HeatherAnn

Thank you krazy coconuts. I am glad you confirmed that the CNA is a good first step. I signed up for a May 7 class. Thanks.

Thanks, buddhakOn. I appreciate your reply.

Thanks Tweety and SmilingBluEyes. The CNA classes I am finding are mostly long term care where the clinical part of the class is in a long term care facility, not in a hospital. I think I will do as you suggest and take the CNA class this May 7th, then try to get trained in this acute care class coming up in June. Also I will volunteer in a hospital. My hope is that I gain enough insight and understanding to determine if I can be a good nurse and if I want to be a nurse. Thank you.

Thank you.

Partially based on advice I received here earlier today, I want to become a CNA right away and then volunteer in a hospital (or ideally get hired) to get my feet wet in a hospital (to try to see if nursing is something I think I can do well someday). Ideally, I would shadow a nurse, but I don't know of any programs that let members of the community do that. Most of the CNA classes I am finding are for long term care. I don't understand exactly what training I should pursue to become a nurse assistant in a hospital. Do any of you have assistants? I bet they aren't trained in long term care CNA only, right? What are they trained in? Should I take the long term care and acute care classes both to broaden my skills?

Thank you both. If anyone else reads this and wants to comment, feel free. I will print this page as a PDF and take it to my meeting Thursday (I meet with a nurse mentor for the first time). Our local hospital has a federally funded program where members of the community can meet with nurse mentors who basically do what you do on this forum - offer support to nurses and nurse-wanna-bees. RNsRWe asked why the 4 month volunteer idea. Sorry for the confusion. I wrote 4 months, simply because the HR guy from a local hospital said this morning that 4 months is the commitment they ask of their volunteers. Again, I appreciate the feedback. Both of you offered me valuable insight during an important step in my life. The Internet is so amazing, and this forum does such a great job (I have been reading this forum for a few months now). Thank you!

Thank you in advance if you are offering advice. I think I want to pursue the accelerated Second BS RN program, but I want to be sure, so I want to explore and test myself first. I feel like one of my biggest challenges will be needles and blood, so in a way I think I should first take a Phlebotomy class and maybe Medical Terminology as well as make a 4 month commitment to volunteer in a local hospital. This is one idea. My other idea is to become a CNA and volunteer in a hospital and try to become employed as a CNA, then maybe take Phlebotomy and Medical Terminology. Incidentally, I want to take Medical Terminology so when I take Anatomy I will better understand how the systems interact rather than have to focus on learning all the new words. In a nutshell, does anyone have any advice as to which of my ideas above is better? Should I try to do them all at once? Does anyone know if the CNA courses teach phlebotomy? I assumed no, but I will call and find out. Thank you for this amazing website. The people who volunteer and contribute to this site are special and appreciated. :paw::paw::paw: