Colorado Technical University

I'm making a total career shift. What should I expect in CNA training and work? Advice, Words of Wisdom Plze?

I need advice and words of wisdome. Next month I will start training to be a CNA so I can get some steady work when 2012 rolls in. There is no question that I want to do this. I've been care taking for my grandmother, and working with her CNA for three months. I decided that helping people would be a good career choice, plus I desperately need work. The issue is it is the polar opposite of what I originally went to school for. I've been studying and training as a fine artist since highschool. I've been doing so for the past 9 years, till I finally earned a Masters degree last year in 2010. The problem since then has been finding steady work. Despite having an advanced degree, the job market is tight, and the creative field is even tighter. I didn't expect the job market to be so bad when I finished with school. I need a job to keep making art. And since CNA's are always in demand, I figure I'll have a better time w/finding work. Plus, I'll be able to go back to school part time to get some training in other fields like computer technology which will add to my resume. Because I'm going into this CNA thing literally from nowhere, can anybody with experience let me know what to expect, what the classes and testing will be like, what is the work environment like? What can I read or do to mentally prepare myself for this new endeavor. I've heard different stories that men have trouble getting work in the field, and other stories that it's easier for men to find work in the field. I don't know anything about the healthcare profession. Any advice will be appreciated. I'm a bit nervous. Thanks.

Public Comments

1. I'm currently taking a CNA class, and I can tell you a lot of people in my class already have Bachelor's degrees, so you're not alone. Most of us are becoming CNAs so that we can move into nursing or other healthcare jobs. About 25% of my class is male, and my clinical instructor is a male nurse - gender isnt really a factor in finding a job in healthcare. You will spend a lot of time in class memorizing how to do skills, like taking vital signs, assisting with activities of daily living (bathing, mouth care, feeding), transfers, etc. The best advice I can give you is that it helps to memorize the steps in the skills now, if you have time. Other than being tested on skills, we take written exams (which are common sense), and we're also doing clinical at a nursing home for experience. To get your certification, you will need to pass the class and then the state exam (which will be a written test and a skills test (where you perform procedures you learned in the class). It's really not that bad, it just takes a lot of practice and memorization of the more detailed skills. In clinical, all of your work is supervised and they only give us skills that we've been tested on. Taking my CNA class has been a good experience for me and the job isn't as terrible or scary as it appears from the outside. And it's a really good introduction to health care work, if that's a field you're interested in.