The assignment I am currently at is great, its close to home, it has a low ratio, the rest of the nurses are very friendly and very ahppy to have me and the other contract nurses there, the patients are not very sick, if they are they get shipped out.
So what's the problem? The 3-11 cna's. I am working 7a-7p, the cna's work 8's. The 7-3 cna are fine, no problems, they do their jobs well, they don't complain, and they have the heavist load, they feed twice and they do all the bath's. But when 3 oclock hits, its all down hill. They have just as amny cna's on 3-11 as they have on 7-3, so it's not like they have a larger pt load to deal with. But they act like they are so over worked and short handed that they can not do ANYTHING! If you ask them to do anything, 8/10 times the immediate response is "why didn't you do it?" or "I'll do it if I get around to it."! I had a new order for orthosattic BP's on patient, I told the cna, and she said "I won't have time to that." WHAT?! You don't have time? Make time! I am so fed up with these women. I don't mind helping anybody, I am not adverse to taking someone to the bathroom, getting somebody ice, whatever. I'm not going to go out of my way to find someone to tell them to do something that I can do quicker just by doing it, but I am NOT going to do someone's job FOR them. When I'm working on a new patient that's a direct admit, starting an iv, starting a foley, doing an admission assesment, skin assesment, plan of care, etc. and all the cna has to do is weight the patient and take a set of vitals, and they ahve the gall to tell me i need to go down the hall becasue another pt (that's not even MINE) is asking for a "nurse," then I get down there and they wanted the door shut!, I ask them why they didn't ask the pt what they wanted, and their response is they said they wanted a nurse! These lazy lazy LAZY woman sit on their butts at the desk all day long talking about how noone ever helps them and how unfair it is. BOO-HOO. I am to the point that they are going to see what its like to really not get any help, they think I don't help? We'll see what they say when I DO NOTHING FOR THEM! Lets see what happens when they start getting wrote up for going outside to smoke every 30 minutes! Or for not adherring to dress code? or being trady EVERY day! I'm sick of this crap.
Why does this scenario sound so familiar? It sounds almost what the heck I've got going, in a way. One difference is the RA's don't do vitals (not certified).
I am sure your supervisor knows. Does s/he have any say, or is her supervisor not supporting her in changing these workers habits?
well, actually part of the reason the hospital is so short staffed on this floor is they don't have a supervisor. the last supervisor they had quit several months ago, and they can't get anyone to take the job! the house supervisor makes rounds on the floor every now and then...but they don't do anything. they don't want to rock the boat, i guess.
Hi Amber,
It may help move things along if all of the nurses on the shift made consistent, even language and direct communication a priority; to each other as well as the CNA staff especially when delegating tasks. It would be very difficult to avoid doing what was expected if there was no way out. When assigned tasks don't get done, write incident reports- each and every time. Things will get a little ugly for awhile but they will change for the better. Either the staff will shape up or leave.
Good luck,
R
RICU, while that is a good idea....if the aides are unionized, there may be a problem. Went through that procedure with someone, and we could wallpaper the med room 3 times over with all the writeups on ONE person alone.
Then again, who knows? It may work.Change in Policy/Procedure book?
Originally Posted by cougarnurse
RICU, while that is a good idea....if the aides are unionized, there may be a problem. Went through that procedure with someone, and we could wallpaper the med room 3 times over with all the writeups on ONE person alone.
Then again, who knows? It may work.
Hi Cat,
Gladly, I've never worked in a union shop so have no personal experience but it seems that even a union cannot defend staff who ignore their resonsibilities. Clarify job descriptions and chain of command if necessary or write up laziness, either way, it's hard to fix this sort of problem but we all know it won't go away by itself.
R
well, its MO so there is no union. yesterday was the worst day yet. I had a patient that is comfort care only, the family asked me if she could get a bath at about 1800, I said sure she can. I asked the aides to give her a bath, and was immediately informed that "we don't give baths on this shift." What? Then she said that day shift was supposed to do it becasue they have more staff (they didn't, they had 6 pt's each, 3-11 had 4 each), I told them that was neither here nor there. If a dying patient's family wants their family memebr to have a bath, then give her a bath! If thats what it takes to make them feel like we are treating their family memeber with respect and dignity, then do it! SInce when is a hospitalt not a 24 hour facility anyway? Needless to say, I am now the wicked witch of the west becasue I did not let this drop.
Wow! That's bad. If it's any consolation, I would be right there on a broom with ya.
That's just plain cold hearted.
R
2 witches and a warlock later.......
I swear the Policy and Procedure books in my place AND yours need to be looked at, revamped, and a MANDATORY meeting used. (We have our meeting coming up the 15th....)
Oh, and Management needs to stick with their ruling(s), and no nepotism/favouritism shown.
We're doing the shared governance route. Some things are better from the clinical practice perspective and we really don't have issues around staff not doing their job(s) but with belt tightening, there is a lot of staff sharing and now we're seeing how very diffrently things are done around the hospital and as a result, I've recently discovered that the shared governance process causes each floor to become it's own empire. Consequently, there is not much consistency and a float nurse or float aid needs a lot of orientation; not helpful in a pinch. I'm currently out on a 12 week surgical LOA and my unit is really hurting because I'm full time. Last time this happened, we hired a traveler and now there's no buget for that.
Here's to the things will get worse before they get better concept.
R
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