Done with Theory...

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So I passed my CNA theory final today with a 99%. Yay, but I have this bad feeling I might be one of those "book smart" CNA's...where I do great in theory, but not so good in clinical. This will be my first time in a clinical, patient care role. Our first clinical day is in a convelescent hospital the second week in January.

What makes a good CNA? I'm somewhat of a "talker"...meaning, I've very friendly, outgoing and am not shy. I'm afraid I might come off as too friendly, is that possible? Will patients/residents appreciate a more quiet person to one who is friendly/talkative?

Also, I have a very strong sense of smell......today for example, I was using the shared woman's restroom at my school and was almost gagging at the strong smell of urine in there. Ugh! Now I am a mom to 3, but jeez, some smells just gross me out.

Am I doomed?? I do eventually want to go onto get my BSN....I really think I'll enjoy the personable/caring nature of taking care of the elderly, but the bodily fluids and smells are making me anxious...

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Here is a little trick a lot of us use. Take a little Vicks vaporub and put a little of it under your nose. It will mask most of the smells. Good Luck.

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Just work on learning the skills. CNA classes are not very hard(at least mine was not... not at all). Most of CNA work is common sence and not being afraid to work!

Just keep the attitude that you want to learn your job to the best of your ability and learn how to improve every day!

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Smells? Kinda funny.....when they put me through pre-cepts, that night I had the strangest freaking thing happen......I continued to smell urine and BM at home all evening after my shift was over. That's never happened since, but it was totally weird.

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Specializes in LTC.

I wouldn't worry about coming off too friendly. Some of the residents really like it, others prefer quiet people (like me :D ). As long as you're nice, it's fine.

As for the smells- you get used to it. When you have a job to do it's like you don't even notice, plus you know the person at the other end of the smell. I couldn't care less about smells at work, but like you, I was really grossed out by the pee smell in my school's bathroom last week.

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Oh thank goodness...we will see how I do with the smells come January. Thanks!

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