The Meaning of Nursing

Nursing comes from Latin meaning to nourish and by the 16^th Century, the word nurse takes on a new meaning as someone who takes care of small children.  It generally is one who waits on someone or takes care of the sick, which is usually a woman. During the 19^th Century, yet, you can interrupt the meaning as one who waits on, takes care of people who are sick and carrying out the duties under the supervision of a doctor.  In the early times, nursing was not held in high regard and in the 19^th Century nurses started going beyond their call of duty and laid out the foundation of nursing as it is today.

Florence Nightingale

During this era, nursing was thought to be in the lower class and people were shocked when women wanted to become nurses.  Florence was the founder of nursing, The Lady of the Lamp, and felt that God called her to become a nurse.  Her family was shocked by the thought of her becoming a nurse and horrified that she didn’t accept any of the possible suitors that were brought to her attention. In 1851, Florence went to Germany to study nursing.  When the Crimean war broke out, Florence went to the army hospital in Scutari and was appalled by the hospital filth, and death rate.  Her nursing care and dedication decreased the death rate among the soldiers. One of Florence’s many achievements was opening a nursing school in 1860, called the Nightingale Training School for Nurses. It was first formal training school for nurses.

Clara Barton

Clara Barton was a battlefield nurse and called the Angle of the Battlefield. She was the founder of the Red Cross in the United States and served for 23 years as its president. Clara organized, donated money and distributed of medical supplies for the solders.  She travelled with the ambulances and cared for the wounded soldiers in the north and even behind enemy lines.  Clara helped many families find their missing family members by the thousands and became the first woman to run a government bureau “The Missing Soldier’s Office.”   

To become a CNA, federal nurse aide requirements must be met and a basic set of skills must be mastered prior to certification. The skills necessary to care for patients in home and long term care settings require a minimum of 50 hours of medical theory and 100 hours of closely supervised clinical instruction and practice. Forty-eight hours of continuing education are required to be completed every two years to maintain CNA certification. Good interpersonal skills and the ability to be a team player are valuable character traits for a CNA.

Hospitals and extended care facilities are routinely strapped for personnel. CNAs are a vital part of the health care team. Many routine nursing tasks can be turned over to a CNA, allowing RNs and LPNs to provide more specialized care. The CNA must be skilled in the daily procedures being performed, and also be able to observe and report a patient’s condition to a nurse. Due to federally-mandated responsibilities, the nurse is unable to spend large amounts of time in a patient’s room. Therefore, the CNA frequently becomes the nurse’s “eyes and ears”. The average wages for a CNA are $11.14 hourly and $23,160 annually, though amounts can vary from region to region.

The CNA provides basic healthcare needs for patients of all ages, ethnicities, and genders. Due to daily CNA-patient contact, CNAs provide vital patient information to their supervisors. Since the fast-paced work is often very intense, the job is sometimes difficult. However, being people-oriented and compassionate helps many CNAs get through those demanding days.

Some common tasks could include answering patient call buttons, turn/reposition incapacitated patients to prevent bedsores, feeding incapacitated patients, provide assistance with getting in and out of bed, walking, and exercising, apply dressings, supervise exercise, prep patients for examination, treatment, or surgery, transport patients on a stretcher or wheelchair, change linens, clean rooms, and observe patient conditions to include recording accurate food and liquid intake/output and vital signs. A critical ability that a CNA must possess is the ability to stay calm in stressful situations. A strong handle on emergency procedures is crucial.

How to Find Nursing Assistant Training

You can find numerous healthcare organizations that will provide and inform you of the outline and courses required to become a CNA. Your local hospital, nursing home, or specialized medical accredited occupational institutions are great places to start inquiring informational patrons on how to get a career as a nursing assistant going. Most technical educational colleges in larger cities offer certified nursing assistant schooling. These often place the nurses in nursing homes to get hands on training to gain the necessary experience to be able to work as and when they have qualified as a nursing assistant. In retrospect, nursing homes are advisable to contact to find out how to become a nursing assistant, because when you start you may intimate introductions and training duties in one of them.

Starting Pay for Nursing Assistants

The base pay for a nursing assistant on the median averages 13.00 an hour. Locations, additional duties, and country regions all affect the earnings average. Pay raises are quite common and occur faster than on average to other occupations because of turn-over rates and unionized hospital establishments.

Mandatory Qualifications to be a Nursing Assistant

To achieve accredited nursing assistant status, an individual needs to complete nursing courses specifically recognized by the National League for Nursing Accredited Commission. Gradually more, now than ever before, prospective employers are seeking nurses that have a college degree. This is not necessarily a mandatory requirement but is highly preferred. Nurses can still be able to find hospital recruiters based solely on experience and reputation in the medical field.

For most students, a nursing assistant occupation is a career path to become a full nurse. For example, a Nurse’s Aid, when convenient, can obtain the necessary skills and training education while performing their work duties on their jobs.

Identification
A certified nursing assistant is often referred to as a nurse aid, or a nursing assistant. Their main job is to help the registered nurses or licensed practical nurses with patient care. The tasks that a nursing assistant has to perform will vary depending on where he or she works. However, they are often in charge of one on one care, including helping patient with grooming, eating, bathing, and dressing. They may also serve meals and make beds. They can also take blood pressure, take temperatures, and check pulses. Everything they do is under the supervision of a highly trained nurse.

Features
In the spring of 2007 the average hourly rate of a nursing assistant was about eleven dollars and fifty cents. The median yearly salary was estimated at $23,920. The employees in the bottom ten percent earned less than nine dollars an hour. The employees in the top ten percent of the field earned about fifteen dollars an hour.

Time Frame
The amount earned per hour for nursing assistant’s increases as the length of time of the job increases. In December of 2008, the average hourly rate was $9.72 for people who have only worked for a year. Out of the people who had at least twenty years of experience, the average hourly rate was $12.20. The average annual salary for a nursing assistant is between $23,000 and $29,801 according to All Allied Health School.

Considerations
To become a certified nursing assistant, you must have at least (if not more than) seventy five hours of training. This training has to be approved by the state in which the person plans to be employed. He or she must then take a competency test and pass it. Once a person has done the training and has passed the test, a person is given the title of certified nursing assistant.

Types
You can train to become a certified nursing assistant in many different settings. A person can take some classes in high school, as well as the classes that are given by vocational-technical centers. Community colleges will often offer training, and some private companies will also offer training. Some nurse care facilities will even offer a person their required training.

Training consists of 120 hours of clinical and 70 hours of theory. Classes will be held on campus at the Berkeley Adult School and clinical will be held at a Skilled Nursing Facility AND an Assistant Living Facility.

The core curriculum is based on the modules required by the Department of Health Services and Title 22.

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