10 things only CNAs understand

4. The success of walking out of rounds without a full bed change!
—Kristin von Nordheim 

5. “Bathroom”…what’s that?! You mean that thing I have to use and have walked by 50 times…and still haven’t found time to use it yet?!
–Jennifer Gaudette 

6. Ahhhh! So many! I dream about working in a nursing home with five floors and I can’t find my coworkers and one call light is going off on the fifth floor and bed alarms are going off all over…LOL!
—Sera Kaye Sarazin

7. When you’re working with eight nurses and you’re the only aide on the floor. They each ask you to do something and believe that their task should take priority. On a more positive note, the gratitude you get from patients for just doing the little things for them! Like combing their hair, or putting lotion on their back.
—Niccole Miller 

8. When you’re about to clock out for lunch and it’s almost like a resident has psychic abilities and then you’re stuck in their room for another 30 minutes.
—Amanda Ming 

9. Expecting the unexpected. As a first-time CNA, I walked into a patient’s room and it looked like there was chocolate on the bed rail in small balls. It was all lined up on the rail so perfectly, but it was not chocolate…it was poop. You have to have a strong stomach plus a great sense of humor to see such a sight. It was covering the patient head to toe. I had to get a helper!
—Laurie Budnick 

10. The feeling you get when you are done with a resident and they are neat, clean and comfortable. That’s when you feel proud, that no matter what happens that day, you can say, “I feel good about my work.”
—Tracey Watson-Brown 

CNAs, what would you add to this list?