A certified nursing assistant is a great investment in a vocational education. In order to become a certified nursing assistant, classes have to be taken to learn advanced as well as basic concepts and duties required to help
with patient care in hospitals, nursing facilities and homes.
You can take courses at a facility or register for an online course for certification. The certified nursing assistant is fast tracked into the medical field. The wonderful thing about certification as a nursing assistant is that you can branch into different venues from this medical foundation.
You can also have in-house CNA training courses at nursing facilities and similar service providers and receive certification after completing the in-house training. The nice thing about facilities that offer the in-house training courses along with your certification is that you will be earning money as you learn. Typically after graduation, you are offered a position at the facility.
The CNA certification is a two part course that consists of a study, learn and test or book portion and then a “hands on” segment called “clinicals”.
The study segment of the certification has an array of basic knowledge about diseases. For example, what are the common symptoms of diabetes? What constitutes a healthy diet for a patient? These are similar to the questions involved with the written portion of the certification.
In the clinical portion of the certification, you will physically come into contact with actual patients. You will perform procedures such as changing bed pans, moving patients around in their beds and other techniques such as checking patients for vital signs. Range of motion techniques will be learned as well as how to transfer patients using a gait belt.
After you have performed all of the essentials of the certified nursing assistant role, you will take the test to receive your certification. Passing both parts of the test will allow you to be placed on your state’s registry for certified nursing assistants and receive a certification card.
After becoming a certified CNA, you will need to have continuing education classes that must be completed to maintain your certification. The mandatory continuing education is generally 12 hours per year and is typically an overview of the information that you have already learned with any changes to your state regulations or statues concerning patient care.
Many facilities that have CNAs on staff will provide them with meetings and other related or required materials needed to recertify your state registration.
Annually you will receive a letter from your state registry requesting verification of your employment as a certified nursing assistant. These are usually given to your supervisor to complete and verify your employment as a certified nursing assistant. After completion of the state’s paperwork, you will be re-added or updated to the state’s current certified nursing assistant registry.
If you take a leave from employment as a certified nursing assistant, you can still stay registered and certified with your state. You will need to practice and report at least 8 hours of employment as a CNA in your state within a 2 year time frame.