Certified Nursing Assistants serve critical roles in patient care throughout hospitals and doctors’ offices alike. Also known as nurses’ aides, patient care technicians and orderlies, a CNAs primary responsibility is to assist a patient by providing care that is in the best interest of the patient’s basic needs. The number of individuals seeking CNA training over the years has steadily increased in this field due to its increasing importance in the health care field.
A Certified Nursing Assistant training course has many steps that, if interested, an individual will be trained on. While training programs are different depending on the state you seek certification in, the basics that you will learn in you program is how to providing assistance to the doctor in the usage of medical equipment and monitor critical vital signs. You will also be taught aspects of caring for a patient and even assisting patients to get up and walk around. If a patient is bed ridden, you will also learn how to properly lift a patient and to turn them in their bed. The goal of this training is to make sure a patient is taken care of is the primary responsibility of a Certified Nursing Assistant.
In the past, the only option for CNA training was campus based. With the progression of the Internet, a number of different options of CNA training options are now available including online courses and even video conferencing to have face-to-face video lessons with your instructors and peers. This is probably your best option if you are in the middle of a career change or if you simple don’t have time to attend classes on campus. Campus training is still highly recommended by industry professionals for the hands-on approach to learning and working closely with your instructors and fellow classmates.
Costs of training both online or on campus vary with the program. A CNA training program that is fee based has become standard but an increasing amount of hospitals are giving free certified nursing assistant training to those who are interested in training. The only requirement is you have to work for that hospital within a specific time-frame to fulfill the requirement. In other cases, the training program is free and is designed as a so-called “refresher-course” to help fulfill the requirements to become a certified nursing assistant.
In the State of North Carolina, anyone can take the CNA 1 State exam with or without formal training. This means that you can take the same State exam as the other individuals who have taken 6-12 week courses, and receive the same CNA 1 certification once you successfully pass the exam.
Individuals get 3 attempts to pass both portions of the State exam before required to attend a NC State approved training program. Upon passing the State exam, individuals are listed on the Certified Nursing Assistant Registry.
There are quite a few states that allow individuals to ‘Challenge’ the State exam. Most of the states that have this rule also have 1 or 2 day
‘Fast Track’ classes that review the skills, test questions and answers, in order to prepare you for the state exam.
In addition to the training options mentioned above, some states such as North Carolina and Florida offer ‘Fast Track’ classes. These allow an