r/cna

I paid for my class in full, I get my BLS tomorrow and then from there, 2 weeks clinicals and the state exam to become licensed. I am going to go through with it yes, but just looking into how short staffed, lack of resources in some of these facilities are and some feedback I got from classmates on how clinicals are going are scaring me a bit. What are some interesting jobs you can do with a cna? I don’t mind the dirty work and helping people but I do want to work with resources and safety for patients.

I do Agency work and yesterday while I was helping a CNA, she started to change the colostomy bag and ring. I asked her how long has she been a CMA, she's not. She said that the nurse taught her how to do it. I told her I dont think shes legally able to change colostomy bags because that is an open wound and we don't mess with open wounds.

One CNA from another facility was changing a colostomy bag and she said that CNA are allowed to change the bag or empty the bag but not the ring.

I've only been a CNA since last November, so less than a year. Are we allowed to touch colostomy bags? School did NOT teach me anything about colostomy bags, and if we were allowed to do it, I figured it would be part of our exam. Im in Oklahoma.

I work overnights and I’m in my 40s. Is this normal? Is it temporary? Is it a “push through it’ll get better” kind of thing, are there tools that can help?

Hi!!

I’m looking for some honest advice because I’m feeling really conflicted.

I recently started working as a caregiver in a luxury assisted living facility. The staff and facility are great, so that’s not the issue. The problem is that I just don’t enjoy the work.
It feels much more like hospitality and helping with day to day living than actual clinical healthcare. I know it’s important work, but I keep wishing I was taking vitals, learning clinical skills, collecting medical information, or assisting with procedures. Instead I feel more like I work at a hotel than in healthcare.

I’m not a certified CNA currently. My job title is “caregiver” but it is the same work at the certified CNA’s at this residence. My original plan was to attend CNA school this fall and eventually go to nursing school, but now I’m wondering if I should skip the CNA route and get my EMT certification instead to try to work in an ED.

if anyone has any experience with something similar:
-Did you dislike assisted living or CNA work but still love nursing?
-Is hospital CNA work very different?
- Based on what I described, would you still recommend the CNA route, or does EMT sound like a better fit?

I’d really appreciate any advice from people who’ve been in a similar position bc this is really stressing me out lol

Hello everyone!

I hope you all are having a good day today.

I’m still fairly new to Reddit, but I thought I’d ask this question on here because I want to get some more thoughts on it besides just my own experience. I’ve worked as a CNA for 3 years, and one of my favorite parts about work is the patient interactions. I love being able to connect with the residents and watch them open up about their likes, interests, and lives. As a child of immigrant parents, I never grew up with many family elders, and it makes me glad to have all of these interactions. However, it is heartbreaking, especially in the memory care unit, to watch residents slowly forget their loved ones during to dementia or Alzheimer related loss. So, I want to create an app which can not only track the gradual memory loss and decay over short and long periods of time, but also potentially help other CNAs with connecting to these residents as well(through hobbies, interests, etc.). Maybe something family members could fill or add to in their spare time, which could give direction to other CNAs, or along those lines. A higher chance of connection would make for a safer and more trusted environment between resident and CNA. I’m not doing this for any monetary value, I just want to help both you guys and our residents. I’d love if you guys had any input or anything you wanted to see in this potential app that you feel could be beneficial to making your life easier and/or the residents life as well! It doesn’t even have to be about the app, just anything I could potentially integrate into a cleaner, more efficient healthcare system. I know us CNAs get the short stick of healthcare. Thank you!

Edit: I also went ahead and put this on r/NursesOfReddit as well, so if any nurses would like to give feedback, that would also be much appreciated. Thank you!

I have never panicked so hard in my life tbh.

So I was doing my rounds, first room and i opened a new tube of barrier cream. For the life of me i literally could NOT get it to come out the tube so whatever i just finished without it. Move on to the next room and go to the bathroom in their room and start trying to squeeze it out into the trash can so it doesnt go everywhere, it comes out but is quite clumpy.

Now this is important: its a petroleum based type of cream, thats why its so clumpy.

For WHATEVER reason, an idea comes over me to put some on my hands and see how quickly it melts down. I put a big huge glob on my hands and start rubbing it together to warm it up… bare handed. It melts down, i turn the sink on and start rinsing it off.

It won’t come off. The water is just beading off it. I panic. I put soap on my hands and start trying to wash it off. Now instead of it just being in the palms of my hands its covering the whole thing. Okay deep breath, reach for the paper towels. THERE ARENT ANY. I go to get a towel off my cart, jokes on me i skipped a few rooms and my carts down the hall… where the nurse is :) my next best bet is the toilet paper, cheap ass shit just disintegrates and im now covered in toilet paper bits AND white ass cream.

Finally I just break down, the other person had just moved out of the room and housekeeping hasnt stripped their bed yet and i had to smear my hands all over their dirty bedding to get it off.

I’ve been here 14 hours its been a long night, im tired lol

And by that I mean residents that were part of a show or something. I’ve had one who had their own puppet show (and handmade their puppets.) and a dude who was a legit actor on some big TV shows.

Just finished my first month (part time) as a cna at a ltc facility. i got my july schedule on monday, and realized it didn’t match my requests which i submitted on time— it just somehow got lost? anyways, i met that night with the scheduling coordinator who apologized that my requests were lost, and i sat with her and worked with her and watched her correct my july schedule and print it off. one of my requests was to have saturdays off. my facility only requires that we work one day every other weekend (so we just have work either saturday OR sunday every other week + i am working every single sunday happily). i got a call when i was originally scheduled today asking where i was and i told her the situation i just wrote and she was like well you’re still on the schedule and just hung up. I sent a picture of the printed off schedule i was given and she just said it was up to the on call?

1. what does that even mean, “up to on call”?
2. am i going to be punished for operating off the schedule i was given just because other people’s schedules show the wrong thing?

So make this make sense.

I notified a nurse that her residents colostomy bag came off. (He likes to mess with it for whatever reason and it constantly is coming off.) I guess this time it was actually slightly messy and had gotten on his gown and on his sheet. The nurse came back from changing the bag saying, “I took care of him thank you.” Just to be approached an hour and a half later with the same nurse asking me why I never cleaned up said resident. For one I didn’t know he was a mess, and for 2 why didn’t she just change the gown and top sheet while she was in there?? I don’t get it?? It was a quick and simple fix that I was under the impression he was good to go and taken care of. So now I feel stupid and embarrassed that he laid there for that long with bm all over him.

Idk I’m annoyed that she gave me the impression he was cleaned up and good, then came back later to tell me he wasn’t.

Hello. I’m am currently a CNA in a hospital and I’m curious about what other people think as this is also a hotly debated topic where I work and nobody can give me a straight answer.
For your CNAs how far does “Need to Know” go? Most of my managers have said, if you have access to the information you’re allowed to review it (of corse with the bounds of pt care) this includes charting notes such as care plans, progress notes, PT /OT /SPT notes lab results. Taking into account that a person may read that last available note, and understanding it’s out side of their scope to speak about it to a pt. do you consider it an over step into a HIPPA violation for a CNA to read these notes. Some of my managers say no it’s fine, but some managers and other CNAs say it is a HIPPA violation.
Now wanting to protect myself and my job and bringing this to the wider knowledge of internet. I feel that the more information I have about a pt the better, not to say I need their whole medical history, but how they have been in the last 24 hours helps me provide the best possible care on an individual basis. What are your thoughts?

today was my first time working with a more experienced cna and she immediately said she wouldn’t handle two certain residents because they don’t like her…

i’m happy to be the one to care for them so they’re more comfortable, but am i being too judgemental for wondering what she did that they don’t like her and she won’t care for them? they’ve always been very pleasant to care for in my experience, but i’ve also only been a cna for a month so i know i don’t know everything

ETA: this particular resident is not known to be a problem generally, she’s particular about how she wants things done, but has always been kind and playful with me and everyone i know who’s worked with her + that’s why my eyebrows were raised— i’ve never seen her be genuinely rude/ harass a cna/ assault anyone and even tonight she was super upbeat and friendly

Two lvns I work with bother me so bad, here’s two examples of how annoying they are.

* not going to treat a resident actively bleeding abrasion cause their shift only had 10 more minutes

* not calling 911 for a resident with shallow breathing because their shift was about to end and they didn’t want to do paperwork

I need advice on what to do for a patient who has major blowouts every time after I change them. So I have this resident, I'm more of a floater at this facility, but when I get on a specific floor I tend to have more or less the same assignment. So whenever this resident is in one of these assignments, every time I change them they have a major blowout. I'm talking about like, the poop gets all the way to the socks, and everything is soiled.

And it takes a while, considering I'm a newer CNA, and I also tend to have twelve to fifteen residents a day. So the problem is that also takes a detour for me, because it's like, okay, that takes a while to change, especially after I already changed the sheets, and I tend to not have enough linen to use for the same person twice.

I know some people might say don't change them until after they have their bowel movement, but the thing is this resident is supposed to get up at 9:30 because they have a family visit, so I can't leave them in bed unless they request it.

So does anyone have advice on how to keep them from getting totally soaked again right after I already changed them? It's very watery, very liquidy. Trying to avoid having to do a full change twice in a row. Any tips would help.

So I 26f recently started working what i thought was my dream job all my life (conservation corps/environmental job) and im becoming kinda miserable so Im thinking of going back to my old work as a Caregiver and eventually working on getting my Cna license.

I was really depressed and suicidal for a while because I hate every job I ever do but I feel like CNA work isnt all that bad. The only thing is that I absolutely SUCK at socializing. My seniors always love me and say im super nice and helpful but everyone always says im too quiet.

I havent had a friend since i was 13 (not exaggerating) moved to a new city at 13 and got too depressed and started isolating myself -only talked to family never went anywhere etc so now im very awkward and not good at having responses to conversations

I want to be happy and content in life so my plan is to move to my dream area (any city in Humboldt county CA) get my cna license so I can do flexible 3 day 12 hr shifts - i feel like having a good amount of time off would help me not burn out so easily, and I would have a lot of time to decompress and do my hobbies etc.

TLDR:

I guess im just asking if anyone whos in this medical field has issues with making conversations with the patients and knows how to get better? I always choose to work night shifts because theres way less social interaction, its more just getting them ready for bed. But I feel bad when they do want to talk and I have trouble holding the conversation. Caring for people means ur often the only person they see a lot of the time so I want to be able to be good at it and make them happy.

I know a PCT isn't the same as a CNA but it's pretty close

I want to one day go into Respiratory Therapy school but before that I'm going to take a gap year for personal reasons and I think having clinical experience would be great. For context I have about a year in fast food experience but nothing clinical.

I'm worried that PCT will be a pretty crappy job, to the point I'm probably going to skip over it and apply to ECG Tech or Phlebotomist. One of the big things I'm worried about is incontinence care. I don't ever see anyone complaining about it but the thought of it wasn't great. I'm also pretty young and I'm a dude, and I think that may affect how I will be treated.

Helping people in ways more than making overpriced food and dishwashing sounds pretty sweet, so.

It'll also be in a hospital not long term care or anything like that. 3 12hr day shifts is what I think it'll be.

I got my certification in March, and just started working morning shifts at a Rehab and LTC facility on Monday of this week. I've spent three days in the rehab unit, and one in the memory care unit.

I already want to quit. While I'm technically capable of doing the work, I cannot mentally take it. I got extremely upset after visiting the memory care unit today, as I couldn't stop thinking about how these people are husks of their former selves who just want their mom and certainly not to be yelled at by the CNAs helping to train me. This entire week I have been unable to stop thinking about the residents, even when I am at home, trying to play a game or watch a show. When I walk, I start to think about how memory care patients tend to wander. When I clean myself, I think about how all of the people I need to help can't do this themselves. I knew before going into this job that being around elderly people made me uncomfortable and sad, but decided that being uncomfortable is an important part of growing. But I don't know if I can do this.

I know it's silly to be so upset after only a week, but I am just looking to vent and ask for advice. I had no plans of working in a LTC facility, and initially wanted to work in a postpartum unit as a CNA (I plan to become an Ob/Gyn, and working as a CNA over the summer will hopefully help me become a better provider). However, none of the hospital jobs I applied to accepted me, most likely because I had no experience.

Does anyone have advice on what to do, and how to separate the work from my life? I know I need to work in healthcare over the summer, but it's certainly too late to find a different job, as I go back to school at the beginning of September.

I have so much respect for those of you who have been able to act as empathetic caregivers for years on end. This is my first ever job, so perhaps that is adding to how I feel, but I have never had my heart hurt this much. Thank you so much for any help you can give. I appreciate all of you 🩷

When you started working as a CNA, did you feel your training truly prepared you for what the job is actually like?

Did your CNA program and instructors adequately prepare you for clinicals and your first position in a healthcare setting? Were the hands-on skills, communication techniques, and patient care scenarios reflective of what you encountered on the job, or did you find yourself learning most of it through experience?

So in my last post I'd asked if I should make the switch from my LTC facility to my local hospital, and the feedback was a resounding yes. But given the only openings are either med/surg or LTC, which do yall think would be easier? Which would provide even a little less mental drain and stress than what I deal with currently?

I work the night shift in a ltc facility nyc and there's a new resident that calls to go to the bathroom frequently my coworkers were complaining saying they are not going to answer the bell anymore, so I went in to assist the resident the next 2 times they called. During the final rounds I was changing my residents and I heard the bell, I looked down my hall and didn't see any lights so I figured it must be one of the other halls that the other 2 cna's work so I assumed someone would answer it.

I finished my hall and the bell was still ringing, I saw the two nurses near the nurses station and the cna assigned to the resident in that hall, I was walking towards the room and the bathroom bell was starting to go off. I went in and saw the resident in the bathroom and she said that she was waiting so long that she used the rolling table as support to go to the bathroom this is dangerous since they're a fall risk. The resident also stated they saw people pass by the room and not come in.

Now my coworkers are trying to portray this resident as a problem for ringing the bell constantly but this feels like neglect on their part. I want to say something but I'm not sure who to report it to since some of the coworkers are favored by management and I don't want it to come back that I was the one who said something since I'm new to the floor. Any advice would be greatly appreciated