Certified nursing assistants are the nurses who are directly engaged with the patient and their basic duty is to build up the mental and physical health of their patients.
These nurses check the vital signs of the patient and they are also responsible for feeding, bathing, keeping record of medicines, giving the medicines and many more similar tasks.
It is not very difficult to become a certified nursing assistant and if you are fulfilling the basic personality requirements of the CNA then you can become a certified nursing assistant in no time.
There is usually no requirement for the admission to the training classes; however some well reputed institutes may demand a high school diploma.
The time period of certified nursing assistant training programs varies from State to State, however a standard program has 11 modules which is usually completed in 3 to 4 months.
After getting the training you have to pass an exam to become a certified nursing assistant.
This exam is divided into two parts.
First part is the theoretical section, in this section you will get some MCQs to solve.
The second section of the exam will test your practical skills, for this test you will be taken to a ward and asked to deal with some patients and the examiner will check your procedures and your ability to handle the work load while working under pressure.
There are many schools and colleges offering certified nursing assistant training all over the country.
It is recommended that you should check the accreditation of the institute with state's board of nursing because only students from accredited colleges are eligible to appear in the exam for the certification.
The American Red Cross is well reputed institute offering their programs in 38 cities all over the country.
Another way to get certified assistant training is get registered with a website offering classes for CNA, you may find these websites very easily if you will search for them in your search engine.
These online training classes are very favorable for those who are currently working in another profession and those who want to study in their home environment without any restrictions of timings.
You can also get certified nursing assistant training from some nursing home.
These nursing homes usually do not charge any fee for the training but they sign a contract of restricting the student to work with them on the decided wages for a particular time period which is usually of 3 to 5 years.
This enables you to pay back your fee.
A certified nursing assistant gets a job very easily.
They may work in hospitals and nursing homes, however sometimes they are also hired to take care of a patient at home.
A CNA usually works for five shifts with each shift of eight hours per week and sometimes they have to work on weekends but then they get two weekdays to rest.
These certified nursing assistants also get a very high pay scale of 10 dollars per hour.