CNA Training....

Alicia18 · Feb 22, 2005

I'm a CNA in Virginia myself, Khadijah2, welcome back to the States! :balloons:

I went to my local hospital and took classes there, including clinicals. Maybe some local hospitals near you offer the same thing. If you want to gain hospital experience without becoming a CNA, you could do what I did. As I was taking my CNA classes, I also volunteered at my local hospital, and shadowed some nurses. In spite of all my pushing I only got to shadow in ICU (once) and Med/Surg (twice -- I was supposed to shadow two other places instead, but it didn't work out). Some nurses will let you be more active and help them (but that may be because I was almost into my clinicals at that point) while others will just have you watch. It can drive you nuts just to watch people work :bugeyes: , but if you're not sure you want to work at a hospital yet, you might want to go this route first.

Hope this helps.

2bnurseforce1 · Feb 25, 2005

I had the same question I live in chesapeake, va and i was wondering where i can get some CNA training i am currently half way finish with pre-reqs. any info. please let me know.

Khadijah2 · Feb 26, 2005

I'm a CNA in Virginia myself, Khadijah2, welcome back to the States! :balloons:
I went to my local hospital and took classes there, including clinicals. Maybe some local hospitals near you offer the same thing. If you want to gain hospital experience without becoming a CNA, you could do what I did. As I was taking my CNA classes, I also volunteered at my local hospital, and shadowed some nurses. In spite of all my pushing I only got to shadow in ICU (once) and Med/Surg (twice -- I was supposed to shadow two other places instead, but it didn't work out). Some nurses will let you be more active and help them (but that may be because I was almost into my clinicals at that point) while others will just have you watch. It can drive you nuts just to watch people work , but if you're not sure you want to work at a hospital yet, you might want to go this route first.
Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info Alicia18. It's really hard to actually see what's out there as far as training since I am still in Indonesia. I've visited many websites, but none of them mention anything about CNA training. I was interested in Mary Washington Hospital. It looks like I will have to do Rappahanock Community College. It takes about 2 months, and is basically all day, so I can't really work like I want to. We'll see how things go. Thanks.

Alicia18 · Feb 28, 2005

Hope everything works out for you, Khadijah2. And yeah, I can see how it would be hard to get a feel for how things will be nursing-wise in the States from Indonesia!