What Does it Take to Become A Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)?
Certified Nursing Assistants tend to the basic care needs of their patients as well as help with daily activities such as walking, range-of-motion exercises and patient safety. Because they spend so much time with their patients, they are sometimes considered the nurse’s and doctor’s eyes and ears. They listen to patients, observe their behaviors and look for signs of improvement or complications–making them a key component of a patient’s recovery.
Certified Nursing Assistant’s Work Environment
As a Certified Nursing Assistant, you could work in many different environments including nursing homes, hospice, assisted living and hospitals. With each environment may come different job duties you will be required to perform. Below are a few of the more general duties you can expect.
The Job duties of a CNA:
• Take patient vital signs
• Perform basic patient care – bathing, feeding, dressing, bathroom needs
• Update patient charts
• Observing, reporting and documenting changes in behavior and condition
• Changes to bedding and other needs
Is Becoming a Certified Nursing Assistant Right for Me?
Being a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) is not a glamorous job. It requires a lot of hard work, but can be extremely rewarding. Certified Nursing Assistants need to be smart, compassionate and friendly. They also need to be able to perform in stressful situations without showing their stress. Other traits of a good Certified Nursing Assistant Include:
- Hard working
- Physically active
- Enjoy helping others
- Good listener
- Patience
- Works well under pressure
What can you expect when training to become a Certified Nursing Assistant?
Many Certified Nursing Assistant programs take as short as 6 weeks to complete–making it easy to make a change and start a new career. During your training you will learn a variety of skills including:
- Basic nursing skills
- Standards of patient care and their rights
- Roles and responsibilities
- How to take vital signs and record observations
- Infection control
- Nutrition
- Restorative care
In addition to coursework, you should expect to participate in clinicals, which will provide an opportunity to gain real-world experience and use the skills you learned throughout your course in an actual work setting.
Taking the Nursing Assistant Certification Exam
The final step in becoming a Certified Nursing Assistant is to take the Nursing Assistant Certification exam. This will not only help you gain the Certified Nursing Assistant title, but also the respect of your co-workers and confidence you need to succeed in your new career.
Interested in Becoming a Certified Nursing Assistant?
Let Valley College help. Our Nursing Assistant program can help you gain the skills and knowledge you need to become a Certified Nursing Assistant. To learn more about the Valley College Certified Nursing Assistant program, click here to request information or call one of our campuses below.