CNA or not?

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I am considering changing my career and going back to nursing. I am still young having graduated with my BBA in Mgmt and IT. I am thinking about taking a CNA course and wonder if that would be beneficial? I guess I woudl have to quit my job and take a pay cut but would you suggest this or should I just begin pre reqs and try to get my RN as a nurse?

CNA courses are usually 4 months right? If Im not mistaking, CNAs make only $10? That is low pay

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I do recommend becoming a CNA first to give you an idea of the field.. and it will definately help with nursing courses later on. I put myself through school working as a CNA. I wouldn't go through a CNA course that you pay for though. There are many facilities (the majority of them long term care facilities) that will train you and give you your CNA certification while paying you for your time, some don't even require a contract for you to work with them (although it is certainly expected.) My facility trains and certifies CNAs without a contract, and the classes are only two weeks (I think.) Check into that before you sign up for a course that you pay for!

Lori

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I am currently in my first semester of an RN program and I wish I had done a CNA course while I was waiting to get into the program. The CNA programs here are only 6 weeks long or less? They are offered by the long term facilities (in California). My current instructor was an IT major and an RN and had a great career with combining both in the hospital IT programs.

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Thanks for your posts..So why did your instructor leave IT? The thing is I am wondering if CNA pay would be enough to pay for school/rent

I am strongly considering CNA. I just was under the impression that to become a CNA it took a semester.

How much was your CNA pay? Thanks!

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I'm in Southeast Alabama, a pretty rural area so our pay scale is a lot less than in an urban area. Our "preCNAs" are paid $6.25/hr, then after certification they are paid $6.75. I know, it's awful compared to most places. However, once you have been in school and taken (and passed) MedSurg I, then you can be hired as a "Nurse Technician" and make the same as an LPN until you graduate with your RN.

Lori

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whoa thats very low pay..i dont know if I could have certain tasks like changing diapers/feces or any of those things..but I guess CNA would allow me to see if I want to do this or not

I have alot of thinking

$6.25 an hr would definitely be a HUGE paycut

What part of AL are you in

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I'm in southeastern Alabama... Ozark area. Of course, if you were in Birmingham you would probably make closer to $10 (maybe more, I dunno) but around here, wages are very low. We do pay more for experience, and some of our CNAs who have been in the profession for a long time make more than $10 an hour.

Lori

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alot also depends on the local where you live, I live in southeast PA (suburbs of Philly) & our CNA's make $12/hr to start, that's what I heard from some I work w/. Even a few months of working as a CNA will give you a good impression of what nursing does entail. Be a sponge & take in as much as you can, you should soon realize if nursing is the caeer for you to pursue!

good luck:wink2:

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

nurseguy_2005. . .Rather than quitting your job let me suggest another approach to you since you are wondering if being a CNA would be helpful. Talk with the activities director at some local nursing homes and see if you can come in to help as a volunteer for some activities during the weekends. I'm assuming that you have weekends off of your regular job. Get into some of these nursing homes to help out as a volunteer and you will get a very good eyeful of what CNAs do. Several nursing homes I worked in had volunteers who came in to help feed patients during meals. During activities the volunteers do things like wheel the patients to and from their rooms and help the patients in other little ways during little activity programs that they have. It would only take a hour or two of your time. If you are a member of a church ask the minister or ask around as to who might have a relative in a nursing home. Find a reason to visit some of these places and then just sit and watch what goes on. My neice has been working as an activities aide in a local nursing home and often comes to me with questions about some of the things she sees the nursing staff doing.

Let me also clarify something about nursing for you. Basic nursing care is done by all levels of nurses from CNAs on up to BSNs and beyond as well. As your level of nursing education increases your actual time involved in doing very basic nursing with patients decreases (now this is only a generalization). Having a college degree in nursing puts you into the position of have to make more complicated patient care management decisions and the college background is required for that. Do not get sucked into the mentality of many who think that an RN has to dig in and do the basic nursing care alongside the CNAs all the time. That is not true and those nursing aides who feel their licensed nurses need to be pitching in and helping them out all the time are suffering from blue collar mentality. Hospitals and facilities who hire RNs need them for their decision making and problem solving skills. While an RN for many reasons will want to participate in the basic nursing care of patients at certain times, it is not usually a top priority. Basic nursing care is often delegated out to CNAs and LPNs so the RNs have time to do other higher level functions that are required of them. You can go to RN school without ever having been a CNA or worked in nursing before. I did. You will learn everything you need to know in your RN nursing school. The first semester of ADN programs and the Basic nursing classes of the BSN programs are where you learn what CNAs learn. Do some investigation about the role of RNs. There are many anectdotal books out there and articles. There are several professional nursing journals that you should look through to get an idea of what professional nursing is and what kind of things RN talk about professionally (Nursing 2005, RN Managazine, American Journal of Nursing). You will see very quickly that it is beyond the level of a CNA. After that, then make a decision as to whether to quit your job and take a CNA position. If you are hell bent on experiencing what it is like to be a CNA first look for evening or weekend classes that will permit you to learn the role, but still keep your day job. Once a CNA you can also work part time and still keep your day job since CNAs are always in demand. Since you already have a BBA I doubt that you will be very happy at a CNA level of nursing. The nature of your education already tells me you are accustomed to doing some independent thinking. You will be much happier in an RN or BSN program if you decide that you truly want to get into nursing.

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nurseguy_2005. . .Rather than quitting your job let me suggest another approach to you since you are wondering if being a CNA would be helpful. Talk with the activities director at some local nursing homes and see if you can come in to help as a volunteer for some activities during the weekends. I'm assuming that you have weekends off of your regular job. Get into some of these nursing homes to help out as a volunteer and you will get a very good eyeful of what CNAs do. Several nursing homes I worked in had volunteers who came in to help feed patients during meals. During activities the volunteers do things like wheel the patients to and from their rooms and help the patients in other little ways during little activity programs that they have. It would only take a hour or two of your time. If you are a member of a church ask the minister or ask around as to who might have a relative in a nursing home. Find a reason to visit some of these places and then just sit and watch what goes on. My neice has been working as an activities aide in a local nursing home and often comes to me with questions about some of the things she sees the nursing staff doing.

Let me also clarify something about nursing for you. Basic nursing care is done by all levels of nurses from CNAs on up to BSNs and beyond as well. As your level of nursing education increases your actual time involved in doing very basic nursing with patients decreases (now this is only a generalization). Having a college degree in nursing puts you into the position of have to make more complicated patient care management decisions and the college background is required for that. Do not get sucked into the mentality of many who think that an RN has to dig in and do the basic nursing care alongside the CNAs all the time. That is not true and those nursing aides who feel their licensed nurses need to be pitching in and helping them out all the time are suffering from blue collar mentality. Hospitals and facilities who hire RNs need them for their decision making and problem solving skills. While an RN for many reasons will want to participate in the basic nursing care of patients at certain times, it is not usually a top priority. Basic nursing care is often delegated out to CNAs and LPNs so the RNs have time to do other higher level functions that are required of them. You can go to RN school without ever having been a CNA or worked in nursing before. I did. You will learn everything you need to know in your RN nursing school. The first semester of ADN programs and the Basic nursing classes of the BSN programs are where you learn what CNAs learn. Do some investigation about the role of RNs. There are many anectdotal books out there and articles. There are several professional nursing journals that you should look through to get an idea of what professional nursing is and what kind of things RN talk about professionally (Nursing 2005, RN Managazine, American Journal of Nursing). You will see very quickly that it is beyond the level of a CNA. After that, then make a decision as to whether to quit your job and take a CNA position. If you are hell bent on experiencing what it is like to be a CNA first look for evening or weekend classes that will permit you to learn the role, but still keep your day job. Once a CNA you can also work part time and still keep your day job since CNAs are always in demand. Since you already have a BBA I doubt that you will be very happy at a CNA level of nursing. The nature of your education already tells me you are accustomed to doing some independent thinking. You will be much happier in an RN or BSN program if you decide that you truly want to get into nursing.

I whole-heartedly agree with the above post.

Your current job affords you more financial security and I would continue with that.

Nursing was my second career, I did not take a CNA course and become a CNA and I don't feel I lost anything.

Daytonite is right - you learn the CNA basic patient care stuff right off the bat in nursing school. If you remember to always be a team player when you become a nurse and work with your LVN's and CNA's then you will be fine.

There are cases of nurses who sit when the call bell goes off waiting for a CNA to answer it or who won't empty a urinal or help a patient up off a commode but those types of people run the gamut of backgrounds related to nursing. That sort of a person is just not a nice person. We have one at work who was a CNA to LVN to RN . . . . she ignores call lights and goes to get the CNA to empty a urinal :madface:

Best wishes on your choice to enter the medical field.

steph

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Nurse Guy

Well CNA is definently a good route to start nursing school. I would highly reccomend it because it gives you an idea on what a nurse does and see if you want to do that for rest of your life! It also gets you comfortable with working with people. I reccomend it to everyone considering nursing school. Personally CNA's up in wisconsin make around 11 or 12 dollars an hour. If you work part time 40 hours a payperiod you could squeak by.

KENT

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Thank you so much for your advice and help.

Well, I dont have all weekends off. I work every other weekend 12am-12pm and I work the other five days of the week 12am-9am. YEP I work 7 days a week with 7 off afterwards. My body is really stressed and I feel it may shut down on me at any given moment..Sorry Im off my soapbox:rolleyes:

But I found a website for a local org that offers CNA courses although.

So once you completed your nursing degree, did you have to work nites? Thats my only pet peeve. I work nites now and its been a bad experience woroking 7 nites in a row and having no life whatsoever.

I definitely am going to consider CNA or volunteering since my work schedule is just weird. I want to go for my RN and perhaps one day be an educator. I DO know I want to be in a career helping people

It's just CNAs are paid so little. I will look at the Red Cross for their CNA programs as well

Im so thankful you gave me wonderful advice.

I'm in my mid 20s and want to make a difference in people's lives. Sorry if I had mis spellings, Im running on 2 hrs of sleep

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