Is CNA a good job for a premed?

[thirdunity]

Question,
1) Is CNA a good job for a premed student?
2) Can it be done part-time?

I need a job while in school and it may as well be something that will get me clinical experience. One question is, is length of training. I don't want to take another year or more off from school to do the training. I know some will say "school is my job" but I'm having to go it on my own, I'm about to leave the husband.

I *had* a career prior to going back to school, but the work I'm trained for, generally can't be done part-time, and required too many hours, so that I wouldn't have time to do volunteering to get my clinical experience let alone even take one class.

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[deleted6669]

emt (emergency medical tech) is a more interesting and relevant short course certification that meets all of your needs. you can work part time in an er, urgent care, transport team, or 911 ambulance service and you can actually learn medical skills beyond diaper care, pt transport, and feeding(not that these aren't important, but they teach you very little of relevance to your future career as a physician, except perhaps humility and respect for the lowest rung on the health care ladder.)
emt training at the basic level is around 110 hrs and there are short courses available in condensed form(3 weeks), weekends or weeknights only, etc

 

[rn29306]

second that motion. you will regret everyday you work as a cna in addition to the day you decided to become one. emt is the way to go. if by chance you don't have the time to become an emt or the courses aren't available, a good second choice would be an er tech. please don't go to the floor of a hospital, you won't learn squat. i was an er tech while in nursing school and it was one of the best jobs i had (ok maybe second to lifeguarding..) before graduating college.

benefits of er tech:
1. minimal daily care (poop changes and feeding - er is not a restaurant)
2. no paperwork responsibilites
3. work closely with er nurses, residents, pas, and docs
4. if you act interested and are willing to learn, these guys love to teach
5. physically interacting with patients - meaning sometimes you hold them down while they flip out while on crack, other times chasing psych patients in the hospital
6. get to assist with conscious sedation
7. casting for ext fractures
8. assist with codes and cpr
9. learn to set up for and watch invasive procedures
10. if you do this in a college town, there are additional perks.....

 

[dry dre]

Question,
1) Is CNA a good job for a premed student?
2) Can it be done part-time?

I need a job while in school and it may as well be something that will get me clinical experience. One question is, is length of training. I don't want to take another year or more off from school to do the training. I know some will say "school is my job" but I'm having to go it on my own, I'm about to leave the husband.

I *had* a career prior to going back to school, but the work I'm trained for, generally can't be done part-time, and required too many hours, so that I wouldn't have time to do volunteering to get my clinical experience let alone even take one class.

I was an EMT for 2 years and then a CNA for 18 months before med school (latter offered a more flexible schedule around school, though less money). I agree that being an EMT will most likely give you better clinical exposure, but I wouldn't necessarily discount CNA too far, nor hype the utility of the EMT clinical experience while applying to med school. Depending on where you apply, and who individually interviews you, having been a CNA might be more of advantage. See if the following story makes sense, it is true:

At a premed talk I attended (a few years ago) given by a dean of admissions of a medical school, the dean told a story (which itself may not be true). In replying to a question on "what type of clinical experience are you looking for" he gave the following reply, closely paraphrased: "Well, in a recent set of interviews I had two applicants explaining their experiences, each as an aide in a hospital. One said, 'all I got to do was bring pillows and blankets to patients,' while the other said 'I got to bring pillows and blankets to patients.' Hopefully his point translates here.

CNA work is much less glamorous, often lower paid (as it is relatively unskilled), and is often thankless. This being said, if I were interviewing a medical student who had done CNA work for any great length of time, I might give said applicant higher consideration than a former EMT hellbent on explaining the glory days to me. Trust me, once in clinicals (3&4 year of med school), the same people who would never feed/transfer/wash a patient are often the classmates that no one likes. They turn into the docs that nurses hate...wonder why.

A LOT of medicine, both in preclinical studies and in particular on the floors (in medical school and practice) is non-glamorous work that, to be done with excellence, requires commitment and dilligence. Anyone who has slaved through long CNA (or nursing) shifts for any length of time has demonstrated something to me regarding commitment to patient care...a subject given A LOT of attention by the medical training community (i.e. including the people who interview you for medical school).

In short, I'd say that if CNA is easy for you to do and EMT would require considerable short-term sacrifices, I wouldn't worry that you'll look "less admittable" come application time if you choose the CNA route. Adcomms aren't looking for someone who knows how to run a code; they know you'll learn that someday. They DO want someone with a DEEP commitment to medicine which, without even bring up EMT work, can be demonstrated through work as a volunteer/aide/CNA.

 

[Febrifuge]

I feel I got the best of both worlds; I earned EMT cert, and work as a tech in an ED. Others doing the same job include many CNA's, a handful of EMT's, and even a couple of Paramedics. Dre is 100% right about commitment and being excellent at the non-glamorous stuff. At the same time, as I do all that, it's nice to have been trained (albeit in 'scratch the surface' fashion) in emergency medicine.

 

[doclm]

Question,
1) Is CNA a good job for a premed student?
2) Can it be done part-time?

I need a job while in school and it may as well be something that will get me clinical experience. One question is, is length of training. I don't want to take another year or more off from school to do the training. I know some will say "school is my job" but I'm having to go it on my own, I'm about to leave the husband.

I *had* a career prior to going back to school, but the work I'm trained for, generally can't be done part-time, and required too many hours, so that I wouldn't have time to do volunteering to get my clinical experience let alone even take one class.

CNA is a great job for a premed student!

1- It usually pays well for the amount of training involved.
Due to the common nursing shortages I was able to make $200 in a 16 hr day, when not attending classes that day.

2- It is extremely flexible with college schedules.
For instance, I was a CNA for 5 years while doing my undergraduate classes. I was able to work on call, so when there was a shortage that day in the skill nursing facility (like most days), I received a call and was able to chose it I wanted to work or not. It can be done on your time.

3- It proves to yourself as well as medical schools that you are indeed compassionate about helping patients. This is a huge factor when you apply to medical schools. They want to know that you enjoy patient contact.
In the past medical schools have accepted people on the sole basis of scores and very little experience. However, more recently they are trying to incorporate more humanism into medicine.
Also, medical schools don't only want a very smart student, but a student who has "the compassion" to work hard for such a medical degree.

 

[windsurfr]

I was an NA for 3 years prior to med school and it helped quite a bit... although if I could do it over again I probably would have been an EMT. You get very little practical experience your first two years of med school, and any knowledge of patient stabilization would be extremely helpful in the second two.

 

[wertyjoe]

CNA is a great job for a premed student!

1- It usually pays well for the amount of training involved.
Due to the common nursing shortages I was able to make $200 in a 16 hr day, when not attending classes that day.

2- It is extremely flexible with college schedules.
For instance, I was a CNA for 5 years while doing my undergraduate classes. I was able to work on call, so when there was a shortage that day in the skill nursing facility (like most days), I received a call and was able to chose it I wanted to work or not. It can be done on your time.

3- It proves to yourself as well as medical schools that you are indeed compassionate about helping patients. This is a huge factor when you apply to medical schools. They want to know that you enjoy patient contact.
In the past medical schools have accepted people on the sole basis of scores and very little experience. However, more recently they are trying to incorporate more humanism into medicine.
Also, medical schools don't only want a very smart student, but a student who has "the compassion" to work hard for such a medical degree.

I agree 100%. It helped me get into medical school. It also shows the Adcoms that you are willing to get your hands dirty (no pun intended) and that you don't view yourself above the other professions.

 

[wendywellesley]

could i get a hospital job, say an ER tech job, with an EMT-B certification?

thanks!

 

[Febrifuge]

See above.

That's what I have, and that's what I do.