Why do so many nursing homes fire CNAs all the time?

chevyv, BSN, RN · Feb 28, 2009

I can't believe it! Where I work they would love to hold onto CNA's! I just figure they quit because the assignment is way too heavy. Not that I blame them at all for leaving. I would love to see 3 cna's for 28 pts along with a lpn and med tech for half the shift!

Ms. Nurse Assistant, LPN · Feb 28, 2009

Where do you live chevyv?

I've worked at 2 LTC facilities. The first one, we got a new administrator, and she went on a sweep firing several caregivers. One of the former employees claimed that she was called into the office and told "I won't be needing your services anymore". She was not given a legitimate reason at all. Currently, there is a whole new staff of people. I noticed this happens when a new adminitrator is put into office, they start to terminate employees they didnt hire and replace them with new staff.

At another nursing home, one of the charge nurses said she would fire CNAs she simply didn't like.

I noticed this is quite common where I am from, therefore I stray away from them. It's like walking on eggshells.

chevyv, BSN, RN · Feb 28, 2009

I live in Wisconsin. A few weeks ago I saw 11 postings for CNA'a alone! I should mention that we only can have 100 residents!! They filled every position and had a big welcome board by the time clock with all the names on it (I didn't get that when they hired me on as lpn). I suspect that over the next 4 weeks, we will lose a few of those newbies. They must really pile on the work.

NM nurse to be · Mar 1, 2009

THere are a lot of firings where I am too. I also see the 'friends of the new regime' thing here too. And picking out people to force out or fire. It sucks. But one girl who was fired a few weeks ago got another job the same day, so it isn't the end of the world. But it is a very unnecessarily stressful way to live. And I'm not liking this part of the job AT ALL!

greeniebean · Mar 1, 2009

OMG! My LTC won't fire you for anything. In the past year they fired 1 girl who had worked there 10 months. THis girl was 30 minutes late everyday, got caught red handed stealing $10 from a resident, was accused of abuse by 2 residents, and got in trouble repeatedly for not giving baths! She finally got "fired" when she didn't show up for a week and never called in or anything. I think it was pretty clear she had quit but they marked her as terminated.

We have so many girls now who are no call no shows, who provide the worst care to the residents, and who have major attitudes!But they still wont fire anyone. I guess they know how hard it is to get people to stay at the job so anyone is better than no one at all!

mochabean · Mar 2, 2009

I don't work at a nursing home, but I've heard the stories. In college I did an internship at a nursing home and the assistant administrator hired a young lady who didn't even have a GED. The assistant adm. said she didn't care because the facility needed the help, yet I overheard her complain about how these new CNA's don't stay long.

MichaelCNA · Mar 2, 2009

This is something that is difficult to generalize. Were those that were terminated still pending their 90 day probationary period? Perhaps they had attendance issues, prior suspensions, Resident/Family complaints, that contributed to the loss of their position. At my place of employment, it is quite easy to get written up, but for serious measures or for tasks that cannot be overlooked, meaning all CNA tasks are important, we are dealing with human lives here.

Valerie Salva, BSN, RN · Mar 2, 2009

Most of the LTCs where I've worked never fire anybody no matter how bad they are.

yousoldtheworld · Mar 4, 2009

I've worked places that never fire ANYBODY (except in extreme cases, like abuse) and I've worked places that fire at the drop of the hat. Neither are good.

On one hand, it sucks to work with people who never do their jobs, barely take care of the residents, and still keep their jobs.

At the same time, it sucks to constantly be worried about losing your job - because, even if you're a wonderful CNA, we're all human, and sometimes, we forget things, or we get busy and don't get to things as soon as we'd like to. Where I'm working now, people have been fired for taking too long to answer a call light (and at night, these residents are on their lights CONSTANTLY and there are only three of us working in the whole place. You just can't be everywhere at the same time) and for people being wet when day shift comes in (our last rounds are at 3:15, we start getting people up at 5. Inevitably, some people are going to be incontinent in that time, and if they expect us to get all of our getups dressed and our showers done, there is no time to check everyone again).

If only places could settle on a happy medium. People should be made aware of and disciplined for poor performance, but expectations should be realistic, as well.

ashleypoo22 · Mar 4, 2009

At my old facility, the main reason for firing the aides is because they were always late or called in a lot. But I found some others... transferring without a gaitbelt will get you canned...even if no one knows about it, the resident will tell their family or other staff. That's why it's always good to have 2 people in the room at the same time, no matter what. I've seen residents lie and say they have fallen, been on the call light for an hour, and no one came to help. Or they would simply say they fell...then go on to tell another resident, staff, or family...when it really didn't happen. One place I worked at wanted briefs off at night... when I started working somewhere else I left them off, which later I found out that wasn't their policy...and they didn't like that I did that. There are endless reasons, big and small. Eating a cracker off the snack cart would probably get you fired in some places. It depends on who runs the show.

fuzzywuzzy, CNA · Mar 5, 2009

Yeah... if they don't like you they can easily find SOME reason to fire you.