CNA in training

[Hopefulnurse2023]

I just joined a CNA program and it was my first day today. I feel comfortable with the information so far, (first day I know!) I would consider myself a little more advanced coming from a medical field family. What is hard for me to handle are the hours. It’s an extremely high-paced four week course. 7 hours a day, five days a week. I said to myself I could handle it because I’ve worked full time jobs before. But for some reason today was so hard. I’m so discouraged and I feel depressed about it. The thought of sitting for hours not moving listening to lectures. Will it be like this for the entire course? I feel so overwhelmed by reading six chapters a night. I love the medical field, and I want to like this class. Any tips or insight? Thanks

[socal212, CNA]

It can't be all lecture. You have skills you will be taught and have to practice. When I did my state test I had a written portion and a skills portion. When I did the class I spent most of the time working on the skills.

[VinTX2019, CNA]

Yes, same here. There were a lot of reading and studying, but we had a lot of practical skills to do too, which definitely made the program a little more fun and interesting to endure. Maybe you could ask your trainer about the details of the program and the upcoming schedule for the next few weeks? That way, you can at least mentally prepare for the hands-on practical skills and the externship portion, which I personally thought was quite fun, or certainly more fun than reading text books.