CNA nursing students.........

i work in a nursing home. my guess is no matter where you work, you start to feel a little burnt out. this semester i decided to only work fridays, and every other weekend. my main reason was because our clinicals is on thursday and fridays. after being at the hospital for 6 hours, my body started to feel worn out when i got to work on thursdays.

I just finished my first semester at OCCC's nursing program and I decided to take a job as an aide to gain experience and help with future semesters...I would NEVER take a job in a nursing home, I've been there and done that ten years ago and I can tell you that there is a very low ratio of nurses to aides to learn very much from. I work at Baptist as an OPT employee, I don't get benefits but I do get to state how much or how little I can work. I've found the hospital experience to be very helpful. It's not fun work or well paid, but it can be very rewarding and I think it will really pay off next semester. Hope this helps.

It's good to know about the nursing home thing. It's not that I don't care for the elderly, but I want to be in a learning enviroment as well. If there are not as many nurses around willing to help me learn as I go, I probably won't benefit as much as if I were in the hospital working. I too only want to work a couple of shifts a week at the most and I have no experience as a CNA. ( I will finish the CNA class end of June.) So, I hope that won't be a problem with getting hired somewhere.

Kim

I work as a CNA in a hospital. I only work 4 shifts per month during school. I have found it very helpful with school. It helps you get used to dealing with very sick patients and their families. It also helps with dealing with all types of different personalities (staff and patients). It will also allow you to see how hectic of a job nursing can be. You learn a lot of very basic care as a CNA but if you keep your eyes and ears open you can pick up on knowledge that will help with school. On my floor there are some nurses who will let me observe certain procedures and most don't mind you asking questions. Unfortunately as a CNA you are sometimes so busy that you have all you can do to get your own duties accomplished. I would say to definitely go for it. It is a great experience. I would recommend working in a hospital over a nursing home for students. Some hospitals will hire nursing students without experience. This is how I got my job. Good luck to you!!!

I worked as an aide at St John while in school and I've got to tell ya - it made me soooo much more comfortable in clinicals. First I felt more comfortable in my basic skills, but I also had better knowledge of how hospitals worked, patient care, therapeutic communication, IV pumps, had access to people to answer questions for me, etc. I asked a lot of "why are you doing that" kinds of things. I've seen a lot of nursing students get on the floor during clinicals and are asked to do a bath and they end up going to the aide to have them show them how to give a bath. Not cool, and not impressive. But it is better to ask than to do something you don't know how!

On my floor we have aides who are nursing students who only work a few shifts a week. You might need to work more during orientation just to get the hang of it but then you can cut down. We'd love to have you!

Lana: Thanks, thanks, thanks for the advice. You have always been helpful in the short time that I have been a member. I will finish my CNA class at Interim the last week of this month and then I'm ready to go. I'll have the entire month of July and a few weeks in Aug. to get settled into a job before RN school starts. I do want to get comfortable in the hospital setting before clinicals- it makes perfect sense and will teach me along the way. About how long is the "orientation" period for the CNA positions?

Kim

Orientation usually lasts a couple of weeks, depending on the floor and how many hours you're able to work during the orientation. If I were you, I would apply for jobs even before you take the certification test, maybe even close to the end of class. Also, I took my application in person instead of doing it online and have talked to others who seem to get better results that way. This gives the receptionist a chance to "judge" you while you're there. (On my application she'd written a note "very pleasant, nicely dressed!") LOL. You can also go ahead and take the CNA test while you're there (PM me if you want to know about it). When I applied I thought it was just a matter of getting hired and then I could start the next week - that's not how it works! I applied, got a call for an interview 2 days later, had the interview 3 days later, found out 2 days later I had the job and then waited for almost a week to get in with employee health to get my physical. If you've already had 1 TB test (which you probably have for CNA) then you can go ahead and start work while waiting on the 2nd one. But there's also the hospital orientation and CNA orientation that they have to schedule for (which is usually done after you've already started.) What I'm trying to say is apply EARLY!!!!!