To be a CNA or not to be a CNA?

[confidentmama]

Hi all, I am new here, but read a lot of posts from the site. I am completing pre requisites for my community college ADN program, ai petition in a February for the fall of 2018. I have a Question for anyone willing to share their input/advice/experience. My program requires that I take the cna class and cna clinical for so many hours before so can petition. However, it does not require the certification. I don't necessarily have plans to work as a CNA. I know some people say it's a good learning experience and what not, but it's not required of me. I would like to go on and get my BSN eventually. So, I was wondering what people's experience was like. For those who didn't get the cna certification, did it seem to make a difference to you? Do you regret not getting your cna certification first? If you did, did you find it to be helpful to your RN classes/experience? Thank you for reading and your time, I appreciate any input.

[BAY AREA RN, BSN]

cna is pretty cool to have, i am going into my third semester and i am thinking about getting my cna certificate. Finishing your first semester of nursing school automatically qualifies you to get your certificate as one . A few of my class mates got theirs last semester and already received jobs as nurse techs, which allows them to get more experience with patient duties. If you get it, you will be well equipped for 1st semester which covers mainly cna work like vital signs, bathing, wound care, and much more. The students who were CNA did really well the 1st semester, our teaches actually place the students with no experience with the students who were cna's or lvn's so that they can help us students with no nursing knowledge

[Rionoir, ADN, RN]

I'm sure the experience would be beneficial, but the pay is so miserable I need to do something else with the limited time I have to work! I too had to take the CNA course though and that was a great experience I loved the clinical portion.