caltripp

My 16 year old daughter thinks that she wants to become a RN in a neonatal unit. We live in Utah and her high school counselor told her that she would have to take a CNA course....that it is required to enter into a RN program. So I thought, maybe its just the state college / universities that are requiring that so I called a private college and they said the same thing. Here is my problem with her taking the CNA.... As a RN, she wants to work in neonatal...taking care of babies. Or I am sure she wouldn't mind a position in say at the Childrens Hospital. I think she just wants to help kids. So, I don't see how wiping and cleaning a grown man's butt and genitals is going to in anyway help her. Changing a diaper on an adult is a lot different than changing one on a baby or young child. Do all states / schools now have this CNA requirement in order to enter an RN program? Or are there some programs where you can do clinicals at childrens hospital instead of a nursing home?? Can you go straight to RN training or do you have to become an LPN first? I am trying to help my daughter make the right choices with her school schedule and the direction she might want to go after graduation. She is a junior and I had let her sign up for the CNA program at the local tech school that is conjunction with her school. She is supposed to start it next semester. But, I didn't realize that, at 16 years old, that she would be asked to wash a grown man's genitals....that just doesn't seem right to me and I don't want her doing it.....not at 16. But I don't want to totally discourge her from becoming a neonatal RN if that is truely what she wants to do. I told her that I at least wanted her to wait a year on the CNA thing. If I can find a school that doesn't require the CNA or has clinicals at a childrens hospital, then I could send her in that direction after graduation. Does anyone know if there is an RN program somewhere that is geared toward childrens care?? Thanks!

My 16 year old high school daughter is thinking about going into nursing so she signed up for the CNA course offered at the local technical college which she also gets class credit for. At the time we signed her up, I really didn't know what a CNA did, but the more I research, the more I am worried about her taking this course. It's the clinicals that I am worried about. She will be working in a nursing home, helping the regular nurses there care for the elderly, right? The part I am worried about with that is the "assist in dressing and bathing". In clinicals, can the nurses have her bathe a naked man including washing his genital area? Or have her change a Depends undergarment and have to clean the genial area of an old man? For her to have to do that at 18, I wouldn't have as much problem with it. At 18 your considered an adult. But I don't want her doing that sort of thing at 16. Please let me know. Thanks!