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The Certified Assistant Nursing is a very strong pillar of the health care team, who with the increase of the number of years of experience has achieved a high level of competence, but does not hold valid qualification and approval to carry on those because of issued arising out of liability and legality bindings.
There has been need for regulation, controlling and verifying the education and experience and as a consequence in North America there is a provision of recording and registering such information at State Health Board Registry in respect of Certified Assistant Nursing. This central certification facility is useful to the employer for verifying the experience and knowledge. This facility is very useful for prevention of persons getting employment whose registration have become invalid and are barred to continue the job.
Certified Assistant Nursing abbreviated as CNA is a trained nurse, who provides assistance to persons requiring healthcare help and has many responsibilities
- Ensuring performance of daily living activities to patients incapable of doing themselves.
- Bedside Care with respect to primary nursing jobs.
- Observing the vital signs of a patient i.e. feeling pulse, measuring blood pressure, taking temperature reading etc.
All the above activities are carried out under the supervision of Registered Nurse working at the health care facility.
CNA is known by a number of different names like Patient Care Assistant, State Tested Nurse Aid all are different titles carrying same function and responsibilities.
The Legal Provision:
Federal nurse aide training regulations are mandated in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 (OBRA 1987).
As per the above legislation the CNA Candidate must have participated in a State-approved training course for a minimum period of 50 hours in theory and 100 hours in supervised clinical training. The CNA who completes the course are known as Certified Assistant Nurse and having completed the training and passed the CNA Competency test are registered in the State Board registry and issued certification. To ensure that remains in continuity a CNA is required to participate in 48 hours of continuing education in duration of each 24 months at a stretch.
The requirement for becoming a state-certified nurse assistant is achieving mastery of number of primary skills essentially needed by a patient at a healthcare facility or a nursing home. The detailed account of nursing assistant skills relates providing care to elderly patients. Most of these skills are expected to be valid for any nursing assistant’s assignment.
Nursing Assistants (NA) under normal conditions work in all the hospital units, but there are some units, where they are conspicuously are not there like highly stressful units like (CCU, ICU) since the patients have critical condition and a CNA is not qualified to handle such patients.
Prominence of Role of CNA:
The hospital environments and health care facilities are greatly dependant on CNA for performance of above listed assignments, of general nature for which the CNA has participated in the prescribed training and has achieved certification from the State Health Board. Thus the registered nurse is relieved of basic nursing jobs so that they can concentrate their time and energy is spent in carrying out jobs as specified in each state’s Nurse Practice Act like formulation of healthcare plan, judging nursing needs, taking responsibility of medicines administered.
A Certified Assistant Nursing provides assistance in setting up surgery room equipments for a procedure. The CNA, who assists in a surgical procedure, is required to hold great related skill in the actual procedure in progress and is also required to have proficiency for observing patient’s condition and report that information back to the Registered Nurse.
Due to involvement in carrying out other responsibilities, the Registered Nurse is not in a position to devote more time at the healthcare facility with patient. Keeping in view the type of relation a CNA is having with the Registered Nurse, often CNA is referred as the nurse’s “eyes and ears”.
The very routine functions a CNA is doing are listed below:
• Answering of patients’ call signals.
• Turning and repositioning of bedridden patients, either alone or with assistance, for prevention bedsores taking place.
• Observing patients’ conditions, measuring and recording food and liquid intake and output and vital signs like feeling of pulse. Measurement of blood pressure, taking temperature reading and reporting deteriorative changes to professional staff.
• Feeding patients who are finding difficulty to feed themselves.
• Helping the patients in their walking, doing exercises, and help patient for moving in and out of bed.
• Preparing patients for surgery, treatment, or examination.
• Transportation of patients for consultation, diagnostic tests, with the help of a wheelchair or stretcher.
• Cleaning of room and changing of bed covers.
The abbreviation CNA is used for Certified Nursing Assistant, which is the entry point to make a career in nursing field. Before some one decides to become a CNA, one has to ensure that the person has necessary passion and devotion to serve the ailing humanity.
The nursing candidate after completing 75 to 100 hours of specified state approved training and passing state administered written test and practical clinical competence test gets certified registered at State Board registry services maintained by the board. The CNA although holding certification, works under the supervision of a Registered Nurse.
The Prospects of a CNA Career:
The job of a CNA is a very satisfying in terms of potential to grow and it is in great demand based on the anticipated projection of Bureau of Labor Statistics, which has created the fear of acute shortage by 2016, if efforts are not made to increase the seating capacities of CNA traditional Class Room Training schools and online versions of training provided by schools approved by the State Health Board.
Practically it has been noticed that the new CNA finds, what was not expected, when there is high load of work assignments and running about is more, badly affecting the efficiency and promptness. This is a moment, when one can find out regarding which CNA is more passionate and devoted to the work. The CNA’s who consider the assignment to be nothing more than a job to earn money for meeting living expenses, are the one who have made a wrong choice to join and are not going to stick to the job for a long time.
Patience, confidence along with maturity to understand the other person is essentially very vital for satisfactory job performance. Other characteristics, which shall make a CNA successful in sticking with the job and progress to a Registered Nurse, are related to having excellent inter-personal skill and the role of team player in the healthcare set up.
Background Checkup Requirement:
When one is offered an employment at a healthcare facility one is required to have clean background check up to rule out involvement in criminal acts and be free from drugs abuse because of existing unsocial links with persons, who have criminal record and operating in hidden cover provided by the drug abusing community.
One should keep in mind that the job of a CNA is not difficult, in view of the above mentioned guidelines of information. Depending on the location CNA is known by few other names also like Nurses Aides, Orderlies, Patient care technician and Home health aides etc. which mean the same.
The Mandatory Training Options:
Irrespective of one’s living place one requires to get the specified training. Some times the local health care facility or Nursing Homes offer free training classes in other words, they are paid for by the facility meant for persons, who do not have previous experience and is willing to join training spread over 2 to 6 weeks full time.
There is a precondition to such offers that after completion of the training one shall work with facility for minimum specified time, in lieu of the free training offered by the facility. In certain cases these facilities pay fee for the state health board administered written and clinical competence test.
In case a paid training offer is not available or one does not want to accept the preconditions, one can Join a community college out of many operating in a state or avail the Training Facilities offered by Red Cross having their centers through out the country. The training can be for a period of about 6 months and can cost $300 to $600. The Red Cross Trainings are very exhaustive and the candidates get preference at the job over other trained CNA’s because of their confidence and perfection acquired during extensive training.
From where ever one gets the training, the written tests and practical clinical competence and certification procedures are same for every one as regulated by the State Health Board for certification of the CNA. Some health facilities managements permit the candidates to work for 3 to 4 months before certification is achieved.
The Practice Test of Clinical Competence:
At the Clinical competence test, the State Health Board appoints an examiner, who observes the competence skills of a CNA candidate participating in the test after passing the written test. Little bit of nervousness feeling of the candidate is considered a normal occurrence, the objective is how the candidate proceeds in properly washing of hands, wearing of sterilized gloves and changing them at every patient examination, are necessary precautions to contain spread of disease.
knocking the door before entering a patient room, taking care of the curtains with due regard to dignity and privacy of the patient, introducing himself to the patient and explaining to the patient the procedure to be conducted so that the patients has the knowledge of his/her treatment. Practice of using safety measures, while the patient is move on a stretcher loaded trolley or a wheel chair are of utmost importance.
CNA Training in Michigan:
There are large numbers of community colleges in the state of Michigan, which provide certified nurse aide (CNA) programs. Some of the prominent community colleges are:
- Lansing Community College at Lansing.
- Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn.
- Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor.
The CNA training courses at these schools one can complete within few weeks or months depending on the number of classes on can study in a week and total required number of hours spent in the course.
Nursing Careers at Lansing Community College:
The community college houses Nursing careers department looking after training of students for serving in health care sector and achieving their CNA certification from the State Health Board. There are two courses slightly different from each other related to CNA Certificate available to the students can join at the training facility of the Community College:
Health Careers Division of Henry Ford Community College:
The Health Careers Division of Henry Ford Community College is located in Dearborn, MI, and provides nurse aide training having duration of 16-week course, which has provision of classroom teaching and practical clinical training by field placement services. After completion of the course, the students are in a position to take state administered exam for becoming certified nurse aides. The program offered helps on completion to get Nursing Care Skills Certificate.
Nursing and Health Science Department, Washtenaw Community College:
The Nursing and Health Science Department, located at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, MI, provides three-week nurse aid training program which trains the student for taking the State Board administered exam after passing of which one gets certification. The training program is created for helping students to perfectly learn the clinical skills, which are essential for displaying competence at the place of work. After completion of the necessary training program, students get their Nursing Assistant Skills and Training Certificate.
Basic Requirements of CNA Certification Training Program:
For achieving CNA certification and getting one’s name included in State Nurse Aid Registry, one requires to take a certificate program through state approved community college or hospital for preparing for state CNA certification examination. The training program has following regulated conditions:
- These courses vary in duration period based on the number of classes per week and practically the course can be finished in 2 to 6 months. For these courses the eligibility criteria is high school diploma or GED. If one knows about basics of anatomy, physiology, and medical glossary, such knowledge can be useful in learning the course with ease.
- To acquire CNA certification and getting registered at State Board’s Nurse Aid Registry, one is required to take a certificate program through one’s local community college or hospital for preparing for the state CNA certification exam. These programs vary in length, depending on the number of classes per week, but they generally last 2-6 months.
- CNA certification programs provide in combination of practical clinical experience and teaching primary biology and health related topics stressing on safety factors, CPR, combating infection and caring of patient in view of Federal legislation requiring the CNA to practically show the capability in performance of 21 skills, to be put to test at State administered certification test.
- The coursework lays stress on making one competent in such nursing practices. The program also imparts professional skills related to observation of vital signs, personal hygiene, right nutrition aspects besides communications required in health care set up.
- After completing the achievement of certification one gets an occasion to find CNA assignment in hospital, physician office, nursing homes and other locations like private homes under the supervision of a registered nurse in-charge at these locations of work.
- A CNA performs the assignments under the supervision of a Registered nurse for attending to the basic care of patients. The CNA is a source for emotional and physical support to the patients, who are not in a position to take care of their own. The CNA help aims at ensuring that after treatment the patients are in a position to care for them selves. The job profile has the difficulties with equally rewarding options.
- The job profile of a CNA is spread over three shifts assigned by rotation. The job involves lot of remaining standing or moving about also need to lift persons, who are not in a position to get up and move about without the support.
Previously the role of CNA was working at places restricted to long term care, because of recent changes relating to health care needs CNA presently in now in a position to get employment at wide location environments.
Factor responsible for increased CNA Growth:
The Bureau of Labor statistic has predicted that by the year 2016 there shall be tremendous demand of CNA’s and for meeting the phenomenal growth targets there should be enhancement of the resent training facilities.
The American baby boomers are soon due for retirement and the need of services providing healthcare to such population, who becomes more prone to disease. The employment scenario of CNA is fast growing specially the category of home health service offered by private physicians to their patients. The other aspect is that by spending just few months at the training schools one gets read to participate at the service location.
