CNA vs Nurse Tech?

U.S.A. Michigan

Published

While going to nursing school, I would love to be employed by a hospital. I am thinking about getting my CNA since it's only 90 hours training, which isn't so bad on top of my school.

I did have a question - I have a few friends who are Nurse techs and Nurse Externs. I understand that they get more pay, but what's the difference between them and a CNA?

How do I become a Nurse Tech? I'm assuming I"ll have to get my CNA.

Thanks :)

Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

I know it's frustrating having to wait to hear back from the hospitals. But employment is very competitive because Michigan's economy sucks.

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although they DO interchange the terms tech/cna/extern, they are/can be many diff things. on a lot of med/surg floors i did clinicals on they called them nurse techs but they were only CNAs but taught ON the job, they didnt have to take a CNA program beforehand, basically what that job will entail is bedmaking, bedbaths, feeding patients, ehh.. all that fun stuff. in my ER we have ER techs (went to school for ER tech, or was an EMT) and nurse externs (in nsg school, finished our first year of medsurg clinicals), whether we are er techs or nurse externs we do the SAME job i.e. 12lead ekg, NG tubes, Foleys, blood draws, vitals, transport, etc etc. BUT the externs got paid $4/hr more than the techs coz they expected us to graduate and be nurses there, which i was fine with. no contract reqired though. so if ur in nursing school and ur already in ur second year, don't waste ur time being a CNA, u got that experience in clinicals unfortunately, apply in fall/winter and springtime,t hats when they generally do their big hiring for extern positions. i learned more in my 1st week in the ER as an extern than i learned in my entire 2yrs of clinicals! it was nuts!... just a thought...

This is so true! Yesterday, I shadowed my friend at work who is an Er tech( she just took EMT classes.) She was training a nurse extern who is about to enter her last semester in nursing school. The extern is getting about 3 more dollars in hour. Anyways, she was learning everything from my friend. My friend taught us both how to take blood( she let us both practice on her!) Then I let the extern take my blood and I took hers. We did really well! I loved the experience of the ER! When I am done with Med Surg 1 I am going to apply there. My basic point is that she is learning more from working in the ER than in her clinicals. Heck, I learned so much from just 1 day! I can't wait until I can work there!

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Specializes in ER/adult gero-NP.
how did get the snt job at the va? i looked on the website and couldn't find any information. thanks

my friend works their and she told me to just call the nursing recruiter, so i did. she mailed me an application in the mail, but it took two months for them to call me. but once your in its great. i've been there a little over a month and i love it. call the main number and ask them to transfer you to the nursing recruiter and they will, if it goes to voicemail just leave a message, she called me back pretty quickly.

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Specializes in Emergency/Trauma/Critical Care Nursing.
This is so true! Yesterday, I shadowed my friend at work who is an Er tech( she just took EMT classes.) She was training a nurse extern who is about to enter her last semester in nursing school. The extern is getting about 3 more dollars in hour. Anyways, she was learning everything from my friend. My friend taught us both how to take blood( she let us both practice on her!) Then I let the extern take my blood and I took hers. We did really well! I loved the experience of the ER! When I am done with Med Surg 1 I am going to apply there. My basic point is that she is learning more from working in the ER than in her clinicals. Heck, I learned so much from just 1 day! I can't wait until I can work there!

what ER were u at if u don't mind my asking, i'm just wondering if u were at mine. yes, the techs most often DO train the externs because techs are there as techs as long as their still working there, externs become nurses after a year or two so theres a constant need to replace the externs and the techs are the only ones to train em. it seems unfair that we get paid more, but we also have more technical knowledge than most of our techs do, many came from "er tech" programs at WCCC which is like 6mo. or something i could be wrong, but we had many of those students doing clinicals w/us in the ER and they weren't there any more than a month and told me the program was really short. they just learn the basic skills of HOW to do vitals/ekg/blood draws etc, they don't learn the nursing assessment skills that externs have, to be able to assess a patient and understand WHY they're doing certain tests and then interpret the results and know if this is something to alert the nurse/DR of. it sounds like i'm bias because i was an extern, but its really not, the techs i talked with all planned to go into nursing school after to learn what they felt got left out of their shortened program... so.. once again, even though it SEEMS unfair for the pay difference, externs are valuable to help w/assessments and interpretation, plus its an incentive for that person to join that hospital as a nurse after they graduate.

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what ER were u at if u don't mind my asking, i'm just wondering if u were at mine. yes, the techs most often DO train the externs because techs are there as techs as long as their still working there, externs become nurses after a year or two so theres a constant need to replace the externs and the techs are the only ones to train em. it seems unfair that we get paid more, but we also have more technical knowledge than most of our techs do, many came from "er tech" programs at WCCC which is like 6mo. or something i could be wrong, but we had many of those students doing clinicals w/us in the ER and they weren't there any more than a month and told me the program was really short. they just learn the basic skills of HOW to do vitals/ekg/blood draws etc, they don't learn the nursing assessment skills that externs have, to be able to assess a patient and understand WHY they're doing certain tests and then interpret the results and know if this is something to alert the nurse/DR of. it sounds like i'm bias because i was an extern, but its really not, the techs i talked with all planned to go into nursing school after to learn what they felt got left out of their shortened program... so.. once again, even though it SEEMS unfair for the pay difference, externs are valuable to help w/assessments and interpretation, plus its an incentive for that person to join that hospital as a nurse after they graduate.

I was at Henry Ford Hospital.

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Specializes in Emergency/Trauma/Critical Care Nursing.
I was at Henry Ford Hospital.

thats where i work! the detroit campus?? hmm... i didn't know people were allowed to shadow, but then again i never asked. who was ur friend? just wondering if its a tech i know or not.

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