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Certified Nursing Assistant
The CNA or certified nursing assistant is the person who assists the patients suffering from the physical disabilities to carry out their daily routine activities. The CNAs provide the health care services to the needy people under the supervision of registered nurses (RN) or Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). CNAs are also known as Nursing Assistant (NA) or Patient Care Assistant (PCA). The person who wants to work as a CNA should be qualified and possess the CNA certification for working as a CNA professional. There are number of institutes and training centers providing CNA training.

The job of nursing assistant is of great responsibility. The nursing assistants work in nursing homes, adult day care centers, hospitals, personal homes, etc. They work for providing the health care facilities to the patients and assist them in their daily routing activities. In many cases, the nursing assistants serve as the medium between registered nurses or licensed practical nurses.

CNAs provide basic needs for the patients of all ages, ethnicity or gender. They work under the supervision of the licensed and highly experienced nurses. As these nursing assistants have daily contact with the patients, they play the major role in providing the key information about the patient’s health to the supervisors. The work of a CNA can sometimes become difficult with the increasing workloads but many CNA professionals consider it as a rewarding experience.

For the person to work as a CNA professional, he has to pass the certification examination. There are various schools that provide the CNA training and conduct the classes on this syllabus. Some of the local hospitals and community colleges also offer CNA training for free. The duration of these courses generally lasts for about 2 to 6 weeks. The Red Cross foundation conducts 6 months of completed training for CNA certification.

What Is Taught In A CNA Course?

Nursing assistants have to perform number of activities like cleaning the patient, checking their basic health, feeding them, keeping track of their medicines, bathing, changing their bedpans, etc. All these activities are taught during the training period. Everything from the basic anatomy to the proper ethnical manners, non-medical patient care and keeping safe from infections is taught in these CNA training. The trainings are generally conducted to equip the nursing assistant to face the emergency situations. The trainer should provide training to students to both theoretically and practically.

The theory part of the certification includes study of various medical instruments. The students are taught to clean and bath the patients without hurting them physically and mentally.

In the practical training, the students are actually sent to the hospitals to serve the patients. This enables them to work on their skills learnt in the theory section.

It is the responsibility of the training schools to equip the students with all the information related to the CNA training and certification before they appear in the exam.