CNA vs. Fast food: Which is tougher?

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I currently work fast food, is being a CNA tougher than working fast food? Where I work it's a high volume restaurant. I'm not going to say everyone there is the quickest on their feet when there is a huge demand but tonight I got sent home early for the night because I guess I'm not good enough for what they needed while our system went down. I'm so ready for CNA school. I hope if I can find a job that it wont be like my experience where I work now.

Does anyone have experience in both areas? I try my best to move with a sense of urgency and still know how to do my job with what I know in how I was trained.

Would you rather work fast food or keep your CNA job?

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I worked at McDonald's and Wienerschnitzel (hot dog fast food joint) as a teenager. I found fast food less stressful, although it pays less than most CNA positions. In addition, there's not a lot of backbreaking lifting in the fast food industry.

The stress level is higher in healthcare, but the pay is higher. Also, the risk of injuring one's back due to lifting obese and/or dead weight patients is always looming.

Both positions entail a degree of disrespect from the public. Fast food workers are sometimes treated rudely by customers just as CNAs are often treated poorly by patients and their families.

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Were you ever a CNA? If you were, coming out of the fast food industry, did you regret making the choice to become a CNA? I'm taking pre-reqs at a community college with intent to transfer to a university to get a BSN. At first I didn't care for the CNA job because I thought that was low of a decision. My friend did it and told me a few things a hospice place she clinical'd at does for their employees(help with a car or something) and while working at Wendy's I thought CNA would be better. So my view of working the job as a CNA changed. I'd rather work doing what I want to do, at least get closer to it by doing something below it, than do something that treats you like **** I guess.

I was reading about someone getting terminated or fired because of a nasty preceptor. Some of the stories I've read make me think of my mngmt at my Wendy's job.

Btw I live in Las Vegas and where I work, it is HIGH VOLUME as in the busiest store in Vegas.

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I've worked at Jack in The Box for two hours and McDonald's for about 4-6 months. The first was in my late teenage years and the latter was a second job I took out of desperation in my early 20's. I have never worked as a CNA and didn't even know what a CNA was when I had those jobs.

CNA is definitely harder in the physical sense, but I perceive it as more rewarding and prestigious than fast food. It also seems like a good opportunity to network and learn about various roles in healthcare that one might be interested in.

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As nurses, we do plenty of "CNA work". Some units (like the one I'm frequently in now) don't regularly utilize CNAs. I am often the nurse and the nursing assistant all in one.

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Two hours? Lmao :laugh: Do hospitals teach you to lift with your legs and not with your back? I kind of think that would be a cost saving tactic or something hospitals don't need to add.

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CNA is the harder job. I've worked with a lot of people that have made that transition and they all say the same thing. Only worth it if the increase in pay is significant enough to justify the leap. Then there's the $15 minimum wage issue which I won't go into here because it will be a very long piece of work where there isn't a conclusive "yes" or "no" to whether or not you should become a CNA instead.

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Two hours? Lmao :laugh: Do hospitals teach you to lift with your legs and not with your back? I kind of think that would be a cost saving tactic or something hospitals don't need to add.

CNA and nursing school programs, as well as employers teach proper body mechanics and transfer methods. Work related musculoskeletal injuries are not the result of improper technique, but often due to patients' sudden unexpected movements. Health care workers are moving people who may be agitated, combative, experience loss of balance, or spasticity during the transfer and this can result in injury to the employee.

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Were you ever a CNA? If you were, coming out of the fast food industry, did you regret making the choice to become a CNA? I'm taking pre-reqs at a community college with intent to transfer to a university to get a BSN. At first I didn't care for the CNA job because I thought that was low of a decision. My friend did it and told me a few things a hospice place she clinical'd at does for their employees(help with a car or something) and while working at Wendy's I thought CNA would be better. So my view of working the job as a CNA changed. I'd rather work doing what I want to do, at least get closer to it by doing something below it, than do something that treats you like **** I guess.

I was reading about someone getting terminated or fired because of a nasty preceptor. Some of the stories I've read make me think of my mngmt at my Wendy's job.

Btw I live in Las Vegas and where I work, it is HIGH VOLUME as in the busiest store in Vegas.

If you intend to become an RN you will be doing all that CNA work and more. Find out if the school where you want to get the BSN requires you to already be a CNA before applying to the program. If so, what you think about becoming a CNA doesn't matter as you'd have to do it anyway.

A good CNA is more than just someone who lifts things. You have to be able to handle patients with dignity and respect, you will be taking care of some very personal hygiene tasks for them and you will be expected to do so with kindness. Can't say I've ever really expected the guy at the food court counter to be particularly kind or compassionate lol but you can bet loved ones of patients sure do!

It's not about which job is tougher, it's about deciding what you want to do in life. If you can't make it as a CNA you aren't going to get through nursing school. It's not like you get to give up on those CNA duties once you become an RN, I've worked on units that didn't even have CNAs most of the time and so nurses worked together to get it all done without them.

Being a CNA will give you an edge when it comes to networking later on for a job if you are good at what you do. If you are lousy at it and are there just to survive the shift then you aren't going to get a foot in the door after all. Take a good long look at it all and choose the path to meet your goals.

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I would work the CNA job PRN and keep the fast food job. The CNA job is too much responsibility with continually being unappreciated, devalued and ultimately being abused. The regulations ('turn that patient every 2 hours', feed 10 patients, make sure those patients don't fall, change those patients every 2 hours, etc.) make it too hard to keep with the expectations.

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I'm an LPN now but I have worked in fast food and as a CNA in the past. I would say that CNA work is, without a doubt, more difficult than fast food. When I first became a CNA I missed my low stress/low responsibility job in fast food but I never seriously considered going back. As a CNA i made significantly more money per hour, received regular raises and had health insurance through my job. Moving from a minimum wage fast food job to a position as a CNA greatly improved my standard of living. I was able to move out of my parents' house, get my own apartment and work my way through LPN school.

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Specializes in ICU.

Worked in fast food when I was a teenager. It was way less stressful. I spent several months as a tech before becoming an RN.

If you are taking prereqs, do you think nurses have some cakewalk job? You want less stressful and busy than fast food? Nursing is 1000X more stressful than flipping burgers.

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