About to start nursing school, considering CNA training. Some advice, please!

[whealer]

Hi there! I'm excited because in a few weeks I start nursing school. I have pre reqs this semester and my school sprinkles them in with nursing courses. Looking ahead I know it will be difficult but I'm ready! Anywho I have nothing but pre reqs this semester. I only have 3 classes 2 days per week (AP 1, AP lab, and dev. Psych) I work at doctors office, which I'm able to do Thu-Sun. I don't want to be there. Although it pays well and I'm surrounded by RNs, it's a general practitioners office and doesn't really expose me to the bedside care of nursing. I'm also an admin asst, which is boring and kills my brain cells. I try and learn what I can from the RNs, medical billing, etc., but again as I'm learning more and more I really need to be immersed in the nursing culture to truly understand it.

So im considering the prospects of CNA.

IRed cross doesn't have any training programs in my area. Manhattan Institute seems too good to be true and too expensive to risk a mediocre (at best) education. The medical trainng center in flushing received honest reviews on this forum and is financially doable. However, I may try my hand at the Isabella Geriatric Ctr in manhattan since its free and hires its students.

My questions are the following...

1. Has anyone tried CNA training at Isabella? If so, what was your experience like? If you know of someone that trained and/or worked there, then that's helpful too!

2. Is the CNA truly necessary since I'm in nursing school now? According to my school schedule, I could be starting nursing fundamentals next semester (in Jan) and on the forum I heard that once you have that under your belt you may not need training... Can someone clarify?

Thank you!

[mintygirl]

At best I usually tell the students I train that its great to get some CNA experience under your belt, if nothing else at least 6 months. It helps you learn how to manage your time, pt time plus exposure and you get to see how Lvn's/rn's typically act. It's not easy though depending on the facility you work at, often times the first couple of months are extremely difficult to adjust to.

I don't live in your area so I can't speak or attest to those specifically but I figured some answers were better than no answers. I'm assuming you work as a medical assist in the office if you are learning medical coding and billing? You won't necessarily require bedside nursing care if you're a student now, depending on what sort of program you're taking because during clinical is where you might receive that.

[whealer]

Hi. Thank you for your response! I work in NYC and will be moving there from long island in the fall. I believe we start clinicals either in the second or third semester. They dont really require learning bedside care, especially since we'll learn that soon. I personally want to get as much exp as i can and build relaionships that might lead to opportunities in nursing down the road. As for work, they don't call us medical assts but we do help patients with authorizations, referrals, interpreting EOBs, and filing claim appeals. That said we don't do ECG or draw blood, we have phlebs who are responsible for that.