chi449rk

I just celebrated my one year anniversary as a CNA. I am in the process of looking at getting my nursing prerequisites out of the way so I can start a nursing program. I am so grateful that I chose to this path, especially when we have student nurses who are hitting the floor and coming into contact with patients for the first time. I can see where my hands on experience as a CNA will serve me well when I get to the place they're at. Even as a CNA working in a hospital, I'm doing better that I did when I owned my own business. At least now I get paid on a regular basis and I have insurance. Thank you for adding another spark to my inspiration.

As someone who is at number 8 on this list, I am very amused by this. I have read some posts by people on here who claim to have their certification and all I can say is that I am grateful that I have made this decision at the age of 48 to change careers. Because I've come to realize that jobs are different, but the dynamics are universal to any job. When I've managed people in the past, the #1 reason for letting someone go was attendance. If you're hired to work 3-11 and you say that's okay, don't come in two weeks later and ask to be moved to day shifts. How about I move you out the door? The #2 reason for getting rid of someone was performance. Every job has a training period, manuals, resources to help employees understand the expectations of the job. If you've been trained and you've indicated that you know what you're doing, then I'm going to assume you do. And when it becomes clear that they didn't bother to retain the training, they say it was too hard or there was too much to remember. Bye bye. Number 3 is my favorite combo. Lack of plain old common sense and under developed emotional IQ. I have been face to face with it in other jobs. And when people are let go or find it hard to advance because of any of these three things, it's because those people are awful. When we were doing our clinicals, I made sure that I learned the names of the nurses and CNA's on the ward. If I had a question, I waited until they were done with the thing in front of them. I made sure that my question was specific to the patient I was assigned to. When they answered my question I said thank you. When we had time, I would go to them and ask if there was anything they needed help with. When it was time to go at the end of our day, I made sure to thank them for their patience and their help and guidance during the day. I don't know if any of them will remember me, but I will remember all of them because they made my clinical experience even richer and I feel that I learned a great deal just by talking to them. I'd like to think that even though I was a student, I made those days I was there a little easier.

I am making a complete 180 degree career change and CNA is the first step. I just finished the BNA program with a 96.8 on the exam and now I'm gearing up for the State Certification exam. I'm confident that I'll ace that exam in June. Not to be critical, but for myself, I don't see the CNA postion as a stepping stone into nursing. I see it as the beginning foundation of my nursing career. I think one of the things I was shocked to find out was that there are some nurses who go to school and get hired and have no clue on how to change an occupied bed or any of the other tasks that a CNA does. Our instructor told us that we were getting more hands on clinical experience than some of those people sitting in classrooms. I can't say if that's true or not, but I do know this; my weeks of clinical training convinced me that I had made the right decision, but I realized that the CNA is an important member of the health care team. But I also came to realize that if I'm an awesome CNA, then I will be an even better nurse because I will have that body of experience that I can relate to. I do plan on going on and getting into nursing, but I don't want to rush through my CNA experience. Good luck to all of us.

I can appreciate a little sarcasm as much as the next guy. But I would like to point out that not all of us CNA's in training see this career path through rose colored glasses. There is a difference between reading about something and actually doing it. Giving a mock bed bath or changing an occupied bed with a classmate posing as the patient is vastly different when it's a real patient. I think before the reality occurs, there is a tendancy to place expectations upon how things are going to be. Of course those expectations are quickly smashed to pieces. There's also a level of maturity that comes into play. I had my own business and burned myself out trying to save if during the recession. I did save it, but I didn't care anymore. So I sold it and now I'm doing this. And I understand that the pay is not great, but I've found from working for myself that not great pay is better than not being able to pay yourself at all. My first day of clinicals the supervisor came and asked if we students had any problems with the staff. I said that everyone was great and helpful, but there seemed to be a little tension only for the reason that we're new and don't want to screw up on our first day of clinicals and the staff is looking at us hoping we don't screw up because that will make their day harder. It comes down to maturity, life experience, perspective and realistic expectations. If I keep my side of the street clean, then I have nothing to worry about.

I'm still in my CNA training and just finished our 2nd week of clinicals. Our first day of clinicals we were working with caution contact and for me personally that drove home the importance of gloves. I had that same question regarding gloves for feeding. There seems to be two schools of thought/practice, so I watched the CNA's working on the ward and then asked what the facility policy was. When in doubt, ask the charge nurse.

This is the program that I'm currently in. These instructors are awesome. The program consists of 94 hours of theory and 49 hours of clinical instruction. Satisfactory completion of the program leads to eligibility to take the state competency written evaluation for certification. A graduate of the program will be awarded a certificate of completion. The 8 week program is currently being offered at Saint Mary of the Nazareth Hospital Center in downtown Chicago and Holy Family Medical Center in Des Plaines. For information on our program at Saint Mary of the Nazareth Hospital Center please contact Connie Drogos at 312-770-2357 or Christine Waller at 312-770-2358.

I just finished my second week of clinicals, with two more to go before our skills test. When looking at the outlines of the steps that we're going to be tested on, the textbook is much more detailed. What I love about working clinicals is the hands on practice of the skills. I don't know about anyone else's training, but I feel very lucky that I chose the program that I did. There are 14 of us in my class and there are three instructors that rotate and focus on different areas. Our first day we were on the isolation unit. Nothing like starting strong, right? My second day, the patient I was assigned was pretty independant and mainly needed socializing. So I took my time with his bath and we talked. Spending that time with him, encouraging him to do what he could, taking those visual cues when I could see that something was beyond his range of motion, all of that is part of the skills that when you really think about it is just a combination of proper proceedure and common sense. There is a natural order to all of it. That's what I've remembered. Another way of thinking about it is this. You wouldn't take the trash, stick your hand in there and push wet garbage down, then wipe your hands with a dry paper towel, then start shaping hamburger patties and putting the raw meat on the same plate you're going to eat off. So in that sense, if you come in and you have to change the person and their bed linens, you'll do those tasks in the skills outline, or logical order. All the while making sure you change your gloves, wash your hands and put on fresh gloves after each of those steps where you finish a soiled step, moving into a sanitary step. The thing that has been beneficial to me is the encouragement by our instructors to take the initiative. When I was finished with my guy for the time being and while he was in physical thearapy, I went around and helped out other students. If no one needed help, then I went to the nurses and said, do you need help. If there was nothing there, then I went and checked to see if unoccupied beds needed to be made. There's a lot of steps to remember, but the actual practice of these skills is what gets it into your body. When you find yourself washing your hands at home the way it's outlined in the skills, then that's when you know it's in your body, not just something you're trying to commit to memory in your head. Good luck from another fellow CNA student. You'll be awesome.