ctmed

Some states crack down on the sitters/companions too. I know of two states that have DPCW registries. What CNA is required for brings up a good question. It seems that our registry is merely to track us in case an abuser appears in our number. The boards for other areas of allied health do that as well, but have requirements to industry as to what each position (RN,OT,X-Ray, Respiratory) can and can not do as opposed to someone just off the street.

The only real anatomy a CNA gets into is the location of the frontside and backside and how to cleean this :) /hides from flames. More seriously, the vast majority of CNA is more bed making, transferring folks all kinds of ways, and dealing with bio waste. You will get a few medical terms and abbreviations in just in case they allow you to look at or write on a chart like they do some places. You will also get CPR even though most places will not let you use it. That said, all good knowledge is valuable. You will eventually need to know A+P on some level regardless of where you go in allied health. Do everything you can to learn new knowledge regardless of position in life.

As long as you can pay the bills, no. You can always claim on an interview that the end of nursing school was hard and the job was affecting your studies. That kind of gap in employment is 100 percent understandable. I have known about two or three that did this and it did not affect them. I hear you on LTC. Unless you are in the therapy department (OT/PT/ST) or have a desk job (HR, sales, social work) , the job is brutal for all levels of nurse. Moreso if you are the low man on the totem pole.

Depends on the facility. Some will not let you on without certification. Usually this is either the better places or cities where CNAs have flooded the market and they can demand that. Most HRs have a chart they go by based on experience and certification. Still other cheap admins do not care if you are right off the street or have 20 years CNA as long as you have no felonies or have complaints at the registry - they pay minumum wage or a bit above.

Eliminate the Vote for Obama campaign. You may like Obama and it may have been cool to work for those folks, but you never know. The HR person may have autographed pictures of Ronald Reagan enshrined in candles and American flags at the house. Your political views are none of your employer's bussiness and can only hurt you if the person making decisions has an opposing view. Eliminate the real estate. It is considered a higher job skill. Unfortunately, many HR folks raise a red flag if you apply for a job lesser than what you did before. They will feel you are desperate and will ditch them the moment another employer starts talking a living wage. Most folks that hire CNAs pay a pittance and depend on you having no other options to keep you coming to work. Consider why you need a resume in the first place. Most of these places only take one look at this, smile, then throw it in some file and make you fill out an application. All the info they really need is the places you have worked with numbers and your CNA number. Now, you get further in Allied Health like RN, COTA, anesthesia tech, PT, ect that is a different story. That said, maybe you can apply to dietary or another department as well. It is much easier to get in something if you are already in the door. Getting more education is also something to consider as education can overcome lack of experience sometimes if the degree/ lisc is in demand enough. You will have less folks to compete against though even RN is becoming overcrowded in some areas.

One agency recruiter explained it to me like this: Of all the work programs and certificate programs out there, CNA is the shortest and (relatively) least painful of them all. 2 weeks to 2 months of school versus 2 years plus prereqs/ possible wailists or BS is very attractive to a lot of people, including single parents and those with landlords hovering with an eviction notice. As such, it attracts very many folks. Since more and more folks are hunting for something else to do with the economy, MANY people have CNA. Supply and demand. Retaining people is not necessary if you have your HR computer hard drive filled with applications of hundreds of applicants. CNA pay used to be a little higher (adjusted for inflation) even six years ago. But, back then there were a lot more jobs that were easier to get and less stress, so less folks took CNA. EDIT: Do not feel too bad or depressed, though. I know of LPNs in my area who are doing CNA work for 12-14/ hr. You think going to school a short time for no pay is bad, imagine going through a year and a half of bootcamp with a couple of thousand student loan for no cash!

There are some restaurant and fast food workers that make more than CNAs unless you are in a good place. CNA can also be a rough, demanding, and demeaning job if you are in a bad place on top of low pay. That said, if you ever decide to go further in the healthcare field - rather it is ultimately nursing, the therapies, nuclear medicine, phlebotomy, or even nurse practioner you will be familiar with how things work and will have valuable insight and experience. You will also know what each position in healthcare does and be able to make a much more informed choice about which career is for you or not.

You need to contact the board of the state that you are applying to to get all the nitty gritty. Google is wonderful. Now, some states are fairly easy. Just fill out a form with your registry number and possibly a pay check stub and you are good to go after paying a small fee. Others are going to want you to take fingerprints for a FBI background check which is around 70 USD. Others will do the fingerprints there, so you have to wait till you move. A very few states, like Oregon, make a difference between CNA and PCT/PCA. This means if you have a CNA and work a hospital in your original state, you will not be able to work a hospital in that state you are going to without taking additional long courses and paying more fees. Other states have a grace period. They can hire anyone, even those who have never been a CNA before, if the certificate is gotten within a period of time. However, in practice, even in these states - in this economy they want you to have the certificate in hand when you walk in unless the place has severe staffing issue or you know someone.

Unfortunately, that low figure is fairly normal. Sad, too. This is thankless, nasty, hard, and sometimes demeaning work particularly at some of the cruddier run facilities. I do know of some places, even in major cities, where the cost of living is high only offer the federal minumum wage. Now, back in the day, agencies paid pretty good - anywhere from 9 USD to 14 USD per hour. However, with the economy and facilities needing to use less agencies, even the agencies pay little if the agency is even still sending CNAs out. You may need to eventually look into school for a better liscense/ degree to get into a livable wage unless you have two incomes or live with no or absurdly cheap rent.

Oh yeah... have you checked psych obs? basically, if someone comes into an ER claiming they want to kill themselves or an overdose, some one has to sit with them. The ER staff usually does not have the time. You get everything from the lady who drank antifreeze because her high school sweetheart husband ran off with the 20 yr old secretary to the alzhiemer grandfather who wants to rip out his foley and wander naked to a job he retired from a decade ago to a kid that slit his wrist. Ask at an ER or HR.

9/hr in NYC? Crap. That is about the going rate here in Louisiana. But where you are, 5 dollar bills are like one dollar bills. Yikes. I heard Mickey Ds pays folks 15 in NYC. Now, I have heard some folks that got started in companion deals actually suck it up and work for a facility. They get to know family members and get on good terms. When they build up a network with the families that actually have the cash to pay a sitter/ companion, they quit and go that ways.

Double posting, but I just read your other post. It seems you want the layout, friend. Private sitters/ companions (non agency) is usually a pretty select field and word of mouth. It is also like being in bussiness for yourself. I hear you about those sitting agencies not paying very well if those are the agencies you are talking about. You could try craigslist. However, I have gotten some pretty messed up things off of there. One person wanted me to go all the way across town for 2 hours then leave and come back at night for 2 hours. Of course, only wanting to pay me for 4 hours! Another advertised he wanted someone in good shape to lift. Turns out this parplegic guy turned 5 shades of pink when a big dude that rides a bike 20 miles a day showed up! He wanted some hawt female CNA to bathe his ..er... thing!

Some of those agencies actually pay more than the facilities themselves. I would go with 2 agencies while you look. You will also, depending on the agency get to work in a variety of places from home settings, psych units, and hospital floors. Plus, agency does count as experience, if that is what is not getting you past the paper pushers in HR. Careful though, many agencies make you sign a non compete which means if they have no work for you and you really like one of the places they sent you, you can not work for them. Also, agency tends to go through cycles where there may be tons of work or no work. There are also quite a few last minute cancellations by facilities as they will ask around to see who wants to fill an open slot for extra hours if they can avoid paying agency. NEVER cancel with them or no-call no show and go to where they want, even last minute calls. If you do that, the dispatcher is more likely to have you on his or her short list to call first when something pops up.

Meh... with a BS degree, you could at least be a whopper flopper watcher (manager/shift leader) as opposed to a whopper flopper. Good luck.

There would be some who would pay to get past the BS that is waitlists and entrance process that is most nursing schools. Thing is, yeah, no legit school would EVER take the credits and if you wanted to one day be a CRNA or NP you would have to start all over. But, for just RN, would it matter? RN and LPN are state board tests. As long as these rip-off colleges did allow you to sit for the NCLEX, it is it really a rip off? Some people would hock thier soul to get out of fast food or some miserable career. Nurses have it pretty good compared to a lot of careers. Now.. paying that much for any field that is not controlled by a liscensing board... that's a rip off. Personally, though.. I would have CNA and be in good with folks I worked at to get a job afterwards if I had to go that route. You will not be getting in on merit of the school, for sure. EDIT: 15k for PCT is a rip off. PCT, with the exception of a very few states that actually have a separate PCT state certification is a rip off. PCT = CNA most places in the country. But once again - must be controlled by a board not to be a rip off.

Accreditation for CNA does not matter. Only the certificate and if passing the course for that institution will allow you to take the state test. I have heard of some nursing schools letting you out of one RN or LPN course if you take CNA with them, but this is the exception rather than the rule. I would go with the cheapest possible. Do not go PCT unless your state makes a distiction between PCT and CNA. That said, 385 USD sounds very reasonable for what CNA actually pays. These places charging 1k for CNA is ridiculous. Do not let other people try to insert what they want on you. If you want to be a RN, CNA will at best make you into durn good RN. At worst you may decide nursing is not for you. But, at least it only cost 385 instead of thousands and HARD RN school to find out.

CNA also qualifies you to work as a MHT - Mental Health Tech on psych wards. Dialysis, therapy and those type jobs in my area are pretty much a "who you kow" thing. But once you work for one of those places you can always work at another. For therapy they like folks that are at least some of the way through PTA or OTA school and choose those first. I hear you about nursing homes. The last one I worked at left such a bad taste in my mouth I have been tearing down sheet rock and demolishing houses I needed a break so bad. Some of these nursing homes can be really poisonous places and bad for one's mental health as a CNA. Not talking about the residents. They loved me. It's all the nurses and other CNAs that seemed to be miserable and the ungodly workload.

Actually, unlike nursing, OTA and PTA REQUIRE you to observe for many hours before they even let you enroll in the full program. I gaurantee if nursing school did that or at least required 6 months CNA, nursing would be a better place. I would do it at many facilities, not just one. Since I worked agency as a CNA, I got to observe COTAs in hospitals, nursing homes, and an LTAC. Much different beast depending on where you go.

I would choose therapy over nursing. Therapy gets way more autonomy and better hours. If you want to work directly with folks, you may want to try for Physical Therapy or Occupational Therapy. Those, however, because of degree inflation are now Master's Degrees and are pretty competitive to get into. However, there are 2 year programs in both OT and PT that will get you in the field and pays comparable (if not a bit more) to RN-AAS. Check commuity colleges if you go this route (PTA/OTA). Then take the program then bridge over to MS PT or MS OT. OT/PT do work most of the areas you say you would love, including pediatrics and phych. Now... about CNA. I am a CNA currently. I have a love/hate relatioship with it. True, you help out tons of folks. But, in my experience, the "help folks out" is sometimes more along the lines of a room service for pee/poo removal, food, and fix the TV kind of way. A CNA does get good experience towards nursing. As a therapist OR nurse, it will help you through school for the mere fact pee and poo will not bug you and you will be already familiar with how people behave with mental problems and you will not freak out. Problem is, without experience you may end up working at, shall we say, not as good facilities. This is even if you say you are going to school. In fact, some managers do not like those going to school because if you are you may be tired or less likely to be as "dedicated". You may find yourself heavily overworked, put up with snide remarks, demeaning treatment, and be a dime a dozen. Now as a therapist, you can be firm with people. But as a CNA, one complaint will earn you a trip into a DoNs office or unemployment. Myself, I chose COTA. I still do CNA, but I can not wait. The difference between nursing and therapy is this: Nursing is DEPENDENCE and waitering, Therapy is INDEPENDENCE and teaching! Hope that helps and gives you other options.

Most well heeled folks with that kind of money in the hypothetical situation listed in the scam have thier own personal private full time companion or two. If they go on vacation, they take the companion with them. Unless the person is a severe jerk, most keep the same companion for years. No one in thier right mind would pay some unknown person in a far flung state double the prevailing wage. If by the extremely remote chance they do have to get an out of state CNA for a trip, you bet they are going to deal with a local agency. Scam artist takes advantage of desperate folks who want a well paid "lay out" and do not understand the way the sitting game works.

I have uncovered yet another scam targeted at CNAs who are stuck in bad facilities in rough job markets. There are forums like indeed where folks post. There is also a HUGE thread of CNAs begging for the mythical "travel CNA" jobs. Instead of posting fake ads to indeed, they just pose as a recruiter in forums. Then.. they charge the "background check" fee. I am going, listen... THERE ARE NO TRAVEL FACILITY CNA JOBS! No one in thier right mind is going to pay a CNA's apartment, travel, higher than average salary on top of a headhunters fee! Not when the local workforce can be hired at minumum wage and there are local per diem agencies already in the area that would salivate over a contract like that in these times that agency is hurting bigtime. In fact, I only have found one or two "legit" CNA "travel" agencies. But, these are the guys that break union attempts. It is only for a short period, only pays CNAs around 16 an hour, and is totally unreliable. They also make you get repricocity. Repricocity for us is not as easy as for RN. Ours is a maze. And you betcha they are going to take folks that live close over anyone else. Plus... the karma! 16/hr for a CNA is great in the south, but it's peanuts where these areas are. Is that enough to screw over CNAs in another state trying to improve life's lot. I will pass.

More serious note.. one of the things I have always hated is this "fault finding" attitude with nursing. It is like it does not matter if someone is confused and you can not medicate or restrain them or even caring about the resident's condition. It's about who they can blame.

I am off. Have fun guys! I am just going to sit here with a cold brew and spend quality time with the laptop while the crazies get supercharged! But really, I am pretty much agnostic and used to not put too much stock in superstition. But, being in this field has made a true believer out of me. That moon is evil!

If you are asking about what I call "lay out" jobs as a CNA, sorry. Most clinic jobs are rare and are refered to by a "friend of a friend". Even jobs like restorative are very cliquish and these are rarely hired off the street. That said, you MAY be able to find jobs sitting with either an agency or through a facility itself (if lucky). My personal opinion, though is that sitting jobs is one of the worst in CNA. It is great if you have someone that just lays there. But, a good percentage of the time, I found myself closed up in a 8 by 8 room with a crazed confused person who wanted to rip off clothes, catheter, and all to walk out the facility and down the highway with a pool of blood trickling out the pee hole. What is worse is many nurses will not medicate that person or initiate procedures to restrain that person. That's YOUR job :) edit: Forgot..MA... durn allnurses and thier lumping of job titles :) MA, in theory is a bit better. But that depends on area. In my area MA is a rip-off program because everyone uses LPNs for that because of the job market. Existing positions for MAs is fought over becuase few leave. From other posters in other areas, though, I hear it is a bit better. It makes me want to move :)

I agree. It is the reason sometimes I take a few breaks from allnurses CNA boards. It is the same questions and comments year in year out. But, what can you say. It is one of the better job discussion boards out there for CNA. I come here even though I am in the middle of being a Occupational Therapy Assistant which will take me completely off these boards in a few years. But, for right now, I am a CNA. But still, I enjoy the nurse boards. Compared to the OT boards I lurk at, you guys have MUCH more fun! Now, my personal pet peeve is those complaining about looking for work when they use no paragraphs and have 50+ misspelled words. On gaming hobby forums, we call it "crushed by wall of text" ! Then... never post again!