In the Allied Health career field there are a lot of different positions that are seen as the “bottom of the barrel.”
They are not given the respect they are due because of the position in which they have chosen to work. One such position I am really talking about is the Certified Nurse’s Assistant. For as long as I can remember, I have worked in a lot of different Medical Facilities; and have not seen ANY personnel treated as badly as the CAN. I have a problem with this because I believe that you have to be a special, amazing, humble, considerate, God-fearing person to work as a CNA Yes, I love the medical field. Yes, I love the human body and how it works, but I know that being a #CNA is not where I am supposed to be. Now don’t think that I believe that I am above that, or think I am too good to work as a CNA – that is far from the truth. I worked as a CNA fresh out of high school. I learned a lot from that experience, and most importantly, I learned that being a CNA was not what I wanted for my career path. I recently went to lunch with a friend who is a CNA and she told me some very disturbing things. But I won’t repeat what she said. What I will say is below:
CNA’s are the hardest working men and women in a Medical Facility, period! I do not care what you do or what you say. If you have ever seen a CNA work or knew what they have to do in an 8, 10 or 12 hour shift, you would agree. Keep in mind, nurses and doctors don’t do what a CNA will do. Yes nurses give meds, change dressings, sometimes pass out food trays; and may even give a patient a cup of ice chips or juice. I am in no way trying to down play what a nurse or doctor does because just their title seems to come with respect. A CNA has to care for the patient, feed the patient; and they are sometimes looked as the patient’s advocate because the patient may not have any family available. Within an 8 hour shift, the CNA may have 5, 8, 10 or 15 patients, and each patient requires hands on contact no matter what else they have to do. Just in the mornings the CNA has to strip, clean and remake the bed most of the time, while the patient is in the bed as they do it.
For anyone who has ever tried this, you would agree that this is no easy task. Then as the nurse passes meds, the CNA has to go to get up all of the patients that have to be in the dining room for breakfast and make sure that are there on time. They have to feed all of the patients that need assistance, and that all has to be done while they are getting other patients up to go to a doctor’s appointment, or therapy, or moving home, or to another unit, or for surgery. Besides having to deal with every single family member, they have to interface with the patients that are literally there to die. They have to listen to patients calling them names and throw things at them, all while still caring for that patient. The CNA deserves the utmost respect. Anyone can be a medical professional, but it takes an amazing person to be a CNA.
I take my hat off and bow down to ALL CNA’s because I know that as much as I love the medical profession, I will never wake up happy to be a CNA. I mean absolutely no disrespect at all, but I know that yes I am patient, compassionate, open, understanding and God-fearing. But the way I talk, my attitude, my temperament, my life and what I love simply don’t fit in the role of a CNA! If you are honest with yourself, you know what you will and won’t do.
Food for thought:
“You may say that a nurse is better, a doctor is better than good, and everyone else is nothing because there is no respect for them. Here is something to think about. Nurses are getting burned-out because they are over worked; not for lack of work, but because they have no help. If you have 4 CNA’s on your floor and you treat them like they are beneath you as you do your job easy and free…then what happens if the CNAs leave? Nurses get burned out, and the patients are the ones who suffer. Nurses or Doctors are not above the Allied Health Worker. They are not above the CNA, because it’s too hard to function without them! If you look down on your assistants, if you treat them like they are nothing, and you know you do not want to do their job; then RESPECT is not just a song sung by Aretha! SHOW IT, GIVE IT or LEARN IT! Because the bottom line is that you need your Certified Nurses Assistants more than you think you do!”
As always: Tell me what you think…. Mz. M
