Although this position doesn’t attract many, it does attract the caring and the dedicated. One of these devoted individuals is Julia Hoag. Julia became licensed as a Certified Nursing Assistant through Chippewa Valley Technical College at the end of 2018 and now loves to shed light on her experience with others.
Certified Nursing Assistants or CNAs are a truly special breed of human. These people put aside their own feelings towards certain tasks in order to help elderly individuals going through rehab, battling a mental illness, or dealing with the fact that they just don’t function as they used to.
“Making sure patients are fed, bathed, walked, checked for respirations, and helped go to the bathroom are all daily jobs that CNAs perform in a nursing home,” describes Hoag.
Even though these duties seem simple enough for someone to complete, getting into this position and career field is definitely no walk in the park.
Characterized as “long and difficult,” Hoag states, “The CNA certification course can vary in length and time, but it’s most common to have four weeks of clinicals at the end of an eight week long class. Within the course, unit tests are given out in addition to the written and demonstration final distributed at the end.”
Although the class and its work load seem strenuous, the payoff of passing the course seems to highly outweigh the cons. Some of the advantages associated with being a CNA are that they get to help people in need, and a Certified Nursing Assistant license gets the ball rolling for an individual heading into a career in medicine.
Hoag illustrates these benefits by explaining, “You’re helping and improving the lives of the elderly by giving them someone they can rely on.” Furthermore, she goes on to justify that a CNA certification “acts as a jumpstart to a nursing degree since some schools don’t accept people until they have it.”
While these advantages sound very compelling, some disadvantages of being a Certified Nursing Assistant turn many individuals away. Downfalls include harsh hours, not always being able to assist the sick, and having to understand an almost new type of language.
“Hours aren’t flexible and they’re also long. Eight or twelve hour shifts are typical...There’s also a recent shortage of CNAs so many individuals must work lots of long hours,” discloses Hoag. She also continues on to say, “[It’s] rough seeing the sick and knowing that you can’t help them; all you can do is make them comfortable.” Finally, she points out that it’s tricky to learn the “CNA lingo.”
However, even with these cons, the pros still seem to reign as a career in the Certified Nursing Assistant field presents multiple opportunities in and about itself.
As described by Hoag, having the title of a Certified Nursing Assistant gives humans the chance to “potentially graduate college faster, make money, and have a gateway into the medical field.” In addition to these career benefits, the social benefit of “getting to know more people” also arises.
Finally, it’s important to realize the significance of Certified Nursing Assistants in the world today; CNAs commonly do the jobs that no one else wants to. Besides their usual feeding, assisting, and cleaning jobs for the elderly, they also have the duty of creating a relaxed environment for their patients and their patients’ families.
“Helping people who don’t feel well, keeping them comfortable in a new place, and helping keep the family updated” covers a large variety of what a Certified Nursing Assistants deals with says Hoag.
Although it sometimes seems like a tiring and challenging process, being a Certified Nursing Assistant pays itself off.
Hoag concludes that all CNAs know the true value of their position and that it’s “[They’re] making a difference in the world by taking care of some of the most treasured individuals in people’s lives.”