EMT-B to CNA

Working as a CNA will give you experience doing the basics of nursing skills. By this, I mean that you'll be doing things like bed changes, patient clean-up, showering, toileting, feeding, and the like. It'll also give you a crash course in time management, which is essential in nursing. Doing EMT work is fun and all but the skillset and thought process behind doing EMS is very different than nursing is. Work as an EMT or CNA will likely be generally low pay. You won't likely have time to study at work while going to nursing school if you're a CNA, but if the call volume is low enough, you might be able to get some studying done if working as an EMT.

My advice would be very simple: find work in a hospital that you think may be a good place to work. Then you'll see the actual working environment and culture there and can decide if that's where you truly want to work. That kind of work can be anything from a unit clerk to Patient Care Tech... which is basically a CNA. If you're a really good PCT you'll be well worth your weight in gold, as the saying goes. Those times we had them on the floors, where I was doing clinicals, they were just simply amazing and helped lighten the workload by quite a bit. If the staff (and floor managers) really like you and want you on the team when you're done with school, they can move mountains to make that happen.

I've been an EMT, CNA, PCT, phlebotomist, and unit clerk. PCT and unit clerk is something I just learned on the job, the rest I went to some type of school for. Im not in Nursing school but Im almost done with my Associates in Respiratory Therapy.

Being a CNA will definitely help in Nursing. Youll touch on most CNA skills in Nursing school but wont really become good at them(from what Ive seen from new RNs). CNA school places more emphasis on ADLs and safely lifting, ambulating and transferring patients than Nursing school does. How valuable that will be as an RN is debateable though, although the techs and CNAs you'll work with will love you if you are at least semi competent at them.

Most new RNs have never had to shower a combative dementia patient before, something anyone who has worked as a CNA in LTC probably does regularly, sometimes multiple times a shift. or change pull up briefs on multiple incontinent residents without taking their pants or shoes off. The speed, efficiency and time management you learn as a CNA will be valuable. Do that for a while and the ADLs you do in a hospital will be a breeze by comparison. It can be backbreaking work though, so just beware. I thought working as a CNA was a lot harder than working as an EMT.