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Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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I can't tell you how badly I wish I would have known this before I started Nursing School. Please if you want to become a RN, go get your CNA and work in the field for a while before enrolling in the program. If you have no medical background please take the time to get your feet wet before you jump in the deep end with no floaties. It is going to prepare you and really give you an advantage in the RN program. I just don't want anyone else to struggle like I am. It will be worth the time and your life will so much less stressful!!!!!

Being a CNA before Nursing School can help you feel more comfortable in a healthcare setting if you have no prior experience. The whole "touching and invading patients personal space" of healthcare is eased if you do CNA before nursing school. I'm doing my CNA classes right now. I believe it'll help me tremendously. I get to see how patients are treated according to their ailments and diseases.

As for all other posts saying "Heck no I would've never been a CNA before a nurse" PLEASE RELAX! NOT LIKE YOURE A DOCTOR. Get your feet back on the ground!!!!

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It certainly wouldn't hurt. For some, it's a task in itself just getting used to being that up close and personal with someone you just met.

and some R.N.'s dont get the concept of basic care, i.e. cleaning BM, dressing, bathing and feel as though they shouldn't have to do it. or when they do, they are constantly hitting the call button calling for a cna to help.

Sorry I would rather work retail or at my local car shop then do something healthcare related while in school.

Bottom line for many people it's not the best way to enter nursing and is in no way necessary. Also being a CNA beforehand can burn people out before they even get started.

I am in ns and a pct. the nurses on my floor know I am in school take the time and show me stuff I would never learn in school. Plus I work 12 hour shifts. In retail or other jobs I grab a couple hours here and there. I love my job now. Great networking and learning and the hours work great with school. But to each there own.

I certainly don't have the extra cash and time to waste on a CNA program when my main goal is to do my best in pre-reqs and get into a nursing school... I feel like it would burn me out before/during nursing school. But hey that's just me.

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For me I considered getting my CNA first, but it made little sense to me as it's an expensive, time consuming program and in the end CNAs around here only make $8-9/hr. I did want to see how squeamish I was though so I became a Direct Service Professional in an assisted living type of situation for mentally ill and disabled people.

I've done a lot of training and more than what a CNA gets. As a DSP, I pass meds and a CNA can't. I've done the care stuff and found I'm totally ok (all right not thrilled, but ok) with cleaning poop off the floor. And I didn't have to spend money to become it. I don't get hospital experience though so I'm looking into volunteering at the hospital a few hours a week.

I do have to get my CNA cert before nursing school starts for real, and I will and at that point I will most likely start working as a CNA. I feel it's unreasonable to say someone should be a CNA for a long time before even applying to nursing school though, especially if the rate of pay in your area is as low as mine. I looked into an accelerated program where your chances of getting in were very contingent on the amount of time spent working as a CNA.

Sorry, but I make more at the busy chain restaurant where I also work. I'm not really willing to give that up for a huge amount of time. We gotta pay for nursing school somehow too.

I can see why it's a requirement- you want to see if people do well in a hospital environment and can deal with gross stuff. I wish that comparable experience would be taken too though. IMO I have better experience from a combination of being a DSP and volunteering.

Depends on what specialty you are looking at for your end goal. My friend is currently in nursing school and I feel that her experience as a doula gives her the background of working personally with patients. I'm a doula and on the last bit of pre-reqs and am hoping the same experience in already working with clients will help me. I know all the anatomy and physiological background of birth has already helped me in many parts of A&P, plus being an older student with kids. I don't think CNA is the only option to get your feet wet.

Specializes in Psych/Mental Health.

It's not about the money or the tasks. The point of getting a CNA is to get used to the environment, dealing with nurses, talking to patients and families, handling the workload and timing, or even hearing the terminologies. There are so many things you won't learn from the textbooks and even clinical.

Doing this before you head into clinical can be beneficial because you are already so familiar with the environment, and you can just focus on learning the skills rather than worrying about how to talk to the patients or the preceptors. This is why CNA is an approved direct-care experience for PA students and some nursing schools require it.

It's not about the money or the tasks. The point of getting a CNA is to get used to the environment, dealing with nurses, talking to patients and families, handling the workload and timing, or even hearing the terminologies. There are so many things you won't learn from the textbooks and even clinical.

Doing this before you head into clinical can be beneficial because you are already so familiar with the environment, and you can just focus on learning the skills rather than worrying about how to talk to the patients or the preceptors. This is why CNA is an approved direct-care experience for PA students and some nursing schools require it.

Uhh I have never seen a PA school that looks favorably on CNA in particular most PAs I know were exclusively EMTs or medics in the military at one point but never have I seen CNA to PA. I mean I'm sure it's happened but its far less common.

nice advice however at $12-14/hour not everyone can afford to do that. Part of the acceptance into our program required us to have CNA (licensure/status whatever the term is) but there's no way I could afford a steep paycut

what are you struggling with exactly that you could have only found by being a CNA?

Specializes in Hospice.

At my NS you can take your CNA exam after your first semester. I think I will do it, but not because I want to be a CNA. Because I want to network.

I wouldn't necessarily say you "have" to get your CNA before going to nursing school but, it will certaintly be beneficial. I got my LPN and worked four years before going for my RN and from my experience, I was sooooo thankful that I had previous experience. You do not get adequate training in nursing school to be fully competent to come out of school and be given such huge responsibility. That is my opinion. When I began working as an LPN, I started on a Med-Surg unit at a somewhat small hospital. I went in confidant that I knew what I was doing and I got one hell of a rude awakening...It takes time and "work" experience to develop the critical thinking skills that you are required to have as a licensed nurse. I am not downing anyone that had no previous experience...maybe I wasn't as strong as some people but I was a very good student in LPN school, I won several clinical skill challenges at the state level and at the end of the year, was voted by the instructors to have the best clinical notebook and demonstrated the best clinical skills in class. I also was very proactive during clinicals and was competitive about getting as much experience I could and I was stunned at what I didnt know when I went to work. It was very scary for me. I have also worked with many new grad RN's that had no previous experience and they were in the same situation I was in when I was new. One of them came to me as my supervisor flipping out because she didn't know how to set up O2 tubing for her new admit...She was a new grad RN, BSN. The most nursing practice you receive in clinicals tends to be in fundamentals..beds, baths etc. They don't call nursing students "glorified aid's" for nothing. You get your basic's in school and learn how to pass boards and perform things like injections and foley's, but the thinking and decision making can only come with experience. That is my opinion. If anyone has the opportunity to get some experience before nursing school, my advice is to pursue it and make sure it is even the right field for you. Nursing truly isn't for everyone!! And we definitely are not paid nearly what we deserve for the services we render and the **** we have to go through and deal with. :)

Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.

Personally, I think most people are probably better off waiting until they can work as externs/student nurses. (I think we could half way through the first semester of nursing school?) Most of these positions are hospital positions which are the jobs that most new grads want. Much better way of networking; there was a direct correlation between extern/UAP work as a student nurse in a hospital and receiving a new grad RN position in said hospital at my school although I can understand that may not be the case everywhere.

And -shameface- ADLs do not come naturally to some people. I did NOT have any extern/UAP experience prior to working on my unit. Having a very poor grasp of "simple" things like cleaning up a patient, changing a patient while the patient was in a bed, etc. definitely hindered my ability to do my nursing job as a new grad. Even now, two years later, I am still slow(er) with many simple ADLs and get frustration and poop everywhere when it comes to cleaning up blowouts, etc.

I worked as a NA before nursing school and in my state, we can take the state test for CNA at the end of first semester, I worked in a small rural ER and learned a ton I wouldn't have if I hadn't been a nurse aid prior to/during nursing school, plus I got a job right out of nursing school for the same facility. I enjoyed working as a nurse aid because the nurses I worked with were/are a fantastic team and great teachers. They were the best "hands on" teachers of experience.

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