Shady things, but what else is new?

Whew!! Sit down folks. I'm gonna sound like a bit of a conspiracy theorist but hear me out y'all.

For those that haven't seen my posts/comments before, I'm in California and have a CNA license. CA CNAs are lucky in the sense that ratios exist, per the California Department of Public Health. From some of the comments that some of you have made, apparently ratios don't exist in other states which is scary af. Either way, here in Cali, ratios are seldom followed because of intense understaffing and other things I don't wanna get into. It'd be a whole essay and I'm sure you could figure it out anyways.

I got hired at this major hospital a couple weeks ago. I was pulled into the manager's office the other day to go over the orientation checklist. At the end, she asked me if I had any questions.

Since I'll be working night shift, I brought up my concerns regarding possible understaffing. I told her that I wouldn't feel safe being left on the floor by myself if there just wasn't enough staff, and I admitted this had to do with my experience in skilled nursing. She said that PCAs (my job title), will never be left alone at night with more than 10 patients.

Somehow it came up. I asked her why PCAs weren't just referred to as CNAs and she stated it was because PCAs aren't CNAs, and that the license isn't actually required for the job.

In my head, I was making all sorts of observations and connections. It's funny she mentioned that, and she as a unit manager, should know better.

When I was applying to this position, the job description said that the position required a CNA license.

PCAs apparently aren't CNAs and don't require a CNA license, which means that this hospital doesn't abide by CA ratios because they simply don't have to. This is my theory for those positions that are basically CNA roles, but are called PCAs, PCTs, etc.

Is this a stretch? This really surprised me and I brought it up to the lady that was orienting me, and she was also pretty shocked at what the manager had said, since she too was asked for her CNA license when she applied.

Sleepy and tired y'all. Sorry if this doesn't make much sense 😂😂