CNA Internship- Is this worth the money?

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My community college offers CNA classes. I'm going to take it and they also offer a cna internship program which is two months of internship after you take the cna classes and pass the certification. The internship is in a hospital and is non paid. It costs $300 to get into this internship. My husband thinks its ridiculous and tells me not to pay for that but just pay for the classes. I don't really know what to do. I think experience would be good in any job but i can't help but agree that they just made that so they can get more money and for hospitals to get someone to work for free for them. Has anyone ever done a CNA internship program? Are they worth the money or just a waste?

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Wait you pay them to work for free? Here in Texas they pay you to work. There should be lots of places that will hire a fresh graduate CNA. I was a CNA for ten years and never had a problem securing employment. You are a critical part of the interdisciplinary team and I would not pay for experience if you did all that was asked if you studied and passed your state exam you are ready for the work force.

GIID LUCK!!!

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This is may 1st today nor April 1st this has to be a joke right....

Yeah I know we get payed so little but I would not do this for free.

There are plenty of jobs out there that pay you for all the hard work CNAs do. What I'd like to know is what benefit do YOU get for giving them an extra $300 AND working for them for free. EXPERIANCE... you can get that AND be payed working in a LTC or home care even. CNA experiance is not worth an extra $300 and free laborIf this was an internship that secured a nursing job at the hospital after you graduate nursing school I can maybe understand it. But for CNA work?? COME ON

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Specializes in Hospice, Palliative Care.

Good day:

Passing the CNA exam shows you have the basic skill set to start off as a CNA. For me, it would be one thing to have an internship for a specific period of time where I'm not paid, and a completely different story if I have to pay any money to intern for free. The latter is a scam/rip off, the former would be ok.

Thank you.

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Specializes in mental health / psychiatic nursing.

I personally would not do it. I took my CNA class, did my clinicals, and started working before I had my license (legal in my state, need license with in 120 days of hire). Much of what you do as a CNA is dependent on the specific job and facility - it makes more sense to me to be trained on the job and be paid for being there than to pay for an internship that will provide you with skills that may or may not be as relevant to where you end up working.

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I would NOT pay to work as a CNA?! Why would you do this?!?!

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