some healthy venting! Thanks a ton!

[Miwila]

Food for thought:

To you guys who are using this thread to mock, demean, and express condescension towards the patients you "care" for, think about how you would feel if it was your mother in a hospital/LTC and someone else was talking about her like that.

[fuzzywuzzy, CNA]

This is a vent thread. It is generally understood that threads considered as such are treated as safe spaces to let out our frustrations. No one is forcing you to agree with every post. In fact no one is forcing you to read it at all if you find yourself taking the comments personally.

I feel like I've said it 100 times on this board, but this line of work is stressful. And you are guaranteed to face at least a few people who get on your nerves. There isn't anything wrong with that. It's normal! Venting anonymously to people who can relate to your frustrations is a perfectly healthy and harmless way of dealing with it.

[Miwila]

This is a vent thread. It is generally understood that threads considered as such are treated as safe spaces to let out our frustrations. No one is forcing you to agree with every post. In fact no one is forcing you to read it at all if you find yourself taking the comments personally.

I feel like I've said it 100 times on this board, but this line of work is stressful. And you are guaranteed to face at least a few people who get on your nerves. There isn't anything wrong with that. It's normal! Venting anonymously to people who can relate to your frustrations is a perfectly healthy and harmless way of dealing with it.

I never said it was wrong. I just suggested people consider how they would feel if someone was using a website to mock their elderly mother who was in a medical facility. Actually I rather agree with you; it has become normal in our culture to mock people who are old, sick, and demented.

[fuzzywuzzy, CNA]

And it's also considered normal on this website to mock people who come charging into vent threads on their high horse.

Do you think your oh-so-insightful suggestion has never occurred to other people? That we've never heard the "what if it was your mother or grandfather" argument? We have. It doesn't make it any less frustrating when "grandpa" gropes your boobs every time you try to feed him. So what if people anonymously complain about my mother on a website? As long as they treat her right face-to-face I really don't care. We all do annoying things.

[Miwila]

And it's also considered normal on this website to mock people who come charging into vent threads on their high horse.

Do you think your oh-so-insightful suggestion has never occurred to other people? That we've never heard the "what if it was your mother or grandfather" argument? We have. It doesn't make it any less frustrating when "grandpa" gropes your boobs every time you try to feed him. So what if people anonymously complain about my mother on a website? As long as they treat her right face-to-face I really don't care. We all do annoying things.

Good for you. The argument you dismiss is a very valid one. Why work with people who are old, sick, and experiencing dementia if you don't want to be bothered? Anonymous or not these people deserve their dignity and not to be ridiculed by so-called caregivers. Attitudes like the ones considered tolerable in this thread reaffirm the stereotypes people have of CNA's being unintelligent, unprofessional, and unqualified to go anywhere near sick people.

[fuzzywuzzy, CNA]

If this was a thread for McDonald's employees or teachers or contractors do you think people wouldn't be on here griping about customers/students/clients? Sheesh. As I already pointed out, this is a vent thread. If you know you're going to be sensitive about it then don't read it.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Miwila

Buzz off.

Nurses who post here on a regular basis are also the nurses who come here after a bad shift and ask what they could have done better, what reading resources do you know about, and has anyone ever dealt with a particular behavior before. These are nurses that will Look around for another way of working with someone who is disruptive, and they do it in a respectful way. Give them the benefit of the doubt.

Anyone on allnurses is likely thinking about their job/looking at a computer resource on their day off. That means you are probably talking to some of the best, most committed nurses in the country and the world. Everyone is allowed to have a patient or coworker that drives them nuts, and this is a great place to get it off your chest.

[PhoenixTech, LPN]

Miwila

Buzz off.

And it's also considered normal on this website to mock people who come charging into vent threads on their high horse.

Honestly, I was waiting for someone to come on this thread and :flmngmd: us for venting. I've also been waiting to say that if my family member, mother or cousin, acted as disrespectful and entitled as some of the patients I've had to deal with, I would disown them on the spot. We're not talking about the little old lady with dementia who kept ringing the bell for ice water when her water pitcher was sitting right beside her full to the brim. We are venting about being abused ourselves by A&O pts with unreasonable and inappropriate requests. I mean, 'rub it deeper cause it's not gonna do any good sitting on top', come on! We're talking about butt cracks here .

Where on earth do you work that you've never had those days when it's all you can do to hold your tongue? That's the name of the thread, 'what you'd really like to say', and yet we keep our mouths shut and show up the next day, and the next, and the darn next. Come on Miwila, for real?

[Tricia76]

Wow I like you guys already and I have not become a cna yet..but looks like its really gonna be fun lol

[y&rfan84]

Boy, I love when people get shut down for saying something that didnt need to be said.

[CaitlinLiz]

Dear Mr. Anonymous in room 212A:

Is it completely necessary to scream nurse when I walk by, even after I have nicely explained to you numerous times that A: I am not a nurse, I am an assistant- I can NOT give you your medication. And B: I HAVE A NAME!! You expect me to respect you, so respect me. Call me by my name, I know that you know it. Thanks.

As funny as you think it is that you call me hot stuff and try to talk me into getting in your bed with you every time I come in to help you change, it is not. Especially not at 2am, or any other time for that matter. Hence why your the only one laughing.

You have perfectly fine hearing... why do you have to crank your TV up to 1,000 decibals at 12:30pm just because your roommate got a phone call from a family member you don't like? The last time I checked we were all adults, and you could nicely ask them to lower their voice. It's good to know that we are receding to kindergarten!

And, just in case you were wondering... the next time I ask if you need to use the rest room and you tell me no then purposely call me as soon as I walk out of the room... I'm going to lose it!!!

With all the love in the world,

Your CNA.

[DolceVita, ADN, BSN, RN]

Sometimes it isn't the patient/resident that is gross....

I had a very ill 70 year old whose husband wouldn't leave the room until nighttime. He thought it was funny to ask me to sit on his lap. His wife was sick but not altered, such a sweetheart, what must she have thought of her pig of a husband. Who says that and who says it in front of their sick wife?

Grotesque.