Gain Experience as a CNA
Having handy skills for a Nurse Aide should be very strong communication skills, as you are the one who is link between the patients and the Nurses and Doctors. Teamwork is essential for the benefit of your patients, so flying solo is not an option in this career. Some skills you will use daily as a CNA will become routines that you have to use every day, so getting them right and forming good habits early on is very vital.
Traits that Make Up the Core of your Job:
cleansing and sterilizing: you'll administer medication or in most cases assist the head nurse with medications and perform tests (such as collecting stools) from patients and be able to cleanse a work area, or even just washing your hands (one of the most important Skills).
Preservation of Privacy: Maintaining patient privacy and complying with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) are absolutely critical for everyone with the medical field. Learn and know your medical privacy laws.
Respect and Compassion: The clients you'll work with as a CNA may be in some extremely difficult circumstances. Patients living in, or receiving treatments at a nursing care facility can have disabilities, impaired mobility, memory loss, or other difficulties that make if hard for them to care for themselves.
Communication Skills: As a CNA you are the level between patient and head nurse or nurses. Both oral and written communication about the medical issues, medications, and history of the patients will be a daily part of your life.
1.) Deciding where you want to work
As a CNA, you can work in a array of facilities from nursing homes, hospitals, hospice, to home care. Do your research and decide which paths are right for you. Many CNA's will work in a few different arrays of jobs to get more experience.
First and Most important is building your resume and cover letter, even if you are just starting out, it's important to show your work experiences period.
Check out local job listings and look online, CNA's are in high demand. This can be a great place to start your search.
Where are your career goals? Do you want to be a lifelong CNA? If so, a nursing home or hospice might be the right place for you.
If you are thinking of going into a nursing facilities, look at their credibility. You want to be careful, as some nursing homes have been known to hire CNA's to replace Nurses, which is illegal. Check with your State to see if they facility your thinking of working for has many red flags. Also, Check out the Website, Nursing home inspections, as they provide information concerning recent nursing home inspections that might identify any complaints or recent issues.
2.) Find and apply for Jobs
Once you have gotten a sense of your options, you can begin the application process. Once again, have a Cover Letter and Resume ready, as during the process of applying they will ask you for a resume and it's important to show you have skills (even if they are not nursing skills yet). Indeed and Simply hired are some great resources for finding jobs, although they have a high volume, don't let yourself get discourage.
Send out letters and resumes to local nursing home facilities, show them your interested in working for their company. Even sometime sending an email to show your interest can land you an interview.
Check with the training program you took, sometimes they have job placement services to help you land a job interview while your still in training.
Make connections with CNA's you may have trained with during your skills training or the facility you trained at.
3.) Maintaining your Certification with State
Once you have passed both your exams with State, you become apart of their registry of Licensed Nurses. All States' are different, and usually you will learn the requirements during your training, but most expect you work at least a certain number of hours a year and that you continue your education level every year or every two years.
A lot of times these continuing education hours are provided by the facilities that you work with, however, if they do not you can get free one's online or even pay with a program online that provides credit hours. Many States will require 8 working hours a year, and 12 credit hours every two years.
Credit hours are continuing your learning in the field of a Certified Nurse Aide. And like I said before, many nursing home facilities will require you do this anyway, and will provide them classes for you free.
(Resources and Research was conducted online and experience work knowledge @2017 Social Super Nurse)
