Some advice

[tookewlandy]

Hey all u great people

i am currently a nurses aide, and i work for people who are mentally retarded and they are placed in a home setting so they can have a chance at what everyone else can have basically a normal life. I love this job so muched it has changed me as aperson being able to do the thing si can to better the lives of these people. I am currently in nursing school well pre nursing school( please pray that i get inot the fall 06 prgram:mad: ) i was wondering is thsi good experience for being a nurse and for nursing school clinicals or shoul di go to a nursing home or some hospital. I really love my job you dont even have to be certified to do it(but i am) and i want the experience so that i am not overwhelmed when my time comes but i dont know if this job i am currently at is the right choice for experience. If anyone has any insight on this i would love to hear it

Andrew

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

I am one of many nurses who does not feel that being a CNA working in a hospital or nursing home is necessary before going to nursing school. I didn't start working as a nursing assistant until I finished my first year of nursing school and then it was because I needed the money to live on.

The thing is that doing actual hands on nursing care is only one part of being an RN. An RN is a manager and supervisor of a patient's care. So, knowing what physical nursing care involves is necessary for them to know in order to plan the patient's care. However, there are many other activities that an RN becomes involved in that are far removed from what a CNA does that you will only be able to experience when you are in a nursing program and become an RN yourself.

So, I would say to you that if you enjoy working with patients you now work with, stay where you are as you pursue your nursing studies. I wouldn't give up a job I loved to try I something I wasn't sure of. You will learn everything you need to know about giving direct hands on nursing care in the first 9 weeks of your nursing program when you finally start your nursing classes. There are a good number of nursing students who start nursing classes having never done any kind of nursing job before. If it were important to have nursing care experience, the school would make it a requirement to get into the nursing program. Again, I have to emphasize that RN's are primarily manager's of patient care. This is one reason why their training programs are most often college based.