They may sometimes be treated as second-rate personnel of the hospital or nursing homes, but CNAs also need to undergo a very rigid training program mandated by the Omnibus Nursing Act of 1994. In the CNA associate degree, the would-be CNA job seeker has to take up subjects on basic nursing foundation such as history of nursing, patient care, good hygiene, sterile environment, nurse-patient relationship, basic life support, and emergency procedures for a minimum period of six months to one year or even longer.
After passing the licensure exam given by the government, CNAs can begin working. In the United States the training program for CNA job seekers require a minimum of fifty hours to a maximum of seventy-five hours of classroom lecture and a minimum of fifty hours to a maximum of one hundred hours of medical training that includes an applied resident-care at nursing home facilities. And it does not end there. After completing the pre-requisites, students who passed the entire courses in both theoretical and clinical training are required to take state licensures to practice in the CNA profession. Every state in the United States has its own individual requirements for medical practitioners including the CNA. A CNA job is the performance of duties with the direction of registered nursing employment.
A lot of hospitals around the country need CNAs, especially with the proliferation of nursing homes all over United States. For quite a long time in the U.S. the positions have been filled from overseas especially with people from Asia. Nursing job openings have increased approximately 50 to 60 percent over the past ten years. Colorado has been experiencing a remarkable shortage in well-trained CNAs. The report of America’s Career InfoNet Occupation states there will be a 22 percent increase in the demand of CNAs that should be expected in the years to come. The average pay of a CNA job is from $9 to $12 per hour.
CNAs are normally aiming to become nurses, and this is their first step towards their goal. While working a full-time CNA job (which often means more than forty hours a week), they still attend nursing courses after their shift. Their CNA job will help them a lot in their nursing subjects. Even though the CNA job is definitely difficult and physically tasking, there are still a lot of people who are taking up the training. Other people who are in related medical fields such as emergency room technicians, orthopedic technicians, and medical assistants are taking up CNA courses because there are a few hospitals which require applicants to initially perform a CNA job before they can become an emergency room technician or orthopedic technician.
There are plenty of CNA jobs available at present. But you must remember that even if your license in a certain state where you have been doing a CNA job is still active and you are transferred to another state within the United States where you will assume another CNA job, you are, as mandated by local state laws, required to take a new state certification exam. If upon your transfer to another state\ you have been handling a CNA job for a period of time before your transfer, there is a possibility that you do not need to take up a refresher course. But if you stopped for working for a period of time, depending on the period stated by law, you might have to go back to school before taking the state certification exam for this kind of nursing employment.
Just like nursing jobs, being a CNA is not just a job. For others being a CNA is a calling. Despite the fact that CNA jobs are physically tiring, the pay is definitely very rewarding and the best reward that sometimes one gets as a CNA is the smile on an old lady’s face saying thank you. It is inevitable for all of us to grow old and it is nice to know that one part of your life is making someone happy.
