What can I expect?

fuzzywuzzy, CNA · Dec 2, 2010

Expect a lot of people to be... not so nice. Your trainer will probably be very busy and you'll just follow her around on the first day. Ask a lot of questions about the routine so you're not lost when you go on your own, ie you may be ambulating and rounding on some residents in the beginning of the shift and doing HS care on a different set of residents later- that really threw me at first because everything kind of ran together and I didn't realize it at first. Write stuff down. When you do go on your own, you'll be slow at first. Remember to move quickly. It may take you a half hour to do a bath that would take someone else 15 minutes but you should really be hustling from room to room. What I would do as a new CNA is freeze and think "what do I do now?" and that's not good. There's always something to do, so just move on rather than waste time deliberating. The only time to stop and think is when you leave a room, make sure the resident is safe- has call bell, alarms are on, bed is low, floor pads are down, etc.

Know what you have to have done by the end of the shift- in my case it was second shift, so I had a set of residents that had to be in bed (with the appropriate safety measures I mentioned above). Obviously there's a lot more stuff to do, like toilet or change everyone 4 times, give drinks, and do vitals, not to mention walking people and dinner (although usually everyone collaborates on those last 2). When I was new, most of that toileting got skipped because it took me so long to finish putting people to bed. There are things you can get away with not doing and things that have to be done. Focus on what absolutely needs to get done and fudge the rest, and in a few weeks you'll figure out how to do it all.

stargurl2006 · Dec 5, 2010

Thanks fuzzy! I'm super nervous but excited that I will finally be USING the license I worked so hard for :-)