sroseyos

I would start by looking at the admission requirements for the ADN programs you would be applying to--each school should specify what kind of courses they'll require for the pre-requisites (if they'll take AP credit, if you can take non-lab courses online, etc). Many community colleges will allow high school students to take classes for credit, and even if that's not an option there will definitely be ways for you to get some or even all of your pre-requisites under your belt early. As an added bonus, I'm sure those programs will be very impressed by the initiative you're showing! Good luck with everything, and don't be afraid to call programs directly to get personalized guidance.

While it's terrifying to accidentally hurt a resident or come close to it, it will happen to every nurse aide sooner or later. It's possible for someone to lose their job over an honest mistake like that, but from all the anecdotal evidence I've heard, it's very rare. Mistakes will happen in any job, it's just unavoidable that in our line of work people can be hurt by those mistakes. Usually the people who lose their jobs are the ones with a long history of injury-causing accidents or those who made a much more severe mistake than yours. You did the right thing notifying the nurse. I'm glad to hear that it sounds like the resident will be OK, and I'm willing to bet you'll never make that error with an electric wheelchair again!

Did you ever end up learning more about being a psych CNA? I'd be curious to know more about it as well. I did see that there were a couple of earlier posts that address these jobs; there's a lot of good insights here if you're interested: https://allnurses.com/psychiatric-nursing/cnas-in-psych-48526.html. Good luck with the job!

Sounds like the hospital job will be the better fit for you, particularly if you only have to do the commute 3 times a week. That said, a long commute can wear you down over time. Is it 1.5 hrs because of distance, or traffic? I've had long commutes of both types and I think traffic is much worse (2 hours of full-speed driving didn't feel anywhere as agonizing as 1 hour in slow traffic). If you still have some time before you have to give them your decision, I'd do dry runs at the times you would be going to/coming home from work for a few days and see how it feels. If it doesn't bother you too badly, then it sounds like you'll be much happier taking that job.

If you're seeing your own eyelashes when using a microscope, it sounds like your first problem is the inter-ocular distance (how far apart the two eyepieces are). Almost all microscopes have a way to adjust this; try looking through the scope with the light on and moving the eyepieces closer together or farther apart until you see just one, clear, circular field. There will probably be numbered tick marks above or between the eyepieces; it's helpful to remember "your" number once you have it so it'll be easier to re-set your scope after somebody else uses it. In terms of using the scope in general, here's a fool-proof method that my Micro professor taught us: 1. Put the slide on the stage and try to more or less center it over the place where the light will shine up. 2. Make sure that the lowest magnification lens on the revolving nose-piece is in place (this will usually be the shortest/smallest lens). 3. Turn on the light and keep it at a low setting (there should be a dial, usually near the switch that turns the light source on; there are also other ways to control the amount of light hitting the sample but you don't need to worry about them when you're just getting started). 4. Using the coorifice focus (the BIGGER/outer knobs on either side of the microscope arm), roll the stage as far UP as it goes. 5. Looking through the eyepieces, make sure you see some blur or color--if all you see is white, move the stage until you can see that your specimen's in the right place. 6. Roll the big coorifice focus knob DOWN until the specimen is in focus. Move the stage so that the are you want to zoom in on is in the center of the field. 7. Once it looks pretty clear, use the fine focus (the SMALLER/inner knob) to get the focus even sharper. 8. At this point, you can move the revolving nose piece to the next-highest magnification. Turn the light up a bit (higher magnification needs higher light). Your specimen should be pretty close to in-focus; you can sharpen it with small adjustments using the fine focus only. You can continue to the next-highest focus using the same procedure. A couple of extra notes: - You should never use the coorifice focus once you've moved past the first level of magnification. Even little movements with the big knob have a massive impact once you're at high magnification so you'll quickly lose the focus completely, plus you risk accidentally ramming the slide into the lens (a sure way to make your instructor go ballistic). - Always start at the lowest magnification and work your way up, and if you get lost, reset everything to the lowest magnification and start over. - If your microscope has an oil-immersion lens (usually the last/longest lens on the nose piece), NEVER use that lens with a slide that DOESN'T have oil on it. Conversely, never ever use oil on any of the other lenses--this can permanently ruin them.

Not sure what the law is in Georgia, but here in NC you can be a PCT with just CNA training, as others have noted is true in other states. You may have more luck contacting the hospital(s) where you'd like to work directly and explaining your situation. Not only will they be able to give you the best answer on what jobs you could get with your current qualifications, but they may be able to give you other advice on getting the job you want that you otherwise wouldn't have been able to find online.

Another vote for the power of documentation! Even if you can't have a witness in the room with you every time you work with this patient, as long as you tell someone, or better yet document on paper, every interaction you had with her, you'll be protected down the road when she challenges your story. In answer to your initial question, I would strongly advise against refusing to work with the patient unless the situation becomes so bad that it prevents you from doing your job. Patients have a right to refuse us because it's in the organization's best legal and customer-service interests not to force a patient to receive care from someone against their will. Our responsibility is to care for and accommodate all patients, even the difficult ones. Asking not to be assigned to a particular patient has the potential to cause problems for your supervisor and will also risk putting you in a bad light.

If the job makes you unhappy, that's a valid reason to start looking for another job sooner rather than later. On the other hand, if you enjoy or feel neutral about the job and are more concerned with the comments that friends and family have made and the doubt those comments instilled about your current job, I wouldn't worry about staying there for a while. It's probably a good idea either way to keep your resume updated and continue to send out at least a few job applications on a regular basis to keep your head in the job-searching game, and to get more serious about the job search as time goes on (if you're worried that spending too much time in this job will weaken your chances of getting a job you really want later on). But in terms of the feedback you received, you absolutely don't need a bachelor's in nursing to be a "real nurse." You're a real nurse now! :)

You can absolutely keep pursuing your dream even if you get fired. The important thing is to be up-front with future employers. If you can not only acknowledge that it happened but treat the issue fairly and professionally, explain what you've learned from the experience and how it made you a better CNA, and avoid making negative comments about the employer that fired you (even if you feel you were wronged), you'll be ok!

+1 that it sounds like it's your current job that you hate rather than the whole field. Particularly if all your coworkers feel negatively about the place and want to leave, it's understandable why you'd be miserable in your current position. I'd say keep applying to new jobs (even better if you can stick to a goal of sending out at least 3-5 applications per day), and I think you'll find that working hours that suit you in an environment with a positive work culture will make all the difference.

Where are you located? Although the test probably won't vary much, there's a good chance your state has posted info on the specific test you'll be taking. For example, here's the candidate handbook for North Carolina, which goes over both the skills and the format of the test here. There are also a ton of great video series on Youtube that go through each of the CNA skills. Good luck!

Agreed. Losing patients will never be easy, but everyone finds their own way to maintain a professional distance while also genuinely caring. You may be interested in some of the stories from a series that "Humans of New York" did on the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which includes a lot of insight from nurses, MDs and other healthcare professionals on working in such an emotionally devastating setting as a pediatric cancer ward, particularly this perspective from a nurse:

As others have pointed out, there's unfortunately not a perfect solution to this issue since taking the call bell away or otherwise restricting their actual use of the call system is clearly out of the question. I'm sorry to hear you say you've felt the inclination to be a little more abrasive with patients; certainly there is a type of nurse/nurse aide for whom this approach works, but honestly, I've found more success with the opposite approach. It's counter-intuitive, but when I'm in a more "needy" patient's room, I like to take my time, even sit down or squat next to their bed so we're face-to-face, talk to them for several minutes, ask them about their day, and just generally make them feel that they have my full attention and I'm not in a rush to get anywhere else. It doesn't work with every patient, but I think you'll find a significant majority end up calling less often when you do this. A lot of patients ring the call bell all day because they want company and need to feel like their concerns are being listened to. Even if it doesn't reduce the frequency with which a patient calls, if you've taken it slow and been kind and attentive to a patient, they're 1000x more likely to cut you some slack when the inevitable rush hits and it takes longer for you to answer those calls.

I agree with this suggestion--similarly you can always try contacting the course's professors directly and explaining your situation. Many schools' registrars will allow you to enroll in a class even if you don't meet the pre-reqs if you have an email from the professor saying it's OK. Good luck!