The daughter came in that morning and went straight to the Head Nurse to complain that her mother was not yet up and dressed.

I was told that because the alert and oriented patient was a “private paying” patient, I was to tend to her needs first.

I finished my shift, walked into administration and quit. Right there. I could not, in good conscience, place money before the needs of other patients.

I entered nursing school two weeks later and have never set foot in a convalescent home since.

Never mind that the alert and oriented patient didn’t WANT to get out of bed yet – she was enjoying her coffee and watching game shows on her own TV, never mind that there were other patients who were decubiti just waiting to happen. I was ORDERED to care for the private patients first.

Also: God bless the CNAs who taught me the value of good, basic nursing care long before I ever sat foot in a classroom. I wasn’t even a “C”NA, I was just a soon-to-be nursing student off the street, but I learned more in three months than I ever have since. To this day, I use tricks-of-the-trade those tireless aides taught me back in 1976.

I’d rather work with a top notch CNA than some of the RNs I’ve worked with over the years. And the best RNs were CNAs at one point, either before their nursing education or during it!