Has anyone heard of something like this before?? Input please!!

Nurses General Nursing

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hi! i have been wanting to get my cna certification for when i go to nursing school next year. some of the nursing programs require that you have your certification before you can apply. i called around a while back, and the best thing i could find is through my community college which is 1 semester long, (night classed and saturday clinical.) i have to spend the next few semesters taking some pre reqs for school, and i have small children...so that would be kind of hard for me right now. anyway, i was looking in the classifieds in my local paper today, and i found an ad for a cna class tought by an rn who claims to have 15 years experience. i think she said her and another lady do it together, and i believe they own some kind of home care business?? it costs the same as the price at my community college, but it would only take 2 days! according to her, their class promotes a 98% pass rate. i really don't feel like i even need to take a class, because i was in nursing school many years ago,(i did not finish though) and i don't feel like it would be hard for me. however, from what i gathered when i called around, i could not just take the test without having a class. so, this sounds rather appealing to me, but i would sure hate to be out 200$ if this lady is not legit. what would you do??? how can i find out if this is ok?? i would sooo rather only have class for 2 days instead of a whole semester! anyone heard of something like this before?? thanks!

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Specializes in Oncology/hematology.

I don't know how credible it is, but, if it were me, I'd run away. My CNA class was a total of 24 hours per week for 5 weeks. I learned a lot. I can't imagine an accredited program that only has 2 days. I had to have 5 days of clinicals in my state. Hopefully, someone can come on here that might know for sure.

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Thanks so much for your reply. I think I will pass on it, lol! I called my local cc, and the lady there said that you can "challenge" and take the exam with out the classes...I think I would rather go that route and fail, before I would pay 200$ to someone else for 2 days! ha! I will prob just wait and take the classes through my college at a later date. I was just curious to know if anyone had ever heard of anything like this!

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It doesn't sound legit. But you could call the BON to find out, or sometimes the BON will have a list of approved programs on their site.

A semester-long CNA course also doesn't sound necessary. You can complete a CNA course in 4 weeks. Have you checked into the Vo-tech schools?

I think the best place to start would be the BON website.

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For my school, you have to submit documentation that you completed a certain number of classroom hours and clinical hours in your CNA course (I can't remember the exact number....something like 127 hours?). They make it very clear that being on the state's registry DOES NOT qualify the requirement. I know a few students who started looking into those "one day CNA" courses and then found out they wouldn't be accepted. Luckily, my school offers a CNA course so I took it there. Good luck!

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Thanks everyone! Christi M, I totally would not have even thought about that!! Thanks so much! The CC of choice does not require Cna cert, but my back up school does, and I really haven't looked into it much. I would have prob wasted my money if you hadn't told me that! I think I will hold off until later and give it a go through my community college. Thanks again:)

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In Florida, you can take the test without having gone thru any course. However, if you fail the first time around, you are required to spend so many hours in a 'classroom' setting before you can retest. A semester long course probably wouldn't be neccesary, considering you have been thru part of nursing school before. You might want to check with your state BON, see what the legal requirements are in your state, and then go from there. Best of luck!

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Having been a CNA test giver (!) I would caution you to make sure you know what you will be tested on. When you do the skills lab there are "critical elements" you must do and in some cases in the correct order or you won't pass. Check to see what organization does the testing in your state for guidlines.

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