cna and agencies

I work at a very respected hospital in the area and i have been working as a cna for about 7 months on a surgical floor. I am very unhappy. I thought getting a job at a hospital would be great better than a ltc, but boy was i wrong. There are days when i have 16 patients and there are days when i have as many as 32 because of shortage of staff including nursing assistants. I am so stressed and burned out there are days when i can't feel my legs at the end of the day. I don't know if this is what i want to do. I have also realized that i do not want to be a nurse but i want to move into some other field within healthcare away from patient care i think I'm not sure anymore. I love helping people as a cna but this too much I would hate to give it up i worked so hard to get my cna certification. My question is should i look into agencies? I am curious maybe i just need a change, i heard some good things about working for agencies flexibility pay is better etc. Any input would be great!!!!!!


p.s. I have applied to more than 50 other jobs in the same hospital to get off my unit and i have heard nothing there must be an awful amount of people applying to this other cna jobs or i am just unlucky i just don't know how much longer i can stay at this awful place
hmmm.......I worked agency and its not what i would call 'stable' . i don't know if that makes sense but you go in with no training for that specific facility or those specific patients and you are given a full load..without the benfeit of knowing where basic supplys are so it slows down your flow. for instance i often had 20 to 23 patients on the night shift by myself. I did it and it was definately 'doable' and i would even say i enjoyed it but i got used to going into some places where i was 'hated' just because i was agency by staff and patients. it was kind of a 'fun' game to try and be so good that i won people over....

Hm, I worked as a CNA on a busy med-tele floor for a little over a year, and I totally hear you about the short staffing and being exhausted at the end of my shift - swollen feet and legs up to my knees, gosh I don't miss that! But I felt like I was getting invaluable experience, so it was always worth it to me. I transferred to being a Monitor Tech after my first year, and then on to the Cardiology department (EKGs from 3p-11p) - and now I love love love going to work every day. I still get to provide patient care, but just in 5 minute increments at a time, and then it's on to the next one. It's great! Do you think you could put up with being a CNA a little longer? If so, look into scrub tech or radiology or phlebotomy or anything - depending on how much time and money you have to invest into a program. Once you have a new skill or certification, transferring out of a CNA role is much easier!

I became a CNA couple of years ago just to see if I'd like the nursing field. CNA's are underpaid and do a whole lot of work. No way I'm working as one, lol, but just because you are overworked and tired of running around doesn't necessarily mean you'd hate being a nurse. I would suggest going to school for about a year to become an LVN and then decide on your future. Nobody likes working as a CNA. But this is just a suggestion because only you know yourself.

Well this is an update things seem to be getting worse... my supevisor pulls me into the office and says that 5 or 6 nurses have complaints about me. Anywhere from i take vital signs too early, to i have to be told to give a patient a bath before i will do it on my own. This are all untrue!!! He says this is a "warning that will go on my record" and the next step is a written notice which is a death nail!!! I think my days are numbered i really believe it is time for me to move on, he kept hinting at things like maybe this is not the right enviroment for you blah blah blah I have worked too hard to be a cna and i will not let a couple of nurses take that from me, I am a good cna i care about people i don't know what more i can do ......

I'm sorry you got thrown into the deep end of the staffing pool without a life jacket on When I worked med/surg I had nights where I'd have given my left arm (gotta have the right one to chart ya know lol) for a CNA that even took vitals, to hell with being early! With that many patients they seriously were expecting them all to be done at exactly midnight or 4am? I want some of what they're smoking. Keep trying to change floors, go in on your days off and shake hands with the unit managers so they can put a face to the application. Hope thing look up for you soon! :heartbeat