Becoming the Best CNA You Can Be
Being a CNA is not an easy job. If it’s something that you want to pursue, you should first understand some of what it requires. To begin with, you need to be great with people, and not just when things are going well. Often times you will be the only person who can act truly compassionately and patiently when things are going wrong in a medical environment. You can’t just view it as a pay check, because that won’t carry you through the day. You have to love helping people, and you have to find the work rewarding in and of itself. When things go wrong, people are going to throw their problems at you, so you need to be able to handle the stress with patience and humor. You need to work well with others, and you need to be able to enjoy being part of a high-stress environment.
There is actually something of a crisis with facilities nationwide not having enough good CNAs to work with. To begin with, there has been an increase in the number of resident care facilities in this country, and the number of people signing up to be CNAs is not keeping pace. The best CNAs either don’t stick with the job long, or move up the medical ladder. After all, CNAs are not the highest paying position in the medical field by far, but they are one of the most stressful positions to have. You will often be understaffed and asked to perform more jobs then you would ideally have to perform. It isn’t the most glamorous job, and a lot of facilities are having a hard time attracting and retaining great CNAs.
Insufficient numbers of CNAs is one of the biggest problems in our current health care field. One of the biggest reasons that people don’t become CNAs and that CNAs tend to have a really high turnover rate is the fact that most don’t feel like they are paid enough for the difficult and demanding work that they have to do every day. They often have to work with fewer people than they need to support them and do all the work that needs to be done, and this can lead to a lot of frustration and unsafe working conditions. Plus, we’re having more and more elderly and long term care facilities open, creating greater demand for these workers.
The exact job you are going to do is usually determined by where you work. If you prefer to work with a lot of different people, then you should probably work at a hospital as there is a much greater patient turn over than other facilities. If you prefer to work with patients in a long term manner, then you should find an assisted living or long-term case facility. After all, hospitals can move patients out within a couple of days of admission, while you could work with a patient for years and years in a long term care facility. This makes them a lot better choice for people who prefer to build deep and lasting relationships with their patients. No matter what, you will be playing a very important role in each and every one of your patients’ lives and care.
Some patients end up staying in care for months, if not years, and thus you have an important job of making them feel as comfortable and at home as possible. You will often be the primary caregiver for these patients, and will have a lot more contact with them than other members of the staff will, so it’s important that you are able to build these relationships.
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