Any Agency CNA's?

[FutureRNMichael]

Hello to all of you wonderful CNA's out there. I recently passed my state exam to become a Certified Nursing Assistant!! :balloons:

Now I have decided to look for work with an agency. The whole reason I decided to become a CNA was to experience different areas of Nursing and hopefully help my decision in becoming a RN and/or NP one day.

I ask of any CNA's working agency because I am not sure how the situation works when accepting a job at an agency.

-- Do you negotiate a contract or is there a set contract for all CNA's?

-- Will you be considered a bad employee if you turn down more Noc/Double shifts than you accept?

-- Would you reccomend working with an agency?

I have health insurance(Good one at that) with my parents coverage for the next year and a half so that is not of issue with me at this point.

ANy other helpful hints needed to know when looking for an agency to work for would be wonderful!!

Warm Regards, Michael

[zacarias, ASN, RN]

I don't have any information about the CNA agencies Michael except that you can negotiate days you want to work etc, there's not a set contract for all CNAs. If you do sign a contract, obviously make sure you read and understand everything therein.

I do want to congratulate you for officially becoming a CNA, congrats! I'm just your neighbor up here in Sunny Seattle hehe.

[FutureRNMichael]

Cool. Thanks Zach. Anyone else?

[FutureRNMichael]

Anyone else??

[lulu88]

I worked as a CNA in both a hospital (permanant job) and in an agency, and I must say there are pros and cons of both. Definitely in the agency, you will make more money, in my case it was about $2-3 extra than it was in the hospital. I personally preffered working in the hospital in a permanant position, but that's just me-it just fit my personality better. I liked the fact that I knew where everything was and who the nurses were. Working for the agency, I always felt uneasy because I could never find anything when I needed it, and that made me feel incompotent. Then when I would try to ask someone for help, they had no idea who I was and always seemed to be too busy to answer questions, which made for some unhappy patients who were waiting on me! I also found that the agency wouldn't always have enough work for me that fit into my schedule, would hardley ever match up shifts that I requested with shift they offered, or they would call 20 minutes before they needed me, in which often that wasn't enough time for me. But this was just my experience. Some people might like the idea of always having a new place to work. If it doesn't sound like an agency is for you, you might want to try being a float pool CNA at one hospital. That would still give you the different experiences, but also allow you some sense of normalcy and you would always know the hospital policy when patients ask you questions. Hope this helps!