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Nursing assistants (NAs) go past many titles, including licensed nursing assistant (LNA), state-tested nursing banana (STNA), and — most commonly — certified nursing banana (CNA). Regardless of their title, they play a meaningful part in helping patients undergo treatment, recover from injuries, and live full and comfortable lives.

According to the U.South. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), at that place were about 1.six 1000000 NAs in 2019, and in 2020, NAs earned an average salary of $32,050.

Due to the critical need for health care workers, the government oftentimes reimburses training costs for you to get a CNA or NA. This funding makes it more than affordable than a available of science in nursing, which can cost several one thousand dollars a year.

Read on to learn more about becoming a CNA — and get some advice from a vet in the manufacture.

What Does a CNA Do?

CNA Career Basics

CNAs and NAs provide care to patients in long-term intendance facilities, rehabilitation centers, hospitals, and hospices. Their responsibilities range from helping patients with daily needs, such every bit bathing, getting dressed, and using the bath to monitoring vital signs.

Steps to Becoming a CNA

Step 1

Get familiar with your state'due south requirements

CNA requirements across the country vary — from job championship to hours of training required. It's essential to determine how the following basic steps to becoming a CNA, LNA, or other NA apply to your state.

The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) keeps a directory of each state'due south nursing aide registry with information about who to contact and links to state regime websites.

Step 2

Earn your high schoolhouse diploma or GED

Not all states require a loftier schoolhouse diploma or GED to get a CNA. For instance, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) requires CNAs to be 16 years old, pass a criminal record check, consummate CNA training, and laissez passer the state exam.

But many CNA training programs exercise seek applicants with a diploma or equivalency credential. In many states, you can schedule and consummate the GED test in i to four months for $eighty to $140.

If yous are currently a high schoolhouse student, there may be options in your surface area to brainstorm your preparation now at a career academy.

Step 3

Complete a state-approved preparation program

The National Association of Wellness Care Assistants (NAHCA) states that CNA training programs tin can final four to 12 weeks and combine classroom learning with clinical experience.

Based on 2017-2018 information from the National Middle for Didactics Statistics, programs at public technical colleges can cost every bit little equally $500 to $three,000 to nourish. Training programs at individual schools tin cost every bit much as $xx,000 to $25,000.

In some states, the American Cerise Cross offers preparation programs that culminate in a certifying examination. Bank check their website to see if there are any available programs in your area.

The grooming requirements to go a CNA or NA vary by state, then make sure y'all check your local regulations before enrolling in a program.

Pace 4

Laissez passer the country-specified examination

After completing a state-approved training plan, you lot volition need to pass the exam that your state requires.

In any land, the exam covers your training in the program, including:

• Daily care
• Ethics
• Infection direction
• Recording and reporting medical data

The exam costs around $100.

Step 5

Land your first CNA job

Subsequently yous pass the exam for your state, you tin can start working as an NA/CNA. Yous must only practise under the supervision of licensed nurses, meaning it is illegal to offer services as an independent provider.

Footstep half-dozen

Proceed learning to stay certified

As a professional person NA/CNA, you will demand to maintain your qualifications through recording your piece of work experience or completing education credits.

In many states, you must consummate at least 12 education credits a yr. Some states crave more. In California, CNAs must complete 48 credits every two years. Other states require none at all. For example, the Louisiana Section of Health (LDH) automatically renews your CNA certification as long every bit you lot tape your work history.

In any country, standing didactics courses allow yous to gain specialized learning in fields related to patient care, including:

• Alzheimer's and dementia
• Cultural competency
• Diabetes
• PTSD
• Wound handling

CNA Salaries and Job Growth

CNA Salaries

The Five Highest Paying States for CNAs

1. Alaska ($42,500)
2. New York ($40,620)
3. California ($39,280)
4. Hawaii ($39,280)
5. Massachusetts ($37,160)

CNA Job Outlook

Tiptop x places with the highest job growth for CNAs:

1. Puerto Rico: 39.7%
2. Colorado: 24.eight%
3. Utah: 23.8%
4. Arizona: 22.ii%
5. Nevada: 20.2%

Career Paths for CNAs

According to the BLS, skilled nursing facilities are the number one employer of nursing assistants, employing more than half a million NAs in 2020.

Many NAs start their careers in Medicaid-funded nursing facilities because the federal government reimburses these employers for their NAs' grooming costs. The details vary based on the country, merely you can detect an example of how registered nursing banana reimbursement works from the Washington State Section of Social and Health Services (DSHS).

Aggrandize Your Feel, Noesis, and Network

Outside of your workplace, there are national professional organizations dedicated to helping NAs abound in their careers.

The NAHCA and the National Network of Career Nursing Administration brand several resource available to members to develop skills and gain accolades in the manufacture. These opportunities include:

• Workshops
• Conferences
• Recognition for accomplishments or years of service
• Celebrations like planned events for National Nursing Assistants Calendar week in June

These associations also organize NAs to advocate for staffing shortage solutions and workplace safe.

Later on gaining experience equally a CNA in a long-term care facility, yous tin can take additional coursework to become an Avant-garde CNA, also known as a CNA-II or CNA-ii. This title can help you get a chore in more intense or acute settings, like hospitals.

Later gaining years of experience, yous may decide to educate others in the field. Through the American Cerise Cross, you can railroad train to become a nursing assistant instructor.

Teaching others tin can earn y'all more income. According to the BLS, top-paying industries for CNAs included junior colleges and other colleges and universities.

Go a Licensed Practical Nurse

Licensed practical nurses or licensed vocational nurses (LPN/LVNs) supervise NAs and work straight under registered nurses. While some of their tasks overlap with NAs, they provide more specialized care. LPN/LVNs too earn higher pay than NAs.

Yous can earn a document or diploma, qualifying you for the LPN/LVN licensure test in nether two years. Most document programs at public colleges and technical schools toll from $two,000 to $10,000, and the U.South. licensure test costs $200. LPNs earned an average salary of $50,090 in 2020.

Get a Registered Nurse

If your ultimate goal is to become a registered nurse or a neonatal nurse, you will need to earn an acquaintance'southward degree or a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN).

Acquaintance degrees for nursing typically price $2,000 to $12,000 only can price more than $25,000 at some individual colleges. BSNs usually range in price from $7,000 to $twoscore,000 a year.

After the upfront cost of education, this is a career that can pay off. In 2020, registered nurses earned an average annual salary of $80,010.

CNA Training Programs

Where can I take CNA classes?

In addition to vocational and technical schools and customs colleges, several hospitals and other long-term care facilities provide relevant grooming opportunities. The American Ruby Cantankerous too offers preparation in some states.

All state-approved training programs must follow federal guidelines for curriculum. In improver, each country has its own curriculum standards. This listing is not exhaustive of all the topics covered in a program.

	Vocational / Technical Schools	Customs Colleges	Wellness Care Facility	The Red Cross
Curriculum Focus	Clinical experience and classroom learning, covering: Beefcake Nutrition Patient prophylactic Infection control	The fundamentals of nursing and patient personal care experience	Attitudes, behaviors, human relationship-building, and clinical experience	Communication and interpersonal skills, plus the elements of care covered on the certification exam
Typical Duration of Plan(southward)	4-12 weeks	half dozen-sixteen weeks	6-12 weeks	four-viii weeks
Learning Format	Online, in-person (classroom), and onsite (clinical) experience	Online, in-person (classroom), and onsite (clinical) experience	Depending on the facility, your learning may combine online, self-paced training with in-classroom learning and will ever include on-the-job training.	The Red Cross offers two formats: Composite learning, combining videos and online testing with experience 100% Instructor-led twenty-four hours classes
What's Unique?	Expect shorter, highly focused programs, so you can enter the job market quickly.	These programs may exist part of some other general centrolineal wellness professional programme or a medical assistant program, so you would report aslope students pursuing slightly different paths.	Many of these programs offer grooming reimbursement if you lot commit to working there after your training.	The Red Cantankerous boasts a xc% graduation charge per unit and an fourscore% laissez passer charge per unit for the country exam. However, its preparation programs are only available in some states.

What's the Process for Taking the Certification Exam?

Each state has different CNA requirements, but all require you to pass an test. Hither are some steps to keep in mind for preparing for your state'south required exam:

Begin Preparing While You're in Grooming

Many programs offering students practice tests or study guides. Review a exercise exam while you're still in your plan, so you can enquire your instructor specific questions.

Work With Instructors to Schedule the Exam

Your instructors tin help you detect the closest examination centre. Brand certain to schedule your test as soon as possible subsequently completing your coursework, so the information is still fresh.

The exam has two parts: writing and clinical. On the written test, you'll answer questions covering what you learned in your training programme. In the clinical exam, you will demonstrate your skills — from proper handwashing to communicating with a stand-in patient, taking their vital signs, and more interactions.

If you lot practise non pass the test on your first try, states have private rules about how frequently you can retake the test.

Online CNA Classes

Today, many NA grooming programs include some online and video learning. However, the most meaning part of your training will be in person. You volition practice on mannequins in lab settings, and in real clinical settings, yous will work nether close supervision.

In any program, brand certain to inquiry the following earlier committing to a prospective school:

States require you to graduate from a country-approved program to sit down for the exam. Cheque your school's approval condition or consult the rules for your land.

Since exam questions are country-specific, it'south all-time to discover a program in the country where you desire to work.

Faculty With Extensive and Relevant Nursing Experience

Quality didactics starts with first-class instructors with extensive and electric current experience, both in the virtual classroom and professional world. Many CNA grooming programs volition postal service faculty biographies, and then you tin get to know your teachers' resumés.

Pro Tips on Becoming a CNA

Editor's Annotation: Nosotros've edited this Q&A for clarity and length.

Genevieve Gipson

Genevieve Gipson, RN, ME.d, RNC, director of the National Network of Career Nursing Administration, shared industry data about what helps people in hands-on caregiving roles remain in long-term care positions.

What makes a good CNA? Nosotros practice know why people stay. Across the board, there are several characteristics. The nearly important indicator is that they had a human relationship with an older person when they were young, and it was positive. Other indicators include:

They are their family unit's go-to person for health intendance advice.

They tin can bail with people and prove support.

They tin follow directions closely.

They effectively sequence many tasks.

What tasks can an NA look in their chore? The skills you'll see listed in job postings include bathing, feeding, and toileting, merely there'south much more than to existence a nursing assistant. Nursing assistants always need to run into the person at the centre of the care. Information technology's non just about feeding. It tin mean remembering how they like to agree their fork or if they mix their veggies with other foods.

What is one thing new NAs should do? Many of our patients were shaped past the events of the '30s, '40s, and '50s. Think near what was happening in 1935. Retrieve near who was on the radio. You can apply facts similar this as memory cues for patients with Alzheimer's. Yous need to go with the patient to where their mind is and sympathise their frame of reference. Otherwise, information technology tin lead to harmful assumptions, similar 'she doesn't make any sense today, she's then confused.'

What about the emotional aspects of the job? At that place are many reasons why families may disconnect or not be bachelor to the older person. Regardless of the reason, this disconnect can go out the patient feeling isolated and can contribute to poor ambition and decrease involvement in life. The pandemic was an extremely isolating time for both patients and for people in the profession. Many lost their favorite patients, colleagues, and members of their family. They worked shift after shift to provide stability. Now, there is then much more work to exist done to thank and support our career nursing assistants and wisdom keepers.

Getting Financial Help with Your CNA Program

Scholarships for CNA Programs

Goodwill CNA Training Plan

• Search for Goodwill CNA programs in your state.
• What information technology covers: Many local Goodwill chapters partner with technical colleges to provide free or significantly discounted CNA training. The availability and deadlines for each program vary. Here is an instance from the Goodwill of Upstate and Midlands South Carolina.

United Way Scholarship Programs

• Search for United Mode CNA scholarships in your land.
• What it covers: In many areas, local United Style capacity partner with community colleges to partially fund tuition. For instance, the United Way of Plymouth County covers 75% of tuition for some CNA students at Massasoit Community College in Brockton, Massachusetts.

Federal Grants for CNA Programs

Chore Corps Training Plan

• Who qualifies: People between the ages of 16-24 who meet low-income requirements and other Workforce Innovation Opportunity Deed requirements.
• What it covers: Costs of training, room, and board
• Deadline: Rolling. Visit Jobcorps.gov to connect with an admissions counselor.

Nursing Assistant Certified Reimbursement via Medicare and Medicaid

• See your state's government website.
• Who qualifies: CNAs who work at a Medicaid-funded nursing facility
• What information technology covers: The cost of your training program, exam, and fifty-fifty textbooks.
• Other important information: The government offers funding to the nursing facility to reimburse you; it does not give y'all money directly. Make sure yous check with your employer and your state for more information.

Companies with Tuition Reimbursement Incentive Programs (TRIPs)

Many skilled nursing and long-term care facilities volition reimburse your training costs in full through federal funding. Here some examples from around the country:

• Compass Health (California)
• Northeast Medical Constitute (Connecticut)
• ProMedica Senior Care (Nationwide)

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Source: https://www.learnhowtobecome.org/certified-nursing-assistant/