CNA while doing prereqs? Worth it?

[taurnxkd]

I was wondering if become a CNA while finishing my prereqs for nursing is worth it. I've been considering taking the summer course at my college, I'm just not entirely sure if its worth it. I feel it would be good to get some experience in a health care environment, but it seems like a pretty stressful job for very little pay on top of being a full time student. I live in Vegas where the average pay is around $12/hr, which doesn't entirely feel worth it considering I could easily find a less stressful job for more money. I know nursing is not easy but when you throw a stressful job onto the hours of classes and studying it feels like too much. The program at my school is $570 for tuition alone not including other expenses such as textbooks and requirements such as TB testing (around $100) and BLS certification which needs to be done on my own time by the fourth clinical. I also currently do not have health insurance which is an issue. I really wanted to start getting experience and a first hand feel for nursing but I feel the cons outweigh the pros. Any advice from anyone that is/was a CNA while in school?

[idkmybffjill]

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.

[PediatricMA]

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.