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What Does a Certified Nursing Assistant Exercise? Your Guide

Written by Coursera • Updated on May 3, 2022

Detect how working equally a certified nursing assistant (CNA) can set y'all up for a rewarding health intendance career caring for those in need.

[Featured Image] A Certified Nursing Assistant works in a medical lab alongside her colleagues.

A certified nursing assistant (CNA) is an entry-level wellness intendance worker. Most CNAs piece of work in nursing homes, habitation health intendance services, and hospitals where they assist patients with daily living and provide bones care. CNAs work under the supervision of licensed nursing staff, like registered nurses (RNs) or licensed practical nurses (LPNs). In many cases, the CNA serves as a patient'south main caregiver.

What does a certified nursing assistant do?

As a certified nursing assistant, yous'll perform a wide multifariousness of tasks, from measuring a patient's vital signs to helping them breast-stroke, swallow, or get dressed. You'll probable be the chief daily caregiver within a nursing or residential home, and yous'll often be your patient'due south main contact throughout the day.

Depending on country and institutional regulations, you lot may be asked to take on additional responsibilities, like administering medicine. Working every bit a certified nursing assistant can be a deeply emotional and rewarding task since you lot're in constant interaction with your patients and you're directly impacting their quality of life.

What is a typical certified nursing assistant salary?

According to the United states Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median annual wage for a CNA in the United States is $30,830 equally of 2020 [1].

Working as a CNA is a very in-need task, and it's projected to grow. The BLS predicts that the demand for this job will rise 8 pct from 2020 to 2030, which is as fast as the boilerplate rise for all occupations. This is partly due to an expanding elderly population, who will demand to rely on certified nursing administration for care.

If you wish to apply your job as a CNA to pursue a nursing career, you'll benefit from a significant increase in expected bacon while too enjoying good chore prospects. The BLS reports that the median pay for registered nurses (RN) in 2020 was $75,330, while the available jobs are expected to ascension by vii per centum between 2020 and 2030 [2].

CNA vs. medical banana

Certified nursing assistants ofttimes work in hospitals and in nursing care facilities. Other CNA jobs can be constitute in domicile health care services. In virtually any setting, the CNA's job remains the aforementioned—providing direct care to patients nether the supervision of a nurse

While there is merely 1 blazon of certified nursing assistant, the office is often confused with medical assistants. While both provide patient care, medical assistants primarily perform both authoritative and clinical tasks, while nursing administration are more than directly involved with patient care.

Certified nursing assistants are likewise non the aforementioned as licensed applied nurses (LPNs). LPNs must take additional classes and pass a national licensing examination chosen the NCLEX, while CNAs only need initial preparation and certification in order to work.

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How to get a certified nursing assistant

Working as a CNA is an entry-level position that typically requires a high school diploma or equivalent. Y'all'll also need to complete a country-approved education plan in gild to become certified.

CNA training programs can take as little every bit three weeks to consummate and are often available at loftier schools, community colleges, vocational schools, and hospitals. Within your CNA grooming, you can wait to learn how to perform some of the post-obit tasks:

Ensuring patient safety
Checking vital signs
Moving patients safely
Caring for personal hygiene
Administering CPR

Some people choose to work every bit a CNA while attending nursing school. Others take a chore in this field to assist them decide if nursing is the right calling for them before investing time and money in becoming an LPN or RN.

CNA essential skills

Working every bit a CNA tin be a enervating chore. As a wellness care worker, you need to exist constantly attuned to the needs of your patients, especially in a setting where medical emergencies may arise. It'due south also important to take a skilful bedside manner since your behavior leaves a lasting, memorable impression on your patients, many of whom may be elderly or vulnerable. Effective CNAs often possess the following skills:

Empathy: You'll often exist caring for patients facing hard health situations or other hardships.

Dependability: You play a role in following a patient's plan of care to help ensure their wellbeing.

Organizational skills: Y'all may exist working with multiple patients and with limited supervision.

Critical thinking: Emergencies practice happen in the health care field, and so it's important to be able to think on your feet.

Observational skills: You likely spend more time with a patient than their physician or nurse, then it'southward typically your chore to written report even slight changes to their mental or physical health.

Certified nursing banana career path

Working as a CNA is oft a good entry bespeak into the nursing profession. It volition expose you to many of the tasks required of a nurse and will give you applied, hands-on feel equally you learn what information technology'south similar to work in health intendance. Some people utilise their CNA training equally a starting bespeak toward becoming an LPN or RN.

Getting started with Coursera

If y'all want to pursue a rewarding career in the health intendance manufacture, working as a CNA is a bang-up place to beginning. Get a feel for whether patient intendance may be a good fit for yous through a beginner-friendly grade, similar Vital Signs: Understanding What the Body Is Telling Us from the University of Pennsylvania or Career 911: Your Future Task in Medicine and Healthcare from Northwestern University.

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Article sources

1. US Agency of Labor Statistics. "Nursing Assistants and Orderlies, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/nursing-assistants.htm#tab-1." Accessed January twenty, 2022.

2. U.s. Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Registered Nurses, https://world wide web.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/registered-nurses.htm." Accessed January twenty, 2022.

Written by Coursera • Updated on May 3, 2022

This content has been fabricated available for informational purposes simply. Learners are advised to conduct additional enquiry to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.