DCCC or GTCC - Any suggestions on CNA training?

NurseNotRatched, ADN, BSN, CNA · Aug 21, 2009

i live in high point, nc. could anybody suggest which cna training course i should go though? ftcc is out but i was thinking about davidson county community college or guilford technical community college. any suggestions or comments?
also, what can i expect to make as a beginning cna in the triad area?

thank you!

i live in greensboro. i couldn't recommend either gtcc or dccc because i didn't go through either. i tried to take the nurse aide course through gtcc, but when i got there early in the morning to register, there were already 300+ people ahead of me for 92 spots. i ended up going through a home health agency and i felt like i got everything i needed and passed my exam the first time. as far as compensation goes... i hear it's between $9-$10 per hour. i work at an assisted living facility and they offered me $10.94, but that's prn pay. if i worked with any kind of consistency of a full-time/part time schedule, it would probably be at least a dollar less. but if i work overnights, there is a one dollar shift differential. good luck deciding which course you'll take! :up:

Green1972 · Aug 21, 2009

Thank you Mommy2minime for responding to my posting. Wow. . 300 people waiting in line at GTCC!

Would you mind if I ask which home health agency you went through? I probably want to go the community college route but still want to make sure I know all my options. I heard that if home health agencies train you that you have to work for them a certain amount of time.

Does PRN mean as needed in that you have to work whatever shift they need you?

Thank you!

NurseNotRatched, ADN, BSN, CNA · Aug 21, 2009

thank you mommy2minime for responding to my posting. wow. . 300 people waiting in line at gtcc!
would you mind if i ask which home health agency you went through? i probably want to go the community college route but still want to make sure i know all my options. i heard that if home health agencies train you that you have to work for them a certain amount of time.
does prn mean as needed in that you have to work whatever shift they need you?
thank you!

the agency is called caring hands home health, inc. i didn't have to work for them for any amount of time because i paid for my training. they have 2 locations; one in greensboro and one in high point. i guess at some places you would have to work for them if they provided the training at no cost. the course was 4 weeks long (2 class/2 clinical) and taught by an rn. i took the evening classes from 4pm-9pm m-th, and off fridays. they also had a day class from 9am-2pm. it was $349 which included the textbook. other expenses i had to pay out of pocket were: set of white scrubs for clinical, bp cuff and stethoscope, white shoes, and tb skin test. the instructor was great. i thought she was thorough and really down to earth. in clinicals, we partnered up and she made sure that we got to practice every skill we would need to know. i thought the class was worth the cost since i was finished in a month. a community college course would have been from 3-4 months. and i felt really comfortable w/ my training. in fact, the reason i got the job is b/c the resident services director who interviewed me reviewed my resume and she happened to know the nurse who started caring hands. she was like, "well then, i know you've been trained well."

one thing i will say though is that you have to be very careful if you plan on furthering your education. as you probably now, a lot of nursing programs now require you to be a cna as a prerequisite. some of them, however, require that your training comes from a nc approved na program. this program is not approved. it has the approved required classroom and clinical hours, but is not officially on the list of approved nurse aide training programs. so, when filling out the application for the state exam, they asked where you received your training. we had to fill in that we were "challenging" the test even though we had the same training as a person in a community college course would have. the instructor did say that they were working on have their program state approved in the near future.... i also read somewhere that perhaps next year, you will not be able to "challenge" the test and will have to take an approved course. for now, forsyth tech does not require that their adn candidates have their cna from an approved course b/c one of my classmates just got in their nursing program. rockingham doesn't either, but gtcc does.

and yes, prn means as needed. but it seems like they call me just about every day!! lol they have offered me a full time job as well as a part time job, but i'm back in school now trying to get into an lpn program so i have a weird schedule.

Green1972 · Aug 21, 2009

Thank you SO much Mommy2minime for that information.

Good luck with the LPN program by the way! You will make an excellent LPN I am sure!

NCTyphoon · Aug 21, 2009

I took my CNA1 training at Randolph Community College 's Archdale Campus. I had an excellent teacher, who was a retired MSN. She made sure we knew what we needed to know to pass the state exams. I finished class in late June, took my state tests this week, and had no problem passing at a test site that is known to be very "by the book" strict. I have heard good things about DCCC's classes, but they seem to be always booked up. Good luck!

Green1972 · Aug 22, 2009

thank you very much nctyphoon for responding to my posting! i am leaning towards dccc so it is nice to know you have heard good things about them! :typing

thanks!

ItsTheDude · Aug 23, 2009

$10 avg for a cna, give or take.

Green1972 · Aug 24, 2009

Thank you very much ItsTheDude for responding to that part of my question! That is not as bad as I thought it would be. :yeah: