So, here's the deal. I live in AZ. trying to find and get into a nursing program has become the greatest single challenge of my life. The biggest challenge is trying to get the individual schools to wave the traditional requirement of having a CNA. For most schools that i have checked with they site 2 reasons for requiring this. The first is that the state board of nursing requires that all nursing students have this prior to application. I checked with the board and as suspected, this is only a smoke screen by the individual schools to promote some other agenda. There is no requirement from the AZ. state board of nursing to have a CNA prior to entering the nursing program. Secondly, according to these schools, they want to make sure that we as students don't get into the program and waste someones time, ie the school the teadhers, and block a space that could be given to someone else. the way i see it, this also is a smoke screen to generate more revenue for the school. By requiring all students to have this, it would double the revenue. and lets dace it being a cna is hardly giving the proper experience nessessary to give any student the foreknowledge of what a nurse really does. I was a med tech in the Air Force for 8 years. As such i assisted in more than most people even dream about. yet that requirement is left unfilled because no one will accept that part of my life as proper training. I found only one school out of more than 20 that i looked at that waived that requirement, Weber State.
So, I put it to everyone, does having a CNA really prepare a nursing student for what comes next? Or, does it do more harm than good?
