Becoming a CNA before starting school.

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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So if you're like me, you did not have the foggiest notion of what nursing would be like other than what you observed in hospitals and heard from friends before school. If you're like me you were terrified that you might not even like nursing and that you just wasted years of school. Too many times my friends who are CNA's gave me a nasty glare when I said that I didn't have my CNA and I didn't plan on getting it before school. They all badmouthed RN's who were never CNA's and acted like they did not deserve the same respect as RN's who were once CNA's. I know more than a handful of RN's who were never CNA's that are wonderful. Many pre-nursing students only get to hear the negative reasons as to why you should become a CNA before being an RN. I am here to tell you the good reason that no one mentioned to me as to why you should become a CNA before nursing school.

You need to give yourself the peace of knowing that you're going to like what you'll be doing for the rest of your life before you jump into something so important and specialized. If I had not obtained my CNA license before school, the nervousness of not knowing if I would even like nursing would have followed me until graduation. Having the chance to work side by side with RN's and ask them all of the questions I had been dying to have answered was crucial to my confidence in school. I also got to find out that I LOVE the basics of nursing. Caring for a patient is as special and rewarding as everyone says it is. If you relate at all to this post, I highly recommend that you find a CNA course in your area and take the opportunity. If you don't find yourself relating to this post, that is fine too! You are more confident than I am.

I became a CNA about two months ago and have been working as once since then. I work in a pretty large LTC facility and management is absolutely awful. I don't HATE my job, but I think I'd like it a lot better if I was at a better facility. I was also expecting to be able to figure it out if I wanted to be a nurse by becoming a CNA. IMO, working as a CNA does not prepare you enough for nursing. Sure, you know the basics of nursing, but CNA and nurse are such different roles. I think being a CNA makes you more comfortable for the RN role and patient communication, but that's about it. What they do are two completely different things, especially nurses at an LTC facility who usually do nothing to lift a finger when it comes to providing basic patient care (i.e toileting). I think if you work as a CNA before nursing school is great but if you want more of an accurate idea of what nursing is, shadow a nurse at a hospital. I don't love being a CNA, but becoming one made me want to become a nurse even more because being the toileting stooge is not my cup of tea. I'm not saying if I was nurse I'd never toilet people (I would definitely) but it gets a bit irritating when these bossy nurses are ordering me to toilet and change about half a dozen people's diapers at once.

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I did my CNA course for the school I was attending because it was required but my clinicals traumatized me because of the floor we were on. We worked on the Alzhemiers/dementia unit and I just felt so sad to see how the staff treated its residents. I did not enjoy going to that facility but I did learn a lot and I was confident that I was in the right field. After I finished my course and passed the boards, I had every intention of finding work as a CNA but then life happened. I started stacking classes on top of classes and then I had ran into medical problems. So my license expired but overall I'm happy I took the course because I gained so much knowledge from it. I do wish I could go back in time to find a CNA job but we can't. I'm positive nursing is for me and although nervous, I'm still excited to begin my journey, start nursing school and being able to write RN behind my name.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.

CNA work is *not* the same as working as a nurse. However, working as a CNA gave me insight and exposure to a variety of hospital settings-- from an acute care hospital to skilled nursing. This exposure did help me because I learned the type of nurse I both want to be and don't want to be.

Being a CNA helped me to become very proficient and efficient in providing basic patient care, which though can be delegated, is still the nurses responsibility. I wouldn't think twice about waiting 5 minutes for a CNA to come to assist a pt to the toilet, I can do it myself faster. And I've seen nurses do that.

Not all nursing schools teach basic patient care well. I recall a pt with a near fall, he slid halfway off the bed and the nurse and the aide were standing there not knowing what to do as the pt had soiled his brief and the ambulance was on its way due to a heart problem, I believe.

Even though I was a nurse and this wasn't my unit and I'd never met the pt before, I was able to show them how to safely reposition him and I changed his brief--while they basically watched. I was a darn good CNA, lol!

But no I don't believe being a CNA should be a prereq to becoming a nurse. We have enough prereqs as is.

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Specializes in ICU Stepdown.

I don't really want to become a CNA, purely because of what I have researched and heard. Although my current job has almost absolutely nothing to do with nursing, I feel like having a job before going into nursing school period is helpful. Work experience is almost more helpful for me than high school could have ever been. It seems to me like nursing is all about passion, work ethic, and helping others. Are any of those covered in high school? Haha, but anyway, I would not want to be a working CNA unless it is in a hospital or physician's practice, which would be nearly impossible without having experience and it seems the only way to gain experience being a CNA is to work in a LTC facility. I do appreciate your post, however. Individuals have different paths.

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I am applying to the spring nursing program at my school and have decided to get my CNA certification while I wait to see if I get accepted. I would like to get some experience with patient care and (like you) I want to make sure that I can hack being a nurse. I am completely interested in medicine and love all the technical aspects but there are also things that gross me out and I need to feel confident that I'm making the right decision by becoming a nurse. Many people have told me that it is not worth the money to get my certification and the being a CNA is horrible but I feel like it is something that I have to do and that gaining the experience will lessen my anxiety.

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I am applying to the spring nursing program at my school and have decided to get my CNA certification while I wait to see if I get accepted. I would like to get some experience with patient care and (like you) I want to make sure that I can hack being a nurse. I am completely interested in medicine and love all the technical aspects but there are also things that gross me out and I need to feel confident that I'm making the right decision by becoming a nurse. Many people have told me that it is not worth the money to get my certification and the being a CNA is horrible but I feel like it is something that I have to do and that gaining the experience will lessen my anxiety.

One caution: You may come out of your CNA class discouraged because the desensitization process takes awhile.

I had many things that grossed me out, would make me gag, and had me vagal a few times. It took quite a while to get over it but I ultimately did.

Not much about CNA will tell you if you "can hack being a nurse."

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I understand what you mean and I agree with you. I still think that it would be a worthwhile experience.

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I understand what you mean and I agree with you. I still think that it would be a worthwhile experience.
Many would agree with you.

I speak only from the personal experience of doing a midlife transition into nursing, earning my CNA certification, working with CNAs for a year as a med-surg nurse, and then moving into the ED.

Very many nurses on this site would encourage you to follow through with your plan; I offer my dissenting view to provide another perspective.

I would caution you against making a determination of whether or not you "can hack it as a nurse" based on your CNA experience. Just as nursing is not doctoring-light, CNA is not nursing-light.

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Wow. I am astonished at some of the statements I am reading here. While I fully believe everyone is absolutely entitled to their own opinion, I have to disagree with some of the comments here.

My healthcare career started out as an NA/Medication Aide in assisted living facilities while in RT school. After over a year I decided to make the switch to nursing because I found I loved the nursing field as a whole. After 3 years I made the switch to a patient care tech in a hospital on a VERY busy 40 bed med/surg floor averaging 10-12 patients a night, later moving to a larger facility and carrying 20+ patients a night with some less than helpful nurses. Essentially I was a CNA without the actual certification. I worked full time nights as a tech all through nursing school and I wouldnt trade the experience for anything. These experiences helped me fly through nursing school as I was several steps ahead of at least half the class. I remember our very first class lab, I just couldn't believe how many people had no idea how to take a blood pressure. Of course I wasn't judging them by any means, this had just been my life for so many years I was just initially shocked and then so grateful I was able to experience everything I had up to that point. Anyways, my final year of nursing school the nurses I worked with were great about letting me do different things such as dropping an NG tube, inserting rectal tubes and foleys, among other things. Blood draws were within a PCT's scope, but anyone with the "student nurse" status was also able to start IV's; and I just happened to be one of the best sticks on the floor.

Out of all of the things I was able to do before I was actually an RN, the absolute most valuable tool I grasped was time management. For any med/surg nurse out there you know this is SO important. For 20+ patients, Q4 vitals, blood sugars, I/O, meals, bathing, turning, blood draws, answering call lights, daily weights, admission, etc....ALL vital nursing care ESPECIALLY with so many facilities going to primary care nursing. Without proper time management skills, handling 5,6,7 patients as an RN is IMPOSSIBLE (granted, even with time management skills this is extremely difficult). New nurses I have precepted have labeled time management one of the top things they want to improve. As the RN, EVERYTHING that goes on with your patient on your shift is within your scope of practice (even just charting the MD was notified of something you can't handle directly) and goes under YOUR license, even basic nursing care.

No, being a CNA, patient care tech, unit secretary, etc. is not for everyone. But it certainly is invaluable in some way, shape, or form.

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Specializes in SCI and Traumatic Brain Injury.

Heathermaizy,

What people think of you now or after you become an R.N., is a totally invalid reason to work as a CNA.

You think you know what nursing school and being a nurse is about, because you did your "homework"

and had your "eyes wide open". That's like saying you know what riding a horse is like, without ever having actually been on a horse. (pardon the country analogy, y'all, I'm a Texan)

Nursing schools today barely scratch the surface of what it is like to be a nurse. It is like studying horses and sitting atop a horse, but never riding anyplace. No "homework" can prepare you for nuses training. And being a nurse is much more complicated than you imagine. The RESPONSIBILITY of being an R.N., is something you must experience to understand.. Being a CNA first, before nursing school is not essential. And once you are an R.N., nobody will care.

Working as a CNA is like taking a course your school cannot give you. It's called real-life health care 101. You will learn to do things and learn ABOUT things your teachers never thought to teach you.

I'm glad you are approaching your career with so much self-confidence. Just don't become over-confident. Overconfidence in a health care setting can be dangerous.

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Specializes in SCI and Traumatic Brain Injury.

Working as a CNA prepares you for one important aspect of nursing that should not be overlooked!

It involves supervising and teaching those for whom you are responsible (since they work under your license as an R.N.)

And that involves CNAs. When you are in charge, don't forget that feeling of being "the toileting stooge"

and having to "change about half a dozen people's diapers at once". The CNAs you supervise may well have the exact same feelings. And if they say, "OH, you don't understand what it's like", you can say, "yes, I do. I've been where you are. I worked as a CNA before becoming a nurse"

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