CNA Dilemna

Chaoticdreams33, MSN, RN · Jan 20, 2007

CNA's are pretty much the patient care providers. Helping with dressing, feeding, bathing, ambulating, toileting, changing bed linens, answering call lights, reporting changes to the nurse, taking vital sighns, turning immobile patients, and stuff like that. You get to spend a lot of time with the patients and it can be really rewarding but it can also be difficult. This site has a lot if information on it about CNA's.

http://nursingassistantcentral.homestead.com/

I work as a nursing assistant now and I really love it most days. Do you want to work in Long-term care or acute care?

Chaoticdreams33, MSN, RN · Jan 20, 2007

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, but if you are planning on getting your nursing degree, CNA experience will definately behelpful!

myres07 · Jan 20, 2007

CNA's are pretty much the patient care providers. Helping with dressing, feeding, bathing, ambulating, toileting, changing bed linens, answering call lights, reporting changes to the nurse, taking vital sighns, turning immobile patients, and stuff like that. You get to spend a lot of time with the patients and it can be really rewarding but it can also be difficult. This site has a lot if information on it about CNA's.
http://nursingassistantcentral.homestead.com/
I work as a nursing assistant now and I really love it most days. Do you want to work in Long-term care or acute care?

Thank you very much for your input. Seriously, I don't know anything about LTC or acute-cure. So please can you explain to me what's the difference between the two? That way I would know where to find a job when I get my Certification. :) And which one is more difficult?

myres07 · Jan 20, 2007

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, but if you are planning on getting your nursing degree, CNA experience will definately behelpful![/quote
Yes, I am planning to pursue a nursing degree when I finished CNA. That way, I'd be able to finance my studies and I can work part-time as a CNA. Am I making the right move here? :)

Chaoticdreams33, MSN, RN · Jan 20, 2007

Oh sure, Long term care (LTC) is for chronically ill or disabled people requiring assistance with daily life and nursing care, like nursing homes or assisted living facilities. Acute care is for acutely ill people who need intensive treatment medical, nursing, physical therapy, treatment, like hospitals. Residents in LTC are generally stable while hospital patients are more unstable. Some hospitals will only hire CNA's with experience, so I guess that would mean starting in a nursing home.

Where in CT are you located? I think it's a great move. What do you do now for work?

I didn't start working as a nursing assistant until last summer, a year (halfway) through my nursing school, and it has still benefited me greatly. I work on a respiratory medical floor in a hospital with intermediate (step-down form ICU) beds so we get A LOT of really sick patients. I did more dressing changes over the summer working there than I have done my whole time in clinical! But not every floor allows their NA's to do dressing changes.

Our first clinical rotation was 6 weeks in a nursing home, learning how to do baths, vitals, ADL's, passing meds, assessments etc. And I know that a lot of the people with medical experience were definitely more comfortable with the patient care than others (such as me!) who had no experience. And you'll be doing plenty of patient care even after you get your nursing license anyway, so it's all good to know anyway.

myres07 · Jan 20, 2007

Oh sure, Long term care (LTC) is for chronically ill or disabled people requiring assistance with daily life and nursing care, like nursing homes or assisted living facilities. Acute care is for acutely ill people who need intensive treatment medical, nursing, physical therapy, treatment, like hospitals. Residents in LTC are generally stable while hospital patients are more unstable. Some hospitals will only hire CNA's with experience, so I guess that would mean starting in a nursing home.
Where in CT are you located? I think it's a great move. What do you do now for work?
I didn't start working as a nursing assistant until last summer, a year (halfway) through my nursing school, and it has still benefited me greatly. I work on a respiratory medical floor in a hospital with intermediate (step-down form ICU) beds so we get A LOT of really sick patients. I did more dressing changes over the summer working there than I have done my whole time in clinical! But not every floor allows their NA's to do dressing changes.
Our first clinical rotation was 6 weeks in a nursing home, learning how to do baths, vitals, ADL's, passing meds, assessments etc. And I know that a lot of the people with medical experience were definitely more comfortable with the patient care than others (such as me!) who had no experience. And you'll be doing plenty of patient care even after you get your nursing license anyway, so it's all good to know anyway.

I just moved here in CT 3 months ago, I live in the New Haven County area. I am planning to enroll next week at the Naugatuck VTCC, they have evening classes and it will take about 4 weeks to complete the program. Right now, I'm working in a retail store. Thank you so much for all the infos! Best of luck to you! Thanks again.

DarciaMoonz, LPN · Apr 4, 2007

CNA is the "jack of all trades" so to speak. As a nursing student, you are taught/will do beside care, more so with the LPN course than the RN. BUTTTTTTTTTTT, I have run into VERY few nurses who continue to do bathing, dressing, or even answering a call light after they receive licensure. I have been a CNA for 10 years, and it still pisses me off when we are working short, and the nurse are at the desk discussing what was on T.V. last night, when were busting our humps trying to answer lights, ambulate, dress, feed, etc. Not all nurses are like that, and I have vowed to never be that way. Now that I have seen both sides of the "fence", I know the frustations of trying to pass meds, do treatments, careplans as a nurse, and assist with ADL's, get people ready for appt's as a CNA. I just look at it this way... The time it takes to find a CNA, tell them that Mrs. X needs to be put on the bedpan, it could have done already, after you gave Mrs X her meds since you're (the nurse) in the room already. On a lighter note, it does help tremedously to become a CNA first, to get an understand of what they go through. Good luck:)

myres07 · Apr 4, 2007

CNA is the "jack of all trades" so to speak. As a nursing student, you are taught/will do beside care, more so with the LPN course than the RN. BUTTTTTTTTTTT, I have run into VERY few nurses who continue to do bathing, dressing, or even answering a call light after they receive licensure. I have been a CNA for 10 years, and it still pisses me off when we are working short, and the nurse are at the desk discussing what was on T.V. last night, when were busting our humps trying to answer lights, ambulate, dress, feed, etc. Not all nurses are like that, and I have vowed to never be that way. Now that I have seen both sides of the "fence", I know the frustations of trying to pass meds, do treatments, careplans as a nurse, and assist with ADL's, get people ready for appt's as a CNA. I just look at it this way... The time it takes to find a CNA, tell them that Mrs. X needs to be put on the bedpan, it could have done already, after you gave Mrs X her meds since you're (the nurse) in the room already. On a lighter note, it does help tremedously to become a CNA first, to get an understand of what they go through. Good luck:)

Thanks for your input. We started our clinicals 2 weeks ago and we were assigned to one of the Nursing Homes in Waterbury. I found it really hard for some CNA's because they have 30 patients and there's only 3 of them. That's a heck of a lot! And they only get what??? $11 -$13??? I think that's too little for the load of work that they have which sometimes made me discouraged to work as one of them when I finished school.