Passed CNA!

Awesome!

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Congrats!!

Congrats on passing your state CNA exam. I am currently taking a CNA course and take my state exam 12/7. I am pretty nervous about it but have 33 hours of practicing my skills thus far. The only requirement for practice is 16 by 11/27 so I will have more hours to practice. I am doing clinicals 2 days a week, and it seems like the CNA's at the facility do not work by "the book." Our instructors gave us a similated state exam to pass to proceed to clinicals, and 4 passed out of 30 students. Of course, all the 26 re-took and passed on the skills that they failed, including me....It was my nerves and everyone else's nerves for the first fail. Do you have any advice how to stay cool under pressure? Our teachers that tested us put on a very stern face to intimidate us, and it worked! LOL Are the state examiners as stern and nerve wracking as instructors? Someone that took the state exam but let her certificate lapse said the state examiners were a lot nicer than our teachers. Was that your experience too?

Thank you! I will be short on this, as I did almost fail by 2 questions. The state exam is different for everyone, no tests are alike as you already know. For me, some questions seemed like they would have multiple answers...which threw me off. I can say a good portion are common sense, and some I had NO clue about and just took a guess. You have the ability to check answers and go back to fix them. As far as clinical, well our proctor was very nice and made the atmosphere very relaxing. IF YOU CAN try to meet up with people in your class that day at clinical's, that made a huge difference. Some proctors I hear are very difficult, that's just how it is. When you doing clinicals, for me I got a sheet and had to perform 3 of the 25 skills. Take a deep breath and just say EVERYTHING OUT LOUD. "ok now im going to wash my hands for 20 seconds, get under nails, scrub scrub" Go in with no fear, be a warrior! You WILL do fine, 5 people passed clinical's all in my class that day, not bad :)

I'm going to be searching for jobs now, get in see if they can help with school and become the greatest nurse ever! That is my goal, so hey let me know if you have ANY questions. Always love to help!

-Theodore

Congratulations!

Congrats!

Congrats ?

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Congrats.

In CT you can work in group homes for retarded adults. With your CNA you will get in easier.

The pay is generally better than what LTC or home care pays. The problem with working in a group home is that it will be difficult to keep your Certification since group homes are NOT included in the number of hours worked in order to renew. You would have to work home care or per diem somewhere to be able to keep up your certification and to get your CEU's in.

True, I see so many home agencies and just different places around here. I really want to get into Yale, Bridgeport hospital to be trained as a Care tech...but I understand it's very hard. After all is is Yale but I know half of my CNA class worked there as transporters, now being trained as techs. Also, rehab places have great benefits as well. Honestly though, I'm going to want to get as much experience as I can...even if it becomes overwhelming. By the way...what are CEU's??

Thank you Theodore! I am only worried about the practical part not the written. We have to perform 5 skills for the proctor. I have the rest of this month and the first week in December to practice, practice, practice. Our instructor said it is "perfect practice" that perfects one skills. Have you found a job yet? Did you get the additional Home Health Aid certificate? I am not sure why if one is a licensed/certified nursing assistant, that one would need an additional certificate to work in home health. I plan to take an acute care CNA course next spring in order to better my chances of getting a hospital position.

Continuing Education credits needed to stay certified. Each state has their own requirements. Besides the CEU's we have to work at least 8 hours in a 2-year period.

I heard some states have you perform 5 skills, well don't hesitate! You will do fine, as I said just make sure when your performing the clinical say everything that you are doing, for me it worked out better than I thought. As far as job searching, there are many out there. I just got hired on as a dishwasher at a senior retirement facility, needed the money asap! I'm going to go out this week and apply to as many places as possible. Craigslist is good to find jobs, care.com is good if you want to work under the table. By the way, what state are you from?? An additional certificate?? From what I hear they are not even doing HHA training anymore, I really don't see the point of it... that is just a waste of time lol! I will have to look to see if CT offers any additional training, like how to work people with different disability's. But honestly, if your goal is to get into nursing school, working as a CNA is a great advantage. If you can work somewhere where they have nurses, better chance they will hire you on as a nurse once you get through school. It's different everywhere, in CT there going to train PCT to administer meds in the near future from what my instructor said. I totally wish I did this right out of high school, I'm only 22 but shoot 4 years goes by sooooo fast! Let me know how everything goes, I love hearing others experiences!