CNA stands for Certified Nursing Assistant, where a trained person help out patients, clients or service users with healthcare requirements under the management of Registered Nurse (RN) or a Licensed Practical Nurse(LPN).  CNAs are also known as Nursing Assistant (NA), Patient Care Assistant (PCA), State Tested Nurse Aide (STNA) or Health Care Assistant (HCA). It is one among the top recession-proof professions that will have enormous requirements in the upcoming years.

In general, CNAs take care of the basic healthcare needs by serving with activities of daily living of an individual or patients of different age groups, so that patients feel more sheltered and relaxed.  CNAs are required to work in patient’s home, nursing homes or in hospitals constantly under the supervision of a Registered Nurse (RN) and so they are aptly referred to as “eyes and ears” of the RN.  As nursing assistants take personal care of the patients, they provide the vital information regarding the condition of individual to the RN.

A CNA aspirant is required to undergo a CNA training program, and pass the CNA Certification test in order to become a CNA.  The CNA training courses are offered by Red Cross, online nursing schools and community colleges through medical facilities.  After passing the CNA certification test, you can register as a certified nursing assistant with the States association dealing with registration of nurses.  One of the benefits of choosing CNA as a career is that the CNA program can be completed in a short period of time.  It takes 6 to 8 weeks to complete the requirements and exams of CNA course.

The designation of a nurse assistant varies from place to place.  The CNA profession is quite demanding when the workload is considered,  but, most of the CNAs agree that the work is gratifying or rewarding as they wish to help and care patients in their difficulties.  The CNAs perform tasks like recording the vitals and activities of patients and report it to the nurses.  They help patients by answering their call signals, in their movement like walking, sitting or exercising.  The CNAs make sure that the patient’s beds and rooms are neat.  They help the patients in feeding, bathing or dressing if are not able to do so.

CNA is a wonderful career.  CNAs provide immenese comfort to the patients.  A CNA aspirant is required to have the ability to work in a team, have good interpersonal skills and have compassion to assist sick people when they are in need.  CNAs are in a great demand as there is a shortage of nurses. Even in the time of recession, the demand for CNA jobs has not reduced.   For the people with just a high school diploma, becoming a CNA is a great opportunity to make a career in health care field.

To choose CNA as a career, just need to get certified properly and improve the skills in this field. The saalries in CNA profession are decent.  One must know the responsibilities of CNA before choosing this as a profession.  If you’d derive satisfaction in caring and loving the patients, and if you’re ready to be a responsible person in society, the CNA may be a right career for you.

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In general, duties and range of responsibilities of a CNA would depend on the place you work, the state in which you reside and your position. In simple words, as a CNA, you would have to work under an attending nurse, and you would be expected to be her ‘eyes and the ears’.

The first and foremost duty and main obligation of a CNA is to take proper care of her patients.  As a nurse assistant, you would be responsible for the daily care and routine management of your patient.  This is especially the case when you would be assigned to take care of geriatric or elderly patients in nursing homes and day care facilities for older people.  You may also have to assist doctors and nurses to care for patients who are mentally disabled, physically disabled, ill, or injured.

As a CNA, you are expected to be quick in observations and to be able to take the right action in case any emergencies arise.  Every institution will have its own set of protocols for various procedures to be followed during the emergencies, and you’d be expected to comply with them.  You are thus responsible for the total health care package and program for your patients.   The nurse supervising you will depend on your reports about the patients. You need to feel comfortable going to the Nursing staff for assistance if the need arises. You should have good communication skills to communicate effectively in case something requires immediate attention from a Nurse.

If you work for a nursing home or hospital, your specific tasks and objectives will vary from unit to unit.  Your main duties will usually include monitoring and recording vital signs: temperature, pulse, respiration, and blood pressure, and assess the level of pain of the patient.  Your duties will often include taking patient history.  Some units will have other specific duties, such as offering assistance with eating, dressing, and moving your patient.

The Nursing Assistant profession demands a personality to be able to meet the challenging requirements. As a nurse assistant, you will have to remember that the facility where you work has a responsibility to provide the highest possible level of care to the patients.

There is a severe shortage of qualified nurse assistants because of the high turnover rate in this profession.  The high turnover is mainly due to stress and burnout, which is the result of continually feeling overwhelmed by your job duties. It is important that you pay attention to your stress and burnout, as patient care suffers the first in case of job burnouts.

The duties of a CNA or Certified Nursing Assistant are always challenging, but at the same time they can be enormously exciting, rewarding, and very satisfying. If you think you are interested in pursuing a career as Certified Nursing Assistant, you should take the next steps of obtaining your CNA certification.

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Certified Nursing Assistants, in general, take care of the most basic health care needs of the patients.  Since nurse assistants have regular daily contact with the patients, they are the ones who provide vital information about the condition of patients to the registered nurse.  CNAs are considered as eyes and ears of the nurses.  Thus, a career of a certified nursing assistant can be challenging, satisfying and rewarding in many ways.

There are many benefits of starting out your career as a Certified Nursing Assistant or CNA.  The first advantage is that you can become a CNA in fairly short amount of time.  Depending upon the CNA program, it may take just only four to six weeks to complete the CNA course requirements and the examinations; and you could be earning more than minimum wages as a Certified Nursing Assistant, in as little as eight weeks.

There are plenty of CNA jobs available, even during this phase of economic recession.  So if you become a CAN, your skills will be in high demand. There are roughly 1.8 million nursing assistants employed in the United States.  CNAs are recruited in a variety of health care facilities including hospitals, clinics, and homes for the aged.  The employee turnover in CNA profession is huge as many CNAs usually pursue advanced training to be come a Registered Nurse.  Thus, there is clearly a high growth rate for Certified Nursing Assistants.

As a CNA, you will not only earn more than minimum wages, but you may also advance your career to registered nursing career.  In other words, nurses are in demand, and it is a great time to pursue a career in nursing,  should it be a good fit for your personality.  To some people, being a Nursing Assistant is ‘just a job’ to pay the bills and nothing more.  These people have made a wrong choice in selecting the nursing career.  It is the patients who will suffer because of wrong career choice of such nursing assistants.  So before making the choice to enter this profession, one has to understand the duties of a CNA and should also realize that

• CNAs may have to do hard manual work such as lifting and transferring patients on a regular basis.
• The pay rates for CNA jobs may be lower than other health care jobs.
• CNAs must work in shifts, on week-ends, and holidays, which may interfere with personal life.

If you derive satisfaction taking care of others, love to be present with patients and families, love the challenges of being reponsible to others, and if you are willing to work in shits and not shun from physical work, then nursing assistant may be the right choice of career for you.

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On this site, we will provide resources and information about free online CNA training programs,  Red Cross CNA Training program and other related CNA Training programs that will help you to become a Certified Nursing Assistant.  We will also provide information about the demand for CNA jobs, typical  job description of an CNA, average salaries of certified nurse assistants etc.

A CNA ( Certified Nursing Assistant) is a person who helps patients with their healthcare needs and provides bedside care under the guidance of a RN (Registered Nurse).  In the United States, a CNA is also called as PCA (Patient Care Assistant) or NA/R (Nursing Assistant-Registered.  In other countries such as the UK, CNA are also called HCA (Healthcare Assistant), NT (Nursing Tech), PCA (Patient Care Associate), Aux-N (Auxiliary Nurse) or NA (Nursing Assistant).  Whatever may be the title, their role is identical.

The nurse assistant is a prime member of the health-care team, which provide routine care of the patients.  The nurse assistant, therefore,  must have a mastery of the basic skills in the actual procedures being performed.  In the United States, various attempts were made to control, regulate, and verify education and experience of people seeking jobs as nursing assistants; and it led to the North American Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) – a credential which is gained by completing statuary level of academic achievement and workplace experience. This certification also helps the employers to recruit nurse assistants with the right credentials.

Technorati Tags: CNA training, Certified Nursing Assistant, CNA jobs, nurse assistant, Registered Nurse