Can anyone help with some supplies for my CNA program?

KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN · Mar 8, 2009

I haven't gotten scrubs from Tafford's yet but my mom orders from them all the time & she loves the place so I guess they're pretty good :) Also a dual-head steth is just a steth that has one side for adult patients & the other for pediatric patients. I got mine for $14.99 & its pretty good.

sonomala · Mar 8, 2009

Scrubs for clinicals don't really matter, any brand thats in the color you need and you should be fine. Later depending on where you work, you can choose scrubs for quality, colors ect. I didn't have to have a gait belt or stethoscope for mine, we didn't use them that much. For steth stuff we always had to use the dual earpiece one so the instr could make sure we had the right numbers. I also don't get the gait belt thing, if we needed on in clinicals or on the job we went to rehab where there are tons. Good luck :)

KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN · Mar 8, 2009

Yea I agree about the gait belt. When we were at clinicals we didn't even use them. But we did use our steth's & watches so I think that those are the two most important ones to have. We were responsible for buying a BP cuff but when we were at clinicals we didn't use it either.

yousoldtheworld · Mar 8, 2009

Tafford are very good quality for the price. Their customer service is great and they ship FAST, so I'd definitely recommend them.

I had to have royal blue pants for my first CNA job and I always had a hard time finding them. The best two brands I found were Dickies and Tafford. For your clinicals, a cheaper steth will be just fine.

sonomala · Mar 8, 2009

Oh watch I forgot, I need mine everyday for resp, pulse ect. Any good watch will do but I used to lend mine out and because it was a bright color no one could read it.

Nina2bRN · Mar 9, 2009

Thanks everyone for the great information! I'll try Taffords and I'll probably end up getting the stethoscope there also. Is it true that in the state of Indiana (for those of you that are in indiana) that we don't really do vitals? or did I read that wrong? I thought I read somewhere that Indiana doesn't have CNA's do vitals that often..but like I said maybe I read that wrong. Also I wonder why I need to purchase a gait belt instead of a bp cuff? sounds kinda weird.

yousoldtheworld · Mar 11, 2009

Thanks everyone for the great information! I'll try Taffords and I'll probably end up getting the stethoscope there also. Is it true that in the state of Indiana (for those of you that are in indiana) that we don't really do vitals? or did I read that wrong? I thought I read somewhere that Indiana doesn't have CNA's do vitals that often..but like I said maybe I read that wrong. Also I wonder why I need to purchase a gait belt instead of a bp cuff? sounds kinda weird.

I am in Indiana. Most nursing homes do not have aides take vitals. In LTC around here, that is supposed to be the nurses' duty, though you might occasionally have a busy nurse who asks you to run down and get a set of vitals on someone. You'll definitely still learn how to do vital signs in your class but you might not do them much in real life. And, in LTC, most residents don't require having their vitals taken daily, most who do get checked only get it done once a week or once a month.

However, when I worked at the hospital (in Muncie), aides took vital signs of each of their patients at the beginning of every shift.

I didn't have to buy a gait belt or a bp cuff. Everyplace I've worked around here has provided the gait belts for us, but I guess it will be nice for you to have your own. As for the bp cuff, I took my class at miller's merry manor and they just had us practice on the testing cuff and steth since at that facility, we'd never be taking vitals anyway. :)