CMA/RPT about to start CNA program (on the road to RN)

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Hello all,

I am a CMA and an RPT with about 3 years of experience, for the last 1.5 years I had been working on my pre-reqs for nursing school but with COVID and working full time and just life, I began to get very anxious and decided to take a break from school (I began my break 12/2020). I was living in Nevada when all this was going on and then moved to Oregon on a whim for a temp job, and then to California. I've always wanted to make California my home and I really want to get my nursing license here because it is, I hear, one of the hardest states to get it in and if you can get it here then it's easier to transport to any other state; really, long term I would like to stay in California and truly call it home. 

 

From talking to my co-workers and doing my own research, I've recognized that many of the community colleges here do require having completed a CNA program and getting your CNA license. For a long long time I avoided the idea of becoming a CNA because I have heard how physically and emotionally exhausting it can be, but I also think it is a very valuable position and on the journey to becoming an RN it can be helpful in more ways than one.

 

My thinking is this: being that I am a single female that lives on her own and has to pay her own bills I can rock this CNA program, and once I get into an RN program I can continue to work as a CNA on NOC shift (either part time or full time) until I graduate and become an RN. Since I just moved to CA I have to live here a year at least before I can get in state tuition. So I think I'd continue working as an MA by day and work as a CNA part time, ideally only like 2 nights a week until I begin an RN program, then I'd have CNA experience on my resume and I'd be able to continue making the money that I need to live out here in California. 

My CNA program begins this weekend.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Words of wisdom? Anybody ever taken this path? I try to talk to as many nurses as I can at work and just see their perspective and their journey because it seems like in this uphill battle you really just have to do what works for you and everybody's situation is so different. I never thought I'd be where I am now but I am grateful and I am beginning to get very excited about the possibilities.

And if you have taken this route (MA to CNA to RN, or MA to CNA) what would you say was the hardest thing to adjust to? It seems like what MA's do and what CNA's do are like night and day in comparison.

Thank you ?❤️!