Thinking of letting my CNA expire

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Specializes in LTC, Rehab, Vascular Telemetry, Med Surg.

I have been a CNA for almost four years. I started working in LTAC for over three years and now work at a hospital as a Clinical Care Partner(another name for Patient Care Tech). I had to leave LTAC because the heavy lifting was starting to take a toll on my body and I have a medical condition, which I was advised by the doctor to stay away from the constant heavy lifting.

Most of my patients at my job are ambulatory and there is barely any lifting involved.

My CNA certification is about to expire June this year. Human resources told me that my pay is based on my experience and not my CNA certification. At a Care Partner meeting, administration said that they will hire anyone to be a Care Partner as long as they have some basic caregiving experience. I have no intentions of leaving my hospital job and if I let my CNA certification expire, I will not lose my job nor will it affect my pay.

I am only working as a Care Partner until I get through school.

But at the same time, I worked hard to earn this CNA certification so should I let it expire? I was told that I should never let my CNA certification expire. I am not sure if it is a good idea or not since I can never work in LTAC again.

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Keep it, at least until you finish school. You can use the CNA certificate to do home care for an agency taking care of one patient only on an infrequent basis. Just in case. Once you have a nursing license, then let it expire.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Trauma.

I would keep it, as well. Heaven forbid they do decide to make having a CNA a requirement for your position (I've seen it happen), plus you may want to move onto other things that require a CNA. If you can afford it, I'd keep it until you're done with school.

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Specializes in Long term care.

Keep your certification. You never really know what the future holds. It's easy enough to keep it current then to have to recertify if something unplanned happens.

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Specializes in LTC, Rehab, Vascular Telemetry, Med Surg.

Thank you everyone for the advice. I decided to keep my CNA certification.

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