What is a Certified Nurses Assistant (CNA)?

The terms CNA, Certified Nurses Assistant and Certified Nursing Aid are different ways of saying the same thing. The words you use just relies upon the person you're talking to!

Briefly, a Certified Nursing Aid executes jobs together with a group of medical staff, including physicians and registered nurses. They execute things that help healthcare doctors in tending to sick patients, usually the elderly. A Certified Nurses Assistant's tasks normally make sick men and women worry less so that they may experience a more acceptable quality of life when they are not feeling their best or not capable to accomplish ordinary every day things.

A Certified Nursing Aid is not a Registered Nurse (RN) nor are they a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). Those are positions that necessitate more schooling, and require far more accountability than a Certified Nursing Aid. Sometimes a CNA pursues a position as a LPN or RN when they like working as a a Certified Nursing Aide.

What does a Certified Nurses Assistant do?

So, what are the duties of a Certified Nurses Assistant? A CNA Nurse's major tasks help improve the quality of regular life for the sick men and women under their supervision. Most times, patients under the care of a Certified Nurses Assistant are older.

Not one but two levels of CNA careers are out there: CNA-I and CNA-II. A CNA-I commonly performs responsibilities which require only standard Certified Nursing Aid schooling, but they are still really important. Level 1 and Level 2 CNAs usually do things like:

• Maintain a sanitary patient area - cleaning sheets, sanitizing bedpans, and the like.
• Cleaning the patient's body safely and effectively - ensuring that patients are properly washed, for his or her well being and comfort
• Maintaining data and logging aid given - noting down performed tasks in a care journal, including emerging symptoms or reactions.
• Helping patients to and from bed - many elderly patients have a problem moving around their bed, so they need some stronger hands to help.
• Obtaining and logging of patient's vitals - detecting if the patient isn't negatively reacting to medication or at risk of developing new problems
• Helping provide meals and beverage for their patient - many individuals who need assistive care are not able to eat on their own, so a CNA assists them
• Recognizing and preventing bed sores - a patient that remains in bed for hours on end is predisposed to uncomfortable sores, and CNAs move patients to prevent sores from developing.
• Identifying ailments and informing medical doctors - if new signs or problems come up, the Certified Nursing Assistant may be the first to notice and notify physicians
• Understanding any patient negative reactions - detecting negative reactions to the patient's care, and informing medical professionals or fixing the situation by themselves, if they are able to.
• Preserving individual comforts - keeping the patient's room comfortable when they are under care of a Certified Nursing Assistant
• Encouraging their patient's ability to move - shifting the patient's limbs through the complete range of flexion to keep them moving
• Using advanced devices - establishing oxygen treatments, monitoring oxygen flow, and so forth.
• Conduct mouth and nose suctioning - eliminating mouth mucous buildup if the patient cannot do it on their own
• Handling a blocked colon - getting rid of fecal impactions if a patient cannot go to the toilet themselves
• Providing tracheostomy treatment - providing another airway in the event patients can no longer breathe normally
• Performing sterile dressing and bandage modifications - disposing of soiled dressings and bandages
• Working with IV therapies - Putting together and cleaning IV lines, checking fluid flow rate, stopping IV lines, and so forth.
• Providing ostomy treatments - eliminating a patient's wastes when they've undergone an ostomy
• Setting up tube feedings - after placement verification by LPN, a CNA is given the task of performing the feedings.
• Catheterizations - executing catheterizations and replacing catheter lines

These types of responsibilities and duties of a CNA significantly enhance the quality of life of any individual in the process of recovery and therapy...and a good Certified Nursing Assistant may make all the difference in the world to a person that is being cared for. Imagine your grandma, your mum or some other family member that could end up being in a care center and needing care. Consider how significantly these kinds of duties of a CNA would make them feel. Consider how it would probably benefit your family members, to know that your loved one is benefiting from fantastic care and attention in their time of need.

The duties of a CNA, all the things a Certified Nurses Aid must do, may have a profound effect on the well being of a unwell individual, and the comfort of that patient's entire family.

Who normally becomes a Certified Nurses Aid?

Several types of individuals are attracted to Certified Nurses Aid positions. Several individuals that resolve to develop into CNA Nurses want to attend to other people, these people tend to be caring and get pleasure from tending to others. Many Certified Nursing Aids identify them selves as sociable, or even as a social butterfly. Learning to be a Certified Nurses Aide usually means that you handle a lot of people each day, or it can require dealing with a single individual as their care taker and friend, so several CNA Nurses say they love being surrounded by other people.

A lot of Certified Nursing Aids also point out that they are drawn to the career mainly because it provides a means of making money while they're on an adaptable schedule. It's excellent for anyone who may have busy day-to-day lives, like busy single-parents.

Considering that a Certified Nurses Aide's assistance is needed all day and night, there's typically freedom to plan your work day to meet your needs. Many Certified Nursing Aides enjoy the fact that it is easy to get hours where they could be making money.

Several other CNAs decide to get certified because they don't really want many of the obligations of a RN (Registered Nurse) or Licensed Nursing Practitioner. other people choose to become a Certified Nurses Aide in order to get experience in healthcare within a couple of months, so they can ultimately become a RN (Registered Nurse) or LNP.

So what is a CNA? In a nutshell, they are individuals, like you and me, who love taking good care of others so much that they turn it into their full-time career! If you’d like to investigate more about getting a  CNA Certification then you may be interested in learning about taking your CNA classes online. You may even want to learn more about free CNA classes online, if you're interested in a career in the medical field, so get started today!