Nurse Assistant Training with American Red Cross

[suitebliss]

Hello All,

I'm getting back into the swing of things with completing my Nursing Pre-requisites. I currently work as an Air Charter Manager making $38,000, but I need experience. I was thinking of taking the Nurse Assistant Training class with the American Red Cross. The class is 3 weeks for $950. My questions are: Have any of you had this training? If so, from your knowledge what's the pass/fail rate? Is this the best way to get the experience I need? I know it will be a big pay cut, but with my getting my Nursing Degree (I'm planning on the Accelerated option for 2nd degree students) is there much opportunity for career advancement?

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.:heartbeat

[texastaz]

You are right - CNA is a big pay cut and that can cause stress, not good when going to nursing school. I have heard several nurses say they think nurses that have been CNAs tend to be better. I disagree and I am a CNA. You will learn the CNA stuff in nursing school-while experience is always valuable - why torture yourself.

[JumpingIn]

I did that exact CNA training with ARC--3weeks classroom/1 week clinical. They had other options for class length, but I chose the short one because I was able to use some of my vacation time at work and still get their good training in a hurry.

It was fast paced, a lot of reading, and tests. We were tested on something daily. As far as the pass rate is concerned, not quite sure. Many of the girls were very private about there grades.

The biggest part of the course are the skills tests. You'll be instructed on particular skills and assigned text. You must read and practice those skills-- you will be tested on both the very next day. The skills are the bigger deal because you must execute the skills exactly the way the BON has specified (you'll receive a manual on skills to help you study). Not passing your skills tests, will hurt your more than anything. Just remember to pay close attention to SAFETY, INFECTION CONTROL, AND PRIVACY, when doing your skills test and you should be fine. Get a couple of highlighters and read your text good, and you should be fine. Part of your grade is based on your class participation. Usually the class discussion is only based on whatever you read the night before, so if you do the reading you'll be able to contribute without a problem. Try your best to do what you have to in order to keep you GPA high. Your GPA obviously determines whether or not you become certified, but prior to getting to that point it will also determine what order you go to clinicals. Everyone doesn't go together. Small groups of students go to clinicals a week at a time based on GPA's.

It was a good experience and I really learned a lot. Of course your real education will come once you start dealing with actually patients. Classrooms never prepare you for that. I've gone on and on, so I hope this helps.

Regardless of the sacrifices, the pay offs in the end will have made it all worth it. God Bless!