CNA while doing prereqs? Worth it?

If you can find a higher paying job in healthcare, I say go for that instead. I personally wouldn't spend a bunch of time and money for a cert that gets me a job that pays less money than what I could have gotten without it. Because while I do think that working as a cna helps you become better at personal care, mechanical lifts, etc, which can help later on, I don't know if that benefit outweighs the cons. Especially since other healthcare jobs can give you experience in other skills that may help in nursing.

I'm currently working as a cna so I can get more comfortable with transferring and a higher level of patient care than I did before (as well as being able to do it prn when I start nursing school in the summer). I was able to challenge the test in my state so I didn't have to go to a cna program. Just pass the exams. But my healthcare experience as "patient technician" and the shift supervisor at a mental health facility definitely helped me more in my nursing school interview than my cna job. So if you can find a job that has a higher level of responsibilities, then I think you can get some benefit out of it without the additional cost.

Tho I should mention my mental health job was way more stressful than this cna job. The cna job is a lot of time management but frankly not really stressful to me.

Have you looked at working at a hospital system? most will have tuition reimbursement while you are getting experience and your foot in the door with a possible career down the line.