Everything You Wanted To Know About Certified Nursing Assistants

Whenever you have gone into a hospital, you may have noticed caregivers feeding patients, turning them over, making beds, cleaning the rooms and monitoring patient health. Well, you have probably spotted a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA). CNAs are not medical professionals – they do not have the requisite academic qualifications. What they do however, is fulfill an important function in the hospitals by assisting medical professionals like doctors and nurses in their work. Some functions that come under the ambit of a CNA are those that involve direct contact with the patient – this requires that the caregiver be committed to his or her work.

In fact, this is the first requirement of a CNA – commitment to patient care. A nursing assistant is an important link in the healthcare industry, performing the functions of assistant, caregiver, data collector and healthcare facilitator. It is true that he or she is not qualified to perform actual tasks related to treating patients, but the support services that they provide are essential. Here are some of the tasks a nursing assistant is expected to perform –

• Change dressings for the patient

• Helping patients to exercise and walk

• Turn over patients who are unable to move and thus prevent bedsores

• Bathe the patients and feed them if necessary

• Help move the patient using a stretcher or a wheelchair

• Change bed linen and clean rooms

• Prepare the patient for examinations and surgical procedures

• Answer the patient’s call for help
  

A nursing assistant may also be assigned other duties of similar, supportive nature. When a nursing assistant performs these tasks, it frees up the nurses to do their job of assisting doctors in surgery and administering medication to patients. This does not mean that a nursing assistant can be without skills – a nursing assistant must be as skilled as any other medical professional must, when it comes to their job. In fact, a nursing assistant may be quite skilled, but without the academic background or the training.

What you need in order to qualify as a CNA is at least fifty hours of theory and hundred hours of clinical training under supervision at a state-approved facility that is authorized to conduct training programs. The process of obtaining CNA certification verifies the professional experience of a caregiver and his or her academic credentials by matching it with the statuary requirements and registers them with a central body. This allows them to be employed as nursing assistants in the United States. This is especially helpful for caregivers who have acquired their qualifications in another country, as this certification helps them prove to a potential employer that they too, can match the skills and the knowledge requirements of the profession. For maintaining the certification, a caregiver must obtain forty-eight hours of continuing education every two years.

It is difficult to find caregivers with the required certification and commitment, making this a profession where there is a rapidly increasing demand for certified personnel. It is a good career choice for someone who likes interfacing with people and is dedicated to making lives comfortable for patients and nurses alike.