A CNA is a Certified Nursing Assistant or a Certified Nurses Aid. These terms have the same meaning, it just depends on to who you are talking to.

A CNA works as part of a group of healthcare professionals, that may include doctors and nurses. They perform jobs that assist healthcare doctors in looking after sick people, typically the elderly.

A Certified Nursing Aid’s tasks usually make sick people feel better so that they could have a more acceptable quality of life even though they aren’t feeling well, or may be incapable of performing normal every day things.

What does a CNA need to know how to do?

There are two levels of CNAs: a CNA-I and CNA-II. A CNA-I commonly takes on tasks that require only fundamental CNA schooling, but they are still really important. CNA-Is usually do jobs like:

• Maintain a hygienic patient bed – changing sheets, sanitizing bed pans, and so on.
• Washing patient’s body safely and correctly – ensuring that patients are kept clean, for their health and comfort
• Keeping a care diary and tracking tasks performed – recording performed tasks in a diary, like developing new symptoms or responses to medication.
• Aiding patients both to and from the bed area – many sick folks have a hard time walking, so they might need some help.
• Taking and documenting the patient’s vitals – ensuring the patient isn’t negatively reacting to medication or developing new problems
• Helping to feed and hydrate patients – many patients who require assistive care can not feed themselves, so a CNA helps them
• Identifying and reducing bedsores – any individual that stays in bed all day long is vulnerable to uncomfortable bedsores; CNAs move patients around to prevent sores from developing.
• Looking for new symptoms and informing doctors – if unforeseen signs and symptoms develop, the CNA Nurse can be the first person to detect the problem and inform doctors
• Recognizing all negative reactions – detecting unfavorable responses to patient care, and informing the doctor (or resolving the situation by themselves, if they are able to)
• Sustaining patient comfort – keeping the patient’s bedroom cozy while they are under care
• Maintaining the patient’s flexibility – moving the patient’s arms or legs through the complete range of motion

A CNA-II must do the jobs that a CNA-I does, but has taken additional training to become qualified for more technical and complicated tasks. The duties of these second level Certified Nursing Assistants can include:

• Using more sophisticated devices – setting up oxygen therapies, tracking oxygen flow, and so forth.
• Conduct oral and nasal suctioning – removing oral mucous build-up with a suction machine when the patient is not able to do it themselves
• Resolving fecal impactions – removing fecal impactions when a patient can no longer use the toilet on their own
• Rendering tracheostomy care – providing a second airway if patients lose the ability to breathe normally
• Cleaning and changing dressings – changing and disposing of dirtied dressings and bandages
• Administering IV treatments – assembling and flushing IV lines, checking fluid flow rate, stopping IV therapies, and so on.
• Providing ostomy treatments – getting rid of a patient’s wastes when they’ve gone through an ostomy
• Administering tube feedings – after the equipment is set up by Nurse Practitioner, a Certified Nursing Aide can be in charge of performing the tube feedings
• Applying Catheters – performing catheterizations and irrigating catheter tubing

Most of these tasks and duties of a CNA drastically improve the quality of life of any individual undergoing rehabilitation or treatment… and a fantastic Certified Nursing Aide can make all the difference in the world to an individual who is under care.

Imagine your grandpa, your mother or some other loved one that may be in the hospital and under care. Think about precisely how impactful these duties of a CNA might be on their well being. Think about how it will comfort and ease your family members, to find out that your own flesh and blood is benefiting from fantastic care and attention while they are sick.

The duties of a CNA, all the things a Certified Nurses Aid must do, have a profound impact on the happiness of a patient, and the well-being of that patient’s entire family.

What sort of person becomes a CNA?

Many kinds of people are attracted to a CNA career. Those who decide to become CNAs usually want to look after others, they have a tendency to be kind people who take pleasure from taking care of people. A lot of Certified Nurses Aides describe themselves as confident, or as a people-person.

Becoming a Certified Nurses Aide requires that you work with a number of people on a daily basis, or that you work with a single person as their care taker and good friend. For these reasons, several Certified Nursing Assistants say they like working around people.

Many CNAs also state that they are drawn to the work because it offers a way of generating an income while requiring a flexible schedule. It can be excellent for folks that lead busy lives, like someone who has to take care of a loved one.

Since a Certified Nurses Assistant’s services are necessary 24/7, there is usually room to schedule your shifts at times that suit your needs. Quite a few Certified Nurses Aides take advantage of the fact that it’s easy to get shifts and earn money.

Some CNA Nurses choose to get certified as a CNA because they do not want to have all of the responsibilities of a RN. And some other people decide to become a Certified Nurses Aide in order to start getting experience with a healthcare job, in order to eventually become an RN or LNP.

So what is a Certified Nurses Aid? To put it briefly, they are people, just like you, who enjoy caring for other people… so much they make it their regular job!