about Nurses Aide certification...

[Bob Hanrahan]

I read a post on this website about nurses aide certification. It sounds to me like it is a good way to get some clinical experience. I have been looking for a place to take a nurses aide class this summer, but I haven't found any colleges near my home that offer one. What do you guys think about taking the class online? have any of you done that? I am a little sketchy on the whole idea because it seems to me like you may not learn as well with an online experience...but I really have no idea what Im talking about, which is why I am asking.

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[hakksar]

Before you do that check with local hospitals and nursing homes. Here in CO CNA classes are offered through these institutions and not colleges.

 

[fun8stuff]

I applied to ~15 nursing homes last summer (everyone in my area) and was finally hired by a home healthcare agency. Most of the people that I know who are nurses aids and such were first hired and then received training. Most of it just requires on the job training.

 

[underAchiever]

Some nursing homes offer the course for free and have on the job training. My experience has been that they want you to commit to working for them for a year, if you quit before that time you owe them the money for training. Of course I used my god-given american right to quit without paying.

 

[Kimmer]

When I was a CNA the nursing home I worked for had it's own instructors and we had one week of work in the classroom and one week of supervised hands-on. We were paid min. wage while taking the course and then got a raise when we passed the final test and started working there. There was actually no minimum amount of time we had to work there. We were not really certified though until the people from the state exam board came around and gave us the state test - which never happened. That was because once we were state certified we had to get union wages and some form of health insurance so they put off letting us take the test forever. I moved away so I never found out whether any of my classmates were ever certified. I don't know that that was helpful as I was in Montana. CNA qualification requirements vary by state and programs vary by institution.

 

[mamaMD]

I do believe the Red Cross also offers CNA classes. They are not free (I think it is about $300- but then you are at not tied down to a hospital), I have a friend who got her CNA license through the Red Cross and she has really enjoyed it

MamaMD

 

[drdr2010]

i'm not sure what state you live in...but i bet the training would either be through a community college or through a nursing home or hospital itself. like others have said, i worked at a nursing home first and they paid for my course (and paid min. wage for the hours i spent at class) and my state cert, with no contract to sign as far as how much time i "owed" them for paying my way.
when i worked in acute care setting in a different state (a hospital), they called nurse aides Patient Care Technicians or PCTs and did all the training on site (5 weeks) followed by an exam.
ask around to see if your area uses CNA/CENAs or if there is some other name for them.

i doubt you could take it online because there is usually a clinical portion of the training before taking the state exam.

 

[lilmo]

I worked as a nurse's aide over breaks through college. It is definitely a demanding unglamorous job. You'll probably get better experience at a hospital vs. a nursing home. I worked in a nursing home and really didn't learn anything practical besides how to lift someone twice my weight without killing my back. I would recommend trying to get on night shift---it pays the best and is by far the easiest. As for the class, it's a total piece of cake. You learn most everyone on the job anyways. Best of luck

 

[LJoo83]

The hospitals around my area require you to have a CNA certification which you can get either at a nursing college or community college. The hospitals individually do not have those available.

What sucks about wanting to work at a hospital is that many of them want a certification and/or experience, but the problem is, where are you supposed to get that experience?!?

Fortunately, my hopsital was gracious enough to let me onto staff w/out certification of any sort and taught me hands on. I truly love my job (Phlebotomist) because I can have the patient care/interaction and do mediciney stuff w/out having to do the grunt work. CNA's have to clean out catheter bags, commodes, give sponge baths, clean up a patient if they messed on themselves, etc. It truly is a servant job.

 

[Skaterbabe74]

Originally posted by hakksar
Before you do that check with local hospitals and nursing homes. Here in CO CNA classes are offered through these institutions and not colleges.

Actually here in CO these programs are offered through both local hospitals/nursing homes and various CC's and technical colleges. I've looked into this myself trying to find a program I could fit into my schedule.

To the OP - I don't see a problem with an online certification in the least. I've taken several classes online and I've actually always learned more in online classes than offline. The onerous is on you to actually do the work in online classes and sometimes they are actually more work since you don't have traditional classroom for the professor to get his/her points across during lecture, but I've really enjoyed all of my online courses.

Good luck!
--Jessica, UCCS

 

[YoungFaithful]

You are certified by your state, so it will be different for every state.

What state are you living in?