What does it take to become a Certified Nursing Assistant?
These days, the rapid increase of population of the older people gives a great challenge to the health care industry in looking for ways on how they would care for this part of the population. One of the changes made was to create new members of the health care team which are the certified nursing assistants or the CNA’s. These certified nursing assistants are working in hospitals, nursing homes and other health care institutions. The duties and responsibilities of these certified nursing assistants varies according to the laws made by the state and also by the health institution where they are working. The common duty of the certified nursing assistants is to manage the patients daily. They are the assistants of the registered nurses. They report to the attending nurse on the routines made regarding the care of the patient. Part of their duty is to do bed making, bathing the clients, assisting them in eating and going with them during ambulation. These duties are just some of the potential duties for certified nursing assistants.
To become a certified nursing assistant, states require them to undergo trainings and CNA education. The classes in different CNA schools differ, depending on what school is the person enrolled in. Requirements for these CNA schools vary on the institution. Some may require previous experiences and a high school diploma but some schools do not. Some facilities also offer trainings for certified nursing assistant and these trainings are done in the school and lasts for two weeks. These classes are being taught by registered nurses. They cover different topics from how to fix the bed, how to do bed baths, proper positioning and a lot more. They are also taught on dressing and feeding the patient and also the proper body mechanics needed in lifting and turning the patients to prevent any injury. Some are even taught on how to deal with patients with Alzheimer’s or dementia and how to deal with infection control. Certified nursing assistant schools offer both theoretical or textbook learning and hands on trainings. After the trainings, test is given to find out the person’s proficiency. The test are divided into two parts which is clinical and written. Written test is about the different topics covered during the classes. The other part which is clinical is done by performing clinical procedures in front of the administrators. They will ask a person to perform procedures like turning, bed baths and etc. They will determine whether you are explaining the procedures properly, doing the procedures correctly, doing proper hand washing and providing privacy. After passing the exam, a certification is given and it is now the start of a person’s CNA career. Some CNA’s also take an NCLEX-PN exam to attain a license.
Certified nursing assistant salaries depend on a lot of factors. First is the level of nursing education, years of experience, geographical location of the workplace and the type of work one is doing. These factors greatly influence ones salary. Certified nursing assistants may earn $22,000 to $30,000 annually.
