Thirty days of truth -- Day four.

Something you have to forgive someone else for.

I automatically want to say "my dad," but I've already forgiven him. I truly wish him the best, so long as I never have to see or experience him again. SO, I guess I'm going to have to say that I have to forgive BS for being a complete douchebag and for her ability to get under my skin and STAY there..  BS is someone that I work with. She's a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) and I think she does a horrible job at it, and I think that she should be fired.. I've had her job before... In two different hospitals. As her job title would have you guess, her job is to assist the nurse.

The basic duties of a nursing assistant are to get vitals at pre-determined times, change beds, pass food trays, pick them up after meals, bathe patients, or set up the shower for them and clean it afterward, and to get I&Os (we count what the patients drink and how much they pee each shift -- intake and output). But those are just the basics of what is expected of them..... The things the nursing assistant plans to do during the day. There are other things that a nursing assistant should be doing, and a good assistant doesn't even have to be asked.. For example, if I am going to get a new patient, my assistant should go ahead and set up the room, help the patient get into a gown (or instruct them to if they aren't already in one), and get a set of vitals. After the scheduled vitals, the assistant should tell the nurse if something is outside of the normal range, because the nurse might not see the list right away. They should also answer the call lights, and respond appropriately, because the patient usually wants something the CNA can do for them, like bringing something to drink or helping them to the bathroom. They can remove catheters and help the nurse with procedures.

But back to BS...... She does the absolute minimum required of her. Only those basic duties. When I ask her to do something else, like get a set of vitals on a new patient or take something down the hall to someone, she flat out refuses, or worse, she'll look at me so I know she heard me and then walk away. Sometimes she'll say in the morning, "I'm not even going in that room today, so you can get the vitals and change the bed." When vitals are outside of the normal range, she won't say anything, so once, I found a child's temperature to be like 101.3 a couple of hours after the vitals were done, and so I checked it again before giving medicine and it was then 103.4... That's definitely a problem! Another issue is post-op patients.... When we get a fresh c-section, we get the vitals every thirty minutes for an hour and a half, then every hour for four hours, then every four hours for the first 24 hours. We also have to get and I&O each hour for eight hours. BS NEVER helps with that and refuses to when asked.

Also, she comes in ten to fifteen minutes late each morning, so we have to wait for her to start giving report. I doubt she punches in that late.. She probably wasting time and getting paid for it. I can't find her throughout the day. I work on a floor with L&D, Pediatrics, a Nursery and occasionally some female med/surg overflow patients. BS doesn't help at all with the L&D patients or the new babies in the nursery, but she is definitely qualified to get their vitals and feed or change the babies... So, if she's working one day that there are four post-partals (the new moms, and usually the easiest patients ever) and two older pediatric patients on the floor, her job is really fast and easy, because those patients are self-sufficient.. But I can't even find her if someone calls for her. I've found her sitting around in the "playroom" chatting with other staff members before on a few occasions. She's obviously not working, so what is she doing? Get paid to hang out with other staff who aren't doing their jobs either? WTF?!!? She could be at the desk answering the call bell or making rounds to see what she could be doing. She could be stocking rooms. She could just clock out and go home if she really has nothing to do..

I've talked to my manager about this, but she seems to just blow it off. I'm not the only nurse that has a problem with this particular CNA, but she's been there for like twenty years, so she's got some kind of immunity to being fired for sucking at her job. I just don't understand how she can get away with this. Sometimes when I work with her I'll hear her say, just loud enough that I can hear it, but not directly to me, that's she working with the "devil" today and "Where's ______ today?" over and over asking where the nurse who's place I'm taking is. Obviously I'm working for that person, but she says it just to be rude... I've heard over and over that she just doesn't like new people, but come on now.... I've been there for nearly a year! And I've never been rude to her. I always ask her politely to do things, and sometimes over and over while she continues to ignore me.. What a B¡†¢*!!!! I really do hate her. I wish that I believed in Karma, because I want bad things to happen to her. I realize that that is a horrible thing to say or to wish, but it's the truth.

Luckily, she works day shift and I've been moved to nights temporarily, so I only have to see her in the morning when I'm getting report. Even then, I can feel my blood pressure rise and the anger boiling up. I can't stand to see her. She's ugly and rude and a really bad "assistant." I wish she were fired because when I was a nursing assistant, I would have been fired on the spot for so many different things that she does. I need to forgive her and get over it, but I'm just not ready to. I want justice. I want consequences for her. I want her to pay for her rudeness and her poor performance. Maybe it isn't something personal, but it definitely SEEMS personal. There have been four or five other people hired since me, and she's not as rude to them, so I can't buy into the idea that it's just because I'm new.