wow! the laziness!

[OhioCCRN]

i'm wondering if its just me....

i work @ a snf/rehab facility and our stna's are lazy with a capital l!!!!!!

while in clinicals, i noticed that acute care aides seem to have more drive and they move when you tell them...

our aides sit around (i work night shift) and eat left over resident food, sleep and give you dirty looks when you tell them to do anything...

i have noticed this every day i have worked....

i'm ***** because im moving my behind constantly, not to mention the ridiculous documentation and when i see call lights constantly on and people on their i-phones... i get very:madface:

[belgarion]

" "are you getting paid to sit in that chair today? Should we turn and position you, wouldn't want you to get a pressure sore?" or the ever present "sorry can't lift" excuse from them that you hear all too often.

My wife has had extended stays in ALTC and there have been several times while waiting for an aide to answer the call light I wanted to ask if the aides there get a paycheck or a bill for chair rental.

[Girlygirl69]

I posted a topic similar to this a few days ago and I got chewed out for being a nurse who thinks she is above patient care. Maybe I explained myself all wrong but you guys are stating my point exactly. Thanks for letting me know I'm not crazy

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

You're not crazy. All of the peeves that have been mentioned here are mine too. I have said to a few aides who complain about their jobs and about nurses, "if you really don't like it, then go back to school. Change your situation. You want to be a nurse? Then do it."

Many of them think they know it all, but truthfully, they do not have the knowledge. Even when I explain why something is the way it is, some of them refuse to listen. I notice the aide issue is particularly bad in LTC. My next job will be on a floor somewhere. It is too exhausting to work with them day after day. And for every good aide, you have one who should be fired.

[caliotter3]

With as many people as there are out there who need to work, you would think that employers would be more willing to get rid of dead weight, but then that takes a little effort. The smallest effort is required to call someone to the office and hand them their last paycheck with the admonition not to return to the building. That shows you that the nursing assistants are not the only lazy people in this picture.

[Munch]

My favorite PCA's(Patient care associates) I only write that in parenthesis not to confuse some people with patient controlled analgesia. Are the ones who jump up and down and beg to sit with the patients who are ordered to be on a one to one(because they are a psych risk and haven't been cleared yet, or they are older(hell sometimes younger) and don't listen and always try to get up and end up falling). When they get to do that, they literally do nothing most the time especially if the patient who they think is a psych risk really isn't(it's just psychiatry takes forever in my hospital to come evaluate a patient that isn't on a locked unit or in the CPEP...we have a VERY large and reputable psychiatric unit and emergency program so its very busy). The PCA's literally sit in a chair(parked in front of the TV and read a book, do puzzle books eat snacks/meals, talk to the patients and talk on the phone). I know sometimes a one to one status is VERY needed but it gets a bit noticeable when the same people jump up and beg to sit one to one, especially when the patient doesn't really need it, or the patient is immobile and couldn't get up if they tried). And we don't have a system of picking a PCA to do a one to one, whoever overhears a patient needs one and asks first gets to do it(so we get a lot of the same people hanging around the nurses station listening for the magic words "patient so an so in room whatever needs to go on a one to one, they are on the person who said like a fly is on dog(you know what). I really wish they had a system in which the PCA's all get a turn sitting a one to one but one isn't in place.

Of course I always chuckle when a PCA begs to do it and they get assigned to a nasty, belligerent patient who always tries to get up(if they arent' allowed) or the occasional addict who has a friend bring them smack and they go into the bathroom to use it in the IV's WE put in them. Then they are singing a different tune and beg to be taken out of the patients room.

[anotherone, BSN, RN]

A common complaint of mine. it annoys me to no end. If some of them do anything they have to come up and say, " I put your pt in the bed pan" etc.... or god forbid you remind them that they haven't gotten blood sugars or vitals. I shouldn't have to say, " can you please answer a call bell since I am 1 hour late on meds?" I have to do my job and theirs. it is their job since the cnas have specific tasks where i work. yet when there aren't any or we are short, or the ones there are useless i dont get paid anymore,.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[ziggysgal,RN]

unfortunately, this is a common thread... i have noticed (in my corner of the world) that part of the problem lies in the pool of applicants to fill these positions. a lot of high school students are offered cna classes in high school over here, so there's a lot of teenagers/young adults... annnnnd... a lot of people who just don't understand it's not 'easy money'. ltc facilities around here pay pretty competitively for cnas.. so it is good money, but definitely not easy work.

new comes in and meshes with old, habits are passed along... patient care suffers.

it's a never-ending battle because old habits are hard to break, even for the strongest charge nurse. (difficult, not impossible)

one important thing to remember is ... the best of the worst isn't saying much, but it's always better than nothing.

i hope you find a successful way of motivating your aides. keep your eye out for new aides coming in to your facility and try to catch them before it gets too bad. push to get action from the existing staff... and when you come home (late and frustrated) know that every push is a form of patient advocacy and your efforts alone, whether successful or not, is in the best interests of the patients.

and, of course, laziness is not limited to cnas/pcas... it exists in lvns, rns, etc. best you can do is do your job and keep pushing those around you to do theirs.

i hope it improves for you.

[samirish]

I remember when I was an aide at a nursing home. I couldn't understand why I felt so much hostility from the other aids there. Then, after about a week of of working there I had another aide come up to me and say "stop working so much". I asked, "what do you mean?". She explained I was making the other aides look bad and if I wanted to fit in, I'd better get with the program.

This was also the same place that allowed an aide to be out in the parking lot washing his car (stupid old corvette that he thought was gods gift to women) during his shift(he also wore a white dress shirt with dress pants every time he worked...what kind of a cna can wear that and not have those clothes be a total wreck by the end of their shift???). He had been there for many years and I could never get over how someone who did such little work was able to stay gainfully employed.

[Not_A_Hat_Person, RN]

Unfortunately, this is a common thread... I have noticed (in my corner of the world) that part of the problem lies in the pool of applicants to fill these positions. A lot of high school students are offered CNA classes in high school over here, so there's a lot of teenagers/young adults... annnnnd... a lot of people who just don't understand it's NOT 'easy money'. LTC facilities around here pay pretty competitively for CNAs.. so it is good money, but definitely not easy work.

Most of the lazy aides I encountered were far beyond their teen years. Older lazy aides are even harder to deal with, because they've been allowed to be so lazy for so long.

[ziggysgal,RN]

Most of the lazy aides I encountered were far beyond their teen years. Older lazy aides are even harder to deal with, because they've been allowed to be so lazy for so long.

Agreed, and I apologize if it sounded like I was picking on teens... Laziness comes in all ages and job descriptions... was merely trying to illustrate that from what I've seen, the pool in general is teens and people who are looking for 'easy money' in this type of work...

Sometimes, teens can be molded more easily than their more mature counterparts and become very valuable team players... On the other side of the coin, a more mature adult might be more likely to stick it out long-term or do what 'needs to be done' regardless of situation...

[Lifeofanurse]

As a nursing student I was asked by my nurse to please go see if the CNA had changed and bathed a patient. I went and asked her nicely if she had and she reported that she had not "gotten to it yet"...as she was sitting in a chair at teh nursing station texting on her phone. I went back and told my nurse and asked her how long ago she had asked her to do it....an hour and half ago!

Seriously?! I don't think so. So I went back and said well it's been an hour and a half and your sitting here on your phone while the patient needs assistance and I need you to do it now. She said she was about to take her break...

I almost lost it. I told her, no you may not take your break until you've completed the task you were asked to. She had the nerve to point out "your just a student"... "yeah I am but I can still go talk to the charge about this." Patient was cleaned and showered in 20 minutes flat.

[A&Ox6, MSN, RN]

I've actually come up with a theory for this difference between CNAs in hospital/ltc. I think ltc the CNAs don't often see improvement, so they don't see a point in what they're doing. This leads to a lack of interest. It's like the patients going downhill anyway, so who cares what I do.