You need experience.

Nursing Students CNA/MA

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i find it so frustrating. everyone wants cnas experience, i even read a job add that wanted someone with ten years of experience, but how am i supposed to get any experience if no one will give me the chance to begin to develop some? how can they expect a new cna to have experience? if your a new cna then obviously you haven't been spending your time working as one, you have been in school. most new cna's are young and therefore again you haven't had the time, years, to even get a job in your career field to develop experience. its like having credit; credit card companies, banks, etc. won't give you any credit if you dont have any. well when you're 20 years old, married, and just starting out you obviously have no credit, you cant get any credit if no one will give you any credit.

i feel cheated in the experience portion with employers, its like they are saying that i am not smart enough because i haven't been working in the medical field. how do they know if i'm really good or even really bad at what i do if they don't give me the chance to show them?

:mad:

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Specializes in LTC.

Maybe you have a ton of CNAs in your area, and employers can afford to be picky. Personally I didn't have a problem getting my first CNA job, but this was a few years ago. Still, I work in 2 places and both of them hire new CNAs even though the community college is constantly running classes and churning them out. Sometimes you just have to apply at the right time. First of all, you have to be willing to work anywhere (not just a hospital). Usually the LTCs don't care as much about experience as the hospitals do, because they don't have to train you to do extra stuff like EKG. You should also make it clear that you are willing to do any shifts/hours including per diem work (if you made another thread like this then I probably already told you that so sorry about the repetition). Some places have a steady turnover and hire frequently while others have a union and the employees stay for a long time and it can be tough to get in. And since a lot of CNAs are younger women, someone is always pregnant and about to go on maternity leave, lol. So you just have to keep applying everywhere on a regular basis and hope your app gets on the desk when they're actually trying to hire someone. A girl I took the CNA class with turned in her application *one day later* than I turned mine in, and she never even got a call. I did, and I was hired. One thing that is actually predictable is school. In early summer we usually hire a couple CNAs to replace the ones that just graduated nursing school and passed their exam.

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Im not picky in the sense that I will only apply for hospital jobs, I just would prefer it. Ill apply anywhere, any hours, and do any job. I would love to do EKG training but I dont have $800 just sitting around. It was hard enough for me to get the money for the CNA courses and the AED/CPR/First aid course. Thanks for the information though. I haven't actually even done my CNA classes yet, but I am just feeling the water in my area to see what the CNA demand (or non demand) is.

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Specializes in LTC.

Oh well if you haven't even taken the class yet it's no wonder no one is calling you back. Usually when a place is hiring CNAs they want them to start really soon because like I said, people are on maternity leave and stuff, and they need to fill the hours right away. They don't want to wait for you to take the class and get certified when they can just hire someone who's already legal. I bet once you take the class you'll have a much easier time finding a job. And I don't think I'd bother with EKG. I think in most areas, the hospital will train you for free (actually, you get paid on orientation so it's better than free).

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I haven't applied. That would be kinda dumb to apply for a job I'm not qualified for. I have been readin the ads, classifieds, craigslist, etc.

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Specializes in LTC.

There's no need to get snippy. You didn't reveal that you hadn't taken the class yet until your 2nd post, and then you still made it seem like you'd been applying for jobs. That kind of thing isn't unheard of in these forums; quite a bit of people ask if they should fill out applications before they're done with class. I didn't realize you were jumping the gun on this and getting angry about no one giving you a chance before you'd submitted a single application. Just because they say they want someone experienced doesn't mean they're going to throw your app away and it's completely hopeless for you. Like I said, LTCs hire a lot of aides with no experience. Like you said, they don't know if these people are going to be good aides or not, but then again, without experience, neither do you. And you could be an experienced CNA who is absolutely terrible and the facility won't know that either. Anyway, I'm not sure what you were hoping to hear but I obviously didn't provide the "right" answers for you. My apologies.

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I wasnt trying to sound mean. I have applied for other medical positions before and had a bad experience with the whole "need experience" thing. Im a pharmacy technician (as in certified but never worked). I worked really hard on studying and everything just to go to a few interviews to have people tell me they wont hire me unless I have experience. So at that point I gave up with try to get a pharm tech job because I got tired of getting so hopeful/excited just to told Im not good enough, plus I have applied everywhere and the only places hiring are like 40 miles away from where I live, so when I was looking on craigslist I saw that everyone is wanting CNA's. Which is why Im doing this now in hopes of having better luck. Im just concerned that I will be just as disappointed if I go into an interview and get turned down over and over again. Didnt mean to come off angry. Sorry.

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Well some good news--if your state has Med Aides, you could probably do that too. i know in TX you can get your med aide certification after a short time period as an experienced cna, i bet you would have an easy time with that considering you have the pharm tech cert behind you.

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LTC facilities typically aren't as picky about their CNAs. Be wary, though, since some of them are awful in terms of the quality of care they provide for residents.

I got a job at a short-term rehabilitation/skilled nursing unit right after I got certified. I'm also fresh out of high school, and I think that my age may have put off HR at the other places that I applied for; still, it isn't impossible to get a CNA job that pays in the upper range of the industry standard for your state. Don't expect a hospital job right off the bat, and don't think it's easier. Hospital work comes with its own set of challenges.

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I have had a CNA license for years. I have applied everywhere (home health, LTC, hospitals, psych homes, etc....) I've only ever been called for an interview for home health. Did it for 3 months and hated it. I've volunteered at two hospitals for a combined experience of two years. I don't get a single call from anyone. CNA was a waste of money.

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I have had a CNA license for years. I have applied everywhere (home health, LTC, hospitals, psych homes, etc....) I've only ever been called for an interview for home health. Did it for 3 months and hated it. I've volunteered at two hospitals for a combined experience of two years. I don't get a single call from anyone. CNA was a waste of money.

I am sorry you haven't had much luck. I have been a CNA for 4 years and when I first got my CNA licence, I was hired. It might have to do with your location. I worked for a traveling staffing agency that paid me $12 an hour as a new CNA.

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toxic.waste, what is "a traveling staffing agency"?

thanks

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