A Career as a CNA

CNA is a career filled with many professional and personal benefits. If you choose being a CNA, you are choosing to spend your lifetime in helping and supporting others, using special skills that bring together scientific knowledge and professional caring.

A CNA career is one of the most popular and nationwide available because CNA is one of the nation’s largest health care professions, with millions of Certified Nursing Assistants, and many more will be needed in the future. CNAs are one of the largest components of any hospital or nursing home staff – they are the main providers of patient care in these hospitals and nursing homes – and they also deliver most parts of the nation’s nursing care types such as home care. CNAs work in a whole variety of other settings as well.

What They Do

Certified Nurse Aides employed in nursing care facilities are often the principal caregivers, being able to have more contact with residents than do other members of the staff. As some residents may stay in a nursing care facility for months or even years, CNAs develop ongoing relationships and interact with the patients in a positive, caring way. Home health aides help elderly, convalescent, or disabled persons to be able to live in their own homes by providing them healthcare in the comforts of their homes instead of health care facilities.

Under the supervision of nursing or medical staff, they could also provide health-related services, such as administering oral medications. Certified nursing aides also check patients’ vital signs such as pulse rate, temperature, and respiration rate, help with simple prescribed exercises, and help patients get in and out of bed, bathe, dress, and groom. Occasionally, they change non-sterile dressings, give massages and provide skin care, or assist with braces and artificial limbs. For experienced home health aides, those who have undergone training may also assist with medical equipment used.

Growth of the Labor Market

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nursing assistant jobs (including home health aides and psychiatric aides) will experience about 28 percent growth by 2016. Home health aides are expected to have the fastest job growth, as many people prefer in-home treatment as a comfortable and cost-saving alternative to hospital or nursing home care. However, nursing assistant jobs in hospitals and nursing homes are still expected to grow faster than the average for all other careers.

With the aging population growing rapidly, there probably will never be a shortage of CNA careers until well into the future. In the most part of the country the average age of a CNA is rising, and it means that there will be more CNAs retiring which would mean that there will be an increasing CNA shortage. Since many of current CNAs are nearing their retirement, there are fewer trained and skilled CNAs replacing them. This converts into more Certified Nursing Assistant careers opportunities with the greater potential of much higher starting salaries and additional bonuses.