Breaking Back into the Workforce!

Sissy05 · Aug 22, 2005

I have my CNA certification, but I have been dragging my feet and making excuses for not applying for jobs. I decided to finish out my summer term. Now it is over and I realize that I am just intimidated by trying to get back into the workforce. I have been a stay home mom since my oldest was a year old. She is almost 9, so that is 8 years out of the workforce. I'm afraid nobody will give my resume a second look. I also took Biomedical terminology in the spring, while I was taking the CNA course, to beef up my resume.
What should I put to cover the gap? Should I emphasize my educational goals and my recent CNA cert before my employment history? Should I put something like "Stay home mom" under employment? Should I count the 6 months that I babysat my neice full time?
I am hoping that the fact that I am pre-nursing will provoke employers to give me a shot in hopes that i will stick around when I am a nurse. How can I play up my current strengths?

Just wanted to let you know that being a homemaker is a respectable job in itself. Most employers will ask what your qualifications are and you just put your CNA experience and let them know you just finished school. As a nurse, I enjoy working with new CNA like yourself because I know things are done the way you have learned to do them. Hey I stayed home this summer with the kids and my hats are off to you. I'm ready to go to work. :lol2: Good luck.

Fun2, BSN, RN · Aug 23, 2005

I would put your recent education first.

As far as employment, of course you need to account for the gap. You could put homemaker, or child care.

I think that the fact that you are a pre-nursing student, you are a CNA, and took the terminology course shows you are indeed interested in the medical field. I'm not sure why someone would not look at your resumé. I think many in the medical field leave, raise a family, then go back to work.

Good luck ! :)

MKFaizi · Aug 23, 2005

I have no doubt that being a home mom is a good reason for a gap in employment.

Your recent schooling is an asset. There is no reason that you will not make an excellent CNA. I have worked with many, many excellent CNAs over the years.

Being a CNA is hard work but essential in a hospital or nursing home. You are responsible for the patient's comfort. You bathe and turn and change patients.

The most heartbreaking thing to me is to see good CNAs quit because they can't take the pressure. I never blamed them for quitting. I just hated to see the good ones go because patients needed them so badly -- the kind, intelligent, efficient ones.

Again, I wonder about these divisions in nursing.

I respect education. But how is one level valued over another when turning, bathing, and changing is just as important as starting an IV? What good is giving medication when a patient gets a bedsore the size of a fist?

To be utterly fair, my mother had excellent care on ICU a few years back. She had a red place on her sacrum and I witnessed a RN and CNA turning her to apply miracle cream. With her ruptured esophagus, the decisions of multiple doctors and surgeons were important but it was nursing that pulled her through.

Marsha Faizi

Micci · Aug 23, 2005

I have no doubt that being a home mom is a good reason for a gap in employment.
Your recent schooling is an asset. There is no reason that you will not make an excellent CNA. I have worked with many, many excellent CNAs over the years.
Being a CNA is hard work but essential in a hospital or nursing home. You are responsible for the patient's comfort. You bathe and turn and change patients.

:) I know I will do good as a CNA. I am a hard worker. From 18-22 I worked with developmentally disabled adults. I was in charge of alot of things. For awhile I managed a group home and later a day program. I cleaned up the poopy messes, dealt with medical issues and even handed out meds (I was med certified). Later I left and was a secretary for a few years. Being at home hasn't been a piece of cake either. My oldest is autistic and she was very high maintenance when she was younger.

I know if someone give me a chance, I will not let them down. My work ethic is very high and I bust my hiney when I am working. I just hope that someone takes note of my resume and gives me an opportunity to prove myself.