EMT or CNA? Or both?

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Hello everyone!

I'm very glad to be making my first post on this forum. To start off, I'm 19 years old and currently a student at a community college in Southern California. My ultimate goal is to become a registered nurse. With that, I feel that it would be best to have some sort of medical experience prior to going into nursing. While some have said to just go straight to nursing school, I feel that having some sort of medical experience will set a great foundation for my future nursing career. In doing so, my original plan was to take an EMT course, become certified, and work either as an EMT or as an ER tech. Lately I've been leaning more towards an ER tech. Some have suggested to completely drop the EMT and shoot straight for CNA if I want to work as an ER tech. Would you all agree? Disagree? Another option? I'd love to hear your opinions, preferably those with this type of experience, and just any general feedback! Thank you :)

Additional information: I plan to move back to Washington state after becoming certified

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you have to look at job postings for er techs and see what they require. here in wa state they are changing their rules about techs in general, and needing to be an MA or something weird. They are grandfathering in a bunch of people right now. I know my er has nearly all of the techs coming from an emt background.

Here is what I found on a current job posting at my facility:

  • Must have Washington State Nursing Assistant Registered (NAR) or Nursing Assistant Certified (NAC) or must be obtained within four months of hire
  • Washington State Health Care Assistant (HCA) certification must be obtained within 6 months of hire

Go to the wa gvmt website to see what it required for each, then you can make your determination.

good luck!

i vote for emt, only b/c i love ER. I did my EMT-I after I became a nurse.

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