Voices from the margin: the nurse aide's role in pain management of institutionalized elders.

The training and function of Certified Nurse Aides (CNAs) has traditionally focused on safe, hygienic, direct care and concrete, practical task completion. These two basic premises have directed training and job criteria and have evolved without much regard for the personal opinions, desires, and thoughts of the nurse aides themselves. However, CNA roles are expanding and changing daily, and what this expansion means in terms of patient care has ever-increasing relevance. How and what CNAs think and feel about their role and their training, and how both could be improved to meet the needs of patients and the demands of the healthcare system, are of vital interest to all those who rely upon their expertise.