Why should there be a certification to be a nursing assistant?

[giraffe4]

I feel a lot of it is pretty easy work to learn. There are already personal care assistants, nursing assistants (that aren't certified) that are in hospitals, home care aides, without being certified. I feel the only thing that you should be certified in is BLS (Basic Life Support) and First Aid/CPR. I just don't see how hard it is to take a person to the bathroom or check vitals (an automatic vital thing is used mostly), go from room to room to see what a patient needs. It can all be easily learned in a nursing home where the assistants aren't even certified. CNA is very basic compared to what RN/LPN's do. What do you guys think?

[lurn1234]

Agree with @hygiene queen

"If you think being a CNA is "easy" and there is no thinking involved, you need to think again.

Is it rocket science?"

[giraffe4]

Read my post afterwards :)

[motherof3sons]

I just finished teaching a CNA course and there is a lot more to it than assisting someone to the bathroom. A CNA is often the eyes and ears for the RN, esp in LTC. If not taught what the normal is then they can't report the abnormal. I am just one set of eyes to oversee a house full of residents. I can't see every resident's skin, what they ate, bowel/bladder status, ect in 8 hours....I depend on my CNA's to report to me the abnormal so I can follow up.

[nursel56]

CNA work might not be difficult to learn, but it is still important and you can do a lot of harm by doing those tasks/procedures incorrectly.

For the delivery of hands-on patient care, the only tests of I know of that are standardized across states and territories are the NCLEX-RN and PN and that only since 1994.

Other than that it is up to the governing bodies of those jurisdictions to license, certify or do nothing at all for people providing care. The certification is meant to assure the public that the departments of public health only allow those who have met a pre-determined standard to care for patients. There is at least on state that licenses caregivers and calls them LNAs. The same confusion applies to Medical Assistants.

[giraffe4]

I just finished teaching a CNA course and there is a lot more to it than assisting someone to the bathroom. A CNA is often the eyes and ears for the RN, esp in LTC. If not taught what the normal is then they can't report the abnormal. I am just one set of eyes to oversee a house full of residents. I can't see every resident's skin, what they ate, bowel/bladder status, ect in 8 hours....I depend on my CNA's to report to me the abnormal so I can follow up.

Not my point. There are non certified assistants working in hospitals. That is my entire point of the whole topic. I feel they SHOULD be certified. You only read one sentence of my entire paragraph. You are making it seem I don't think CNA does ANY hardwork like it is a McDonald's job. This topic is not about CNA's, it is about the non certified, although have some training, working in environments of the certified.

[motherof3sons]

I was a CNA long before I was a RN....it is absolutely a hard job. In my state to work in a hospital or nursing home you must be a CNA.

[glowbug, BSN, RN]

I'm not sure where you reside, but in my state CNA's do a lot. They are not only responsible for ADLs, but for recording I&Os, D/C IV's & catheters, replacing wound dressings, & EKG's. There are a million names for nursing assistants now, but not all are certified and have enough experience to work on the hospital floor. Its a totally different ball game; working as a care giver/personal care assistant is nothing like a CNA/TECH that works on the Tele or Med/Surg unit.

[NaeRN]

"I feel a lot of it is pretty easy work to learn. There are already personal care assistants, nursing assistants (that aren't certified) that are in hospitals, home care aides, without being certified. I feel the only thing that you should be certified in is BLS (Basic Life Support) and First Aid/CPR. I just don't see how hard it is to take a person to the bathroom or check vitals (an automatic vital thing is used mostly), go from room to room to see what a patient needs. It can all be easily learned in a nursing home where the assistants aren't even certified. CNA is very basic compared to what RN/LPN's do. What do you guys think?"

Your comments on CNAs actually seems pretty much like it came from someone who knows ZERO about the job of a CNA, PCA, PCT... a BLS certification is CPR certification.. and you just don't know what you are talking about. I shake my head at people like you. A CNA is an intricate part of the nursing team, though we are misunderstood, undervalued and highly unappreciated. Though you may feel that a CNA is a basic role and doesn't (shouldn't) require certification other than BLS, I am confident that my nurses ate glad that I can report to them things that I find out of the ordinary, and that is due to my "little basic" certification class. Thanks. I recommend you take an accelerated CNA course and see how little of a brain it actually requires.

[funtimes]

Hospitals don't require you be a CNA(at least most don't) because you are working under a physicians license and you have RNs, physicians and other staff assessing the patients routinely, which you don't necessarily have in a LTC environment. On a typical hospital med surge floor one RN probably has maybe 5 or 6 patients, sometimes less, so if an aide isn't keeping up the RN can usually pick up the slack, at least for a time.

In LTC there is no one else to pick up the slack, if an aide doesn't do it, it doesn't get done. In LTC the CNAs pretty much have to do EVERYTHING for the residents, at least where I worked. If you don't feed someone, they dont eat. If you don't clean them up and change their brief, they sit or lie in feces indefinitely, if you don't reposition them, they get bed sores. Incompetent CNAs can cause a LOT of problems in LTC. In LTC one RN may have 30 or more residents, so its more important to have aides who can be trusted and have been trained properly.

Hospital floors are also more specialized, so a CNA class will teach a lot of things you wont use often, and wont teach many of the things you will do continually, so hospital units tend to opt for more on the job training or job experience that matters for that type of unit or those type of patients.

Having said that many hospitals require previous experience and SOME sort of formal training, be it CNA, MA, PCT, EMT, or nursing school. Its rare someone just gets hired into a hospital out of the blue with no training or experience, and if it does happen its usually the result of nepotism.

[glowbug, BSN, RN]

Um... there is a lot of misinformation in this post. First off, certification requirements vary by state, and the roles of CNAs differ within each state. Secondly, many states have a registry now a days; if you are working in a hospital your name and registration number can be looked up by your social security number (NC DHSR HCPR: State Nurse Aide Registry List).

It only takes one second to Google this information or scan a job board site and see that.

[MelanieWelch]

I have worked as an LNA for several years; I am also just about done with nursing school. There is nothing easy about working as an LNA! Being certified or licensed teaches you so much more than just taking a patient to the bathroom. I certainly hope you will rethink your attitude toward LNAs; you don't want to be "that nurse" that looks down on her assistants.

[FlowerChild2005]

If you are a new Cna you will feel lost without training.I think all aides should be certified.It never hurts to learn the skills especially if you have never performed basic nursing skills before. At my hospital our responsibilities as cnas keep growing and we are required to attend all the inservice\training meeting the RNs and LPNs are required to attend.