what do you recommend?

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OK, I don't have my CNA certification and I'm only up to A & P II for my prereqs. Basically I have very little hospital experience, other than being a patient myself or from my family members being patients. I want to get some hospital experience and start working FT in a hospital setting until I start Nursing school. What positions do you all recommend to get a good idea of how hospitals operate? I would love to do CNA work, but I don't have time to get my certification and I do not have enough experience. I've considered doing some kind of medical secretary work. What's the best way for me to gain experience? I just don't want to be totally clueless when I start clinicals...

Thanks :)

I am sooo sorry AGNUS!!! I feel like an idiot but I sat here and laughed at your remark til I about wet myself. I needed a good chuckle today...thanks.

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You know incontenance is treatable. Now remember to use the potty Q2H.:kiss

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

Q1 for me lately, i've have Thimble-Bladder Syndrome lately. I look like a living Detrol commercial at work.

I recommend CNA training. There's a lot of people who've never pulled up a pt. in bed, and don't even know the proper ways to position a pt., or how to clean an incontinent pt., and had to learn on their own that's in my class. A lot of people got a crash course on this the first day of clinicals.

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Some schools are requiring CNA certification in order to enter the clinical courses. That saves alot of time in Fundamentals, as the beds/baths/vital signs skills have been taught, and the curriculum can bild upon CNA learning.

However, some schools don't require CNA certification. If your school doesn't, you will probably learn those same skills from your nursing professors during your first clinical course. AFter completing that first course, most hospitals will hire you as a nurse assistant. I was a nurse assistant in a major medical center during nursing school, and was hired after the first clinical course. I learned alot from the job, but never felt like I came close to knowing everything. The unit that I was on was so specialized that it didn't apply to much of my coursework. What I did walk away with was some socialization with professional nurses.

During nurisng school, I'd recommend getting a job that pays the most for the least amount of time put in. Because being in nursing school is just like having a full time job, and schedling time to work is easy, but some students tell me that they have a hard time scheduling enough time to study.

Just my two cents. Good luck.

STG

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Wow people are getting nasty in here!!!!

Anyway to post a reply to the question I think if you want expecience CNA is the way to go...Although I was never an aide until the end of my junior year. It really helped me to learn how things really work rather than how the professiors teach you...I strongly recommend taking an internship as well..I would take it when you get the basic knowledge down..there is nothing wrong with learning in any profession!!!!Good luck and I hope you figure out what to do...I think someone wrote about a phlebotomist (i think that is how you spell it) :D that is a great idea. I graduated in May 2003 and I am now an RN and that is one of the toghest things to learn how to do!!!! Good luck!!!

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
Originally posted by Agnus

Dang! I gotta change my online name. It is not Angus it is Agnus. You know the girl's name. (remember the movie Agnus of God) Easy mistake and no offense taken. I'm a girl. :chuckle

Put "I am a female" or A-G-N-U-S for your title under your nickname lol

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Just adding my 2 cents... I was a CNA, HHA then a LVN. I feel that if I was not a CNA first I would not be the nurse that I am today. This is just a suggestion... If you have the time to do a 2-6 wk course and do 6mos to a year work experience it will be well worth it. Working independently, getting to know your patients and families, being overworked LOL will only make you a better nurse at the end. I was used to being overworked and not appreciated so by the time I became a LVN it was a piece of cake.

Oh yeah, you will learn bedside manner because I know some nurses that... well lets just leave at that. Good Luck to you for whatever decision you make.

Teresa

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Specializes in Medical/Surgical.

Thanks everyone! :D Lot's of info here.

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Specializes in Surgical.

Ok, it sounds like there is a lot of assumptions being made...so let me throw my opinion into the mix here. I was a CNA before beginning nursing school and I felt like there was so much I knew about nursing that school would be a cinch...WRONG! Like it was said earlier being a CNA will help you in your nursing career by knowing how to provide total patient care ie: pulling pt up in bed. Being a CNA will NOT help you in nursing school. In nursing school the tests require critical thinking in the nursing role and it was very hard to get out of the CNA way of thinking and think like a nurse. Being a CNA didnt help me one ioda when it came to renal, A&P, cardiac. So, if you want to do something to help you care for patients then get your CNA, if you want to do something to help you in nursing school then learn how to study!!!

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I agree with you nursenatalie, before I was ever an aide I was in marketing for almost two years and I know for sure that none of the work I am doing as an STNA will help me with my test, studying, etc.

However, with direct patient care I know it will come in handy. There won't be that awkwardness with pt/r like when I first became an aide.

Agnus, sorry for firing off at you. I had a really shitty am at work right when I got off and took it out on you, I apologize.

jules

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