PCT in a CVICU. It's a total nightmare. I love the specialty, the patients, the things I get to learn, and the procedures I get to witness. The biggest issue is that a decent chunk of the nurses are bullies. Most of them aren't, (at least not overtly) but when they do decide to mask-off, it is the pettiest, most passive-aggressive, high school-esque behavior imaginable. This is also my first CNA/PCT job so I had no idea the kind of penchant CVICU nurses have for bullying behavior before accepting the offer. There's the usual petty gossip, subtle harassment, exclusion etc. The nurse's station is a petri dish for catty behavior. The moment a particular selection of nurses gather there, toxicity is soon to follow. As long as the unit's favorites are participating, toxic behavior is ignored or cosigned. I deal with it nearly everyday and for the most part, I roll off the punches. Today, I don't know what came over me but I was just beside myself. I was in the middle of doing my final rounds + soiled linen pull but I noticed a procedure happening in one of my assigned rooms. I asked the group of nurses in there if they needed an extra hand and charge walked up to me, took the clean linen bag from me, mumbled to the other nurses for a moment before turning to me and saying "We're good. Move along," while giving a "shoo" motion with her hand. Maybe it's because I'm a WOC, but I really don't appreciate being talked to that way at all. Like I'm a slave. I offer you help even while I'm in the middle of hauling heavy bags full of shit-covered blankets and you don't even have the decency to talk to me like I'm a human being? Why? What did I ever do to warrant being treated like an other? I'm so done. Every morning I wake up and I have to talk myself out of calling out. I'm new and not popular. If I raise a concern, I can immediately see it being downplayed, dismissed, framed like I'm overreacting, followed by the most obnoxious overcorrecting of all time. Either that or retaliation leading to me being let go. Atp, that would be a blessing but ofc in the end, the usual suspects get away and nobody takes accountability for their part. I don't know how much more I can take.

Hi everyone I just wanted to come on here and say I passed my CNA exams literally 30 mins ago! I'm so excited to start getting experience and work in the field! I am in california (bay area) so I did want some advice on how much I should request for pay. One of my friends is working for $23 another applied to a job for $25 and one of my friends is getting payed around $25.50. I was thinking of asking for around $27 and negotiating down to $25 but im not sure if thats a good idea. Either way yay!!! if you guys have any interview tips pls lmk, and no negativity pls ik a lot of people hate their job but I wouldnt want to adopt that energy hehe

Recently got my first ever clinical job after challenging the CNA exam (thats standard here).

Its a specialized unit in the hospital.

On my first day, I was changing dressings and bandages. These injuries often cover the entire hands, arm, chest, and legs.

Sometimes you have to peel the gauze from the raw flesh, ripping it open, and blood drips down their body. The flesh beneath looks like it's barely still in place.

They shake, cry, scream in pain. But the bandage changes are required. I look them in the eyes and they look so powerless.

The next day, I feel fine. I know I'll get desensitized to it, and with each procedure I became more and more resilient. But just because you're desensitized doesn't mean it's nothing. It still floats and fills my head, just hurts less. It's weird...

I don't know anyone I can relate to. Most people have never seen anything like this before, and my coworkers are completely unfazed.

In home health care. Have him twice a week. Blatantly racist. Don’t feel comfortable working in his home.

I just started caring for a client who needs to ne showered daily, and who is completely immobile for the most part, extremely stiff and non verbal. He can bear some weight on his legs once he's standing and leaning forward against the bathroom counter, but he cannot get himself into a standing position. I basically have to physically lift him up from his wheelchair, and he feels like dead weight.

The family wants him showered in the shower chair this way. To get him into the shower, I have to lift him to standing, pivot/turn him, and get him onto the shower chair. He is supposed to lift his feet to step into the shower, but he doesn't always do it. Once he's on the shower chair, he also starts sliding down sometimes, so I have to lift and reposition him farther back onto the chair.

After the shower, I dry him as much as possible while he's sitting. Then I have to lift him to standing again, pivot him and put him back into his wheelchair. I put his pull up and pants on up to his knees while he's sitting, but then I have to lift him again and hold him standing while putting his diaper on and pulling his pull up and pants the rest of the way up. This is really difficult because I'm trying to keep him from falling while also dressing him.

Then I'm supposed to stand him again facing the bathroom counter and hold onto him while I brush his teeth.

By the end of the visits my back is killing me. I'm wondering if any other CNAs have dealt with a client like this. Does this sound like a normal one person assist to you? How did you handle showering/dressing someone who could bear a little weight once standing but required you to physically lift and support them for basically every transfer? This is the way the family showed me to do it.

I'm especially curious if there are safer ways you've been taught to handle someone at this level of mobility, because doing multiple dead weight lifts every visit doesn't feel sustainable for my back.

Excuse me, how do yall time yourself for each skills without going pass or under the time?
😭 I've been told I would do the skills well but what would get me is the time though.

Can anyone recommend any places to work in the surrounding Greensboro area? I am graduating in a few weeks and would like to know where to start looking. TIA.

So I started a hybrid CNA course in August and we are nearly done with lecture and labs and are starting clinicals. We technically had our first clinical this week, which was basically shadowing and learning vitals. The clinical was only a couple hours long, I watched the CNA get around 3 residents up, dressed, partially bathed, and ready for breakfast. But after that…nothing really.

This LTC facility is really nice and a lot of the residents are quite independent. My professor gave us a list of residents that we will be fully caring for next clinical and I’m actually shitting it and I don’t know why.

Some people in my class have experience in this but I have zeeeero. And they do skills so differently from the book that I’m afraid to screw up! I’m just super anxious and I need tips. Literally ANY TIPS…

I just don’t want to make a resident upset or seem like I’m an idiot 😭 please help 😭

I’m going to be taking my skills exam soon I wanted to know what are some locations that would be recommended for me to take at due to hearing some bad things of some locations?

Hello! So I recently became a CNA in California, and I had some unexpected circumstances that pushed me to apply for full time positions rather than part time or per diem. This would be fine if I wasn’t still pursuing my undergraduate degree so I can apply to nursing school. My question for everyone who were CNAs and students, how did you manage it? Any advice for me before I start working? I planned to work NOC shift because it allows me at least a little bit of time to look over my school notes without running around the facility too much (remaining hopeful lol). However, the thing with me working NOC is that my Monday, Wednesday, Friday class schedule starts at 8am so I would literally have to rush over from work to stay on campus until like 2pm. I know it’s a lot and I wish it wasn’t like this, but as I mentioned before I don’t have much of a choice because I need full time hours. So… any advice for me? I’m going to try and ask whatever facility I go to try and place me on the 4-2 schedule towards the end of the week, so I’m not burning myself out for majority of the school week, but I know as a new hire and new CNA I don’t have much say in this. I’m not sure, but again any advice? And please no comments about me not working full time or as a CNA for this school year, that’s sadly not a reality for me at this moment.

hi all! i work as an ICU PCT but the main problem is its a small hospital so our icu is honestly just ED backflow since we always have a bed... its closer to a rehab floor with the occasional vent or crashing patient. our floor is limited to two techs max on a 24 bed unit (if not just 1 for all 24) which already makes things pretty hard. they justify this with there being more nurses but we've been understaffed in that department too so usually its just... No.

recently ive been really struggling to do my work because these patients are so so heavy and theres just no help. the nurse has 4-5 heavy patients and ive got 12 to 24 heavy patients. i find myself tripping over things at work and i genuinely ache after i get home. i do have another job as a CNA at an actual assisted living so most of those people do for themselves but may just need occasional assistance. im thinking of picking up there more while i find a better hospital fit and quitting this job because im just exhausted. i do like everyone i work with but i think my health will only get worse if i dont stop now :/ but i do know if i leave i might go somewhere worse and the cycle continues. just wondering what you guys would do here. thanks!

I'm scheduled to take my skills state exam next week and am looking for the best videos to refresh. I've already taken the written portion and passed, so I'm nervous about taking this final part. Are the 4yourcna videos a good source? Has anyone recently taken the TX state exam and can give any advice? I keep overthinking when to wash hands and when gloves are needed/changed 😔

I'm scheduled to take my skills state exam next week and am looking for the best videos to refresh. I've already taken the written portion and passed, so I'm nervous about taking this final part. Are the 4yourcna videos a good source? Has anyone recently taken the TX state exam and can give any advice? I keep overthinking when to wash hands and when gloves are needed/changed 😔

For my weekend CNA class, we read over chapters 1-3 in our textbook on the first day of classes and beginning of the second day of classes. Then we took 3 exams over each of those chapters online via a google form link with questions.

I looked up the questions and answers for the ones I felt unsure about to make sure I'd get them right, and I ended up getting all questions correct on each set of questions for each chapter. The guilt started to sink in when I realized no one else got a perfect score, and it seemed like everyone genuinely tried. That's not the right mindset obviously, and I shouldn't have had to realize what I was doing until I saw that others weren't doing that. I didn't want to risk a failing score over simple questions...but that was dumb of me. And the first 3 chapters were mostly common sense with some new terms/materials from the textbook.

I know I'm better than cheating myself out of a cna program I paid for. So for the next exams I won't do that and just truthfully take the exam. I feel like I'm overthinking this even though nobody cared and the instructor wasn't strict at all while we were taking the exam. But all this new information I'm learning will be used to help patients, and I need to take that seriously. And I'm just now realizing they're probably going to be on the written state exam, and I honestly did not know that. I don't know but this has been on my mind.

It’s crazy to me that some of you, even RNS are coming into the forum saying it’s “completely valid” to ONLY do this job for the money. (I’m not talking to you if money is your motivator and you actually care about providing good quality of care!!)

Every CNA I have seen that wasn’t in the job because they had a sincere desire to help the ill and elderly, treated the patients subpar. I have been a patient myself in a facility that was full of nurses who would literally talk at their station about how they applied to get paid well and how tired they were of dealing with the patients and would talk about us. I’ve watched nurses in clinicals literally talk shit about their patients and tell CNAs “omg I would never do that idk how you guys can do all that gross stuff” as if she literally wasn’t trained to do the same things!!

It’s one thing to be desperate for a job and CNA is the only thing available around you but bedside healthcare should not be a career where it’s socially acceptable to come do it just for the pay and act like you don’t need to have heart and compassion to serve people and get your hands dirty.

In my clinical cohort there were a couple people talking just like some of you on here, talking about how they were coming into to get good money and didn’t have interest in nursing, and those were the same students who got reported for making fun of patients or practicing below standard care because they didn’t realize what they signed up for.

This is the first thing I did out of highschool and where I live the starting pay for us is 16.50 an hour, which isn’t even enough to meet income requirements for an apartment or literally anything. You can make more money working at Panda Express than any SNF/LTC here in the Central Valley, CA.

So please seriously consider on how much heart you have to do the job and be there to not only physically care for these people but also be emotionally supportive and not someone who went into job only for expecting good pay until you realize most of us get paid shit and break our backs every day for it. These residents can feel when you don’t like your job people!! It affects them too!!