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.
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Keep em coming! Just some healthy venting! Thanks a ton!
Oh well in mine $8 is minimum wage. CNAs make $12-15. I kinda think we deserve more than 12 for what we do. When you're busting your butt and going crazy and then you realize what your paycheck is going to be vs what the administrator who just made a ridiculous request of you takes home, it doesn't exactly motivate you. We make the same as the housekeepers and dietary aides and we work a lot harder.
Oh and what I would really like to say to one of our rehab patients- I don't have time to stand here and listen to you whine and complain about what's on your supper tray every night. That's why they give you menus to fill out- if you want cranberry juice instead of orange, say so! If you want rye bread instead of wheat- say so! You are so annoying! Even your complaints are more annoying than other people's complaints! I can't WAIT until you go home! And even THAT is never going to happen as long as you keep whining about everything and refusing to do anything for yourself. If you have to go to the bathroom, press the call button and we'll take you. You're alert and you know when you have to go so stop peeing your pants on purpose just so we have to clean you up- because you're on my assignment tomorrow and guess what- you're cleaning yourself! I'm not doing it for you. You're here for rehab, not to be pampered and play games.
No, I don't feel that $10.00 an hour is reasonable. I'm in California and the minimum I feel you could get by on would be to make about 2500.00 a month. That's about $16.00 an hour, minimum. I know you're going to gasp, but really shouldn't you be able to afford a decent place to live, pay your bills, car insurance, gas and groceries if you're in this line of work??? I made 16.00 an hour working at a flower shop 12 years ago!!! My boss felt that he could not get decent employees for less that weren't high school students and would do the job that he expected. He said his turn over rate was too high until he raised his wages. Smart man. One bedroom appartments in my area rent for around 1000.00 so if you're making 10.00 an hour after taxes almost all of your income goes to rent. How do you keep your water and electricity turned on or food in your belly?? I've met CNAs who are single and work at 2 facilities, 5 days a week just to barely survive. That is 80 hours a week (no overtime bcause of 2 different facilities)!!! That is sad to me and you'd be kidding yourself to think that does not have an effect on their stress level or the ability to do their job as effectivly as possible. I'm married with kids so thank goodness we do not live on my income alone because I would defiinitely be at poverty level which I don't feel is reasonable in any way. I work very hard and I feel that as a CNA I have an important job as well as a big impact on people's lives and healthcare. I do my job for heart and experience not for the money. I hope to be a nurse someday with CNAs that are taken care of to work with. I have some CNA friends that had to take other jobs instead to pay their bills... oops just lost some more good CNAs in the world due to the low pay.
$10/Hr is not reasonable at all. I know that based on where each CNA lives, and the cost of living in that area - $10 might be "ok" but definately not in New York! [For me]
I say @ the VERY least, $15/Hr base pay - regardless of the location, should be a CNA's wage. CNA's work very hard! This is not speaking from experience, but common sense, and based on the perspectives of CNA's I know.
I wouldn't consider the job of a CNA to be terribly hard. Yes, there are trials and tribulations, but you knew what kind of job you were going into. I hear too many aides complain about their "nasty job" and how "miserable" they are. Well, find a new job. I'm sorry, but when an aide begins to make the same pay I will make as a new grad nurse, there's no incentive to spend 12 months in a nursing program when I can make the same money by attending a three-month training course.
Specializes in LTC, Rehab, CCU, Alzheimers, Med-Surg.
To a previous poster;
I can't stand those racist pts and families, either. I was helping an aide one day with his resident ( he happens to be black ), the resident looks up at me in surprise and says to him "oh, you have a white wife!" I was embarassed for the resident even though she has extreme dementia. It's amazing how racist some people are.
I wouldn't consider the job of a CNA to be terribly hard. Yes, there are trials and tribulations, but you knew what kind of job you were going into. I hear too many aides complain about their "nasty job" and how "miserable" they are. Well, find a new job. I'm sorry, but when an aide begins to make the same pay I will make as a new grad nurse, there's no incentive to spend 12 months in a nursing program when I can make the same money by attending a three-month training course.
Well a CNA job IS VERy VERY hard.......and its a different kind of work then a nurse job .......yes i think we should get paid more and i also think new grads should make more too.........like i always tell my nurses........u dont have more work then me u just have a different kind........this thread was started for cna's to vent .....lets not get bitter people
I wouldn't consider the job of a CNA to be terribly hard. Yes, there are trials and tribulations, but you knew what kind of job you were going into. I hear too many aides complain about their "nasty job" and how "miserable" they are. Well, find a new job. I'm sorry, but when an aide begins to make the same pay I will make as a new grad nurse, there's no incentive to spend 12 months in a nursing program when I can make the same money by attending a three-month training course.
The same rehab patient I b*tched about yesterday asked me if I'd just got back from watching the movie in the recreation room. Um, no. I've been working. Is that what you think we do all day? Watch movies and wait for you to hit the call button? Uggh.
When she first got admitted and I was passing out snacks, nothing on the cart was good enough for her so she asked me to run to the kitchen and get her crackers. I did, and the ones I brought weren't good enough. She wanted oyster crackers, not saltines. I said I'd already given the last package of oyster crackers to someone else, sorry. "Oh you stupid girl! Don't ever give the last package to someone ELSE! I can't eat SALT." And she added an obnoxious little backhanded titter at the end.
Well excuuuuuse me, but I am not a mind reader- you said you wanted crackers, and these are the only crackers we have at the moment, unless you want me to pry them away from the nice old lady I gave the other ones to. I'm sure she'll understand. I'll just tell her how much better you are than anyone else, and that you simply CAN'T eat SALT, even though you're supposedly on a Regular Diet, not a low sodium diet. I'm oh so sorry for being so "stupid" as to bring you the wrong crackers. It must have been a huge inconvenience for you. Please forgive me!
to a lot of pts and family memebers: please stop liking me because i'm a nice white girl with blonde curly hair. please stop saying things like "finally, good white help". please. just because i'm white does not mean i'm racist like a disturbing amount of you obviously are. please please don't use the N word in my presence. it makes me want to hurt you, not help you.
I get that too and it makes me want to slap those who say it.
I wouldn't consider the job of a CNA to be terribly hard. Yes, there are trials and tribulations, but you knew what kind of job you were going into. I hear too many aides complain about their "nasty job" and how "miserable" they are. Well, find a new job. I'm sorry, but when an aide begins to make the same pay I will make as a new grad nurse, there's no incentive to spend 12 months in a nursing program when I can make the same money by attending a three-month training course.
As an aide if I made 16.00 an hour I would not even come close to the pay of a new grad nurse in my area. I think it would be totally appropriate. Also, as a future nurse I'm not going to want aide to make a lot less than me to somehow feel superior. That's just lame... show some empathy please.
greeniebean
447 Posts
I've been at the same facility for 6 years and I just now make $10! In my area CNA's make $7.00 to start!