i'm a new rn, off orientation for 2 weeks now. one night i had a pt that i had just given morphine and protonix, when a few minutes later she had an adverse reaction. she had an "excrutiating" epigastric pain and nausea. she jumped off the bed and was pacing, running back and forth in her room, doubled over in pain. i spoke with the doctor who ordered zofran, and to monitor her for a few minutes. i had another pt that was aaox3, used a bsc was ambulatory, but a fall risk due to weakness and her meds. she called, so i went in there, and all she wanted was to sit on the chair. she had previously tried to get oob by herself when no one came to assist her in time. so i figured this is something simple i can do, then run back and check on the other pt, since she was beginning to feel better. as soon as i sat her on the chair, she decided that she needed to use the bsc. she was old and slow, and i really wanted to go check on the other pt. i poked my head out of the room, only to see the cna assigned to her with her head on the desk and her eyes closed, earphones in, and attached to her cell phone (she listens to music and sleeps). so i ask her to please assist ms so and so to the bsc because i need to go check on another pt. i then hear her mutter under her breath to a nurse sitting next to her, " why can't she do it? she's already in the room." i was livid! i assist my patients with toileting needs all the time, even when the cna's are available, and i have a ton of other things that are time sensitive and need to be done. i would have thought that the fact that this time i asked, would indicate to her that i really needed help. it's not like i could delegate assessment to her! does anyone else have cna's that act this way? was i wrong for delegating this task to her? the nursing judgement that i am developing more and more of each day tell me that i did the right thing.
I wish that all CNAs could work as nurses for one day so they could see the reasoning behind some of the "laziness". I remember being in nursing school and thinking that one nurse was lazy because she gave her 8:30AM and 9:00AM meds at the same time. I didn't see why she couldn't just go back at 9:00AM and give the medication at its proper time....but I suuuure see why now!
I sometimes leave a patient's room and ask the CNA to take in blankets/ice/etc. I know it doesn't take too long to do, but I'm trying to get to the tasks that ONLY I can do. And I know that if one of us (RN or CNA) is there three hours late trying to catch up, it is going to be me ...so I delegate- and I say "THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!" an awful lot!
Orange Tree
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I wish that all CNAs could work as nurses for one day so they could see the reasoning behind some of the "laziness". I remember being in nursing school and thinking that one nurse was lazy because she gave her 8:30AM and 9:00AM meds at the same time. I didn't see why she couldn't just go back at 9:00AM and give the medication at its proper time....but I suuuure see why now!
I sometimes leave a patient's room and ask the CNA to take in blankets/ice/etc. I know it doesn't take too long to do, but I'm trying to get to the tasks that ONLY I can do. And I know that if one of us (RN or CNA) is there three hours late trying to catch up, it is going to be me
...so I delegate- and I say "THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!" an awful lot!