A Certified Nursing Assistant or CNA is responsible for giving practical care to people who do not have the facilities to care for themselves. CNA’s work under the direct supervision of a nurse, and they can be found providing care from the elderly to children and are known through various titles. The term Certified Nursing Assistant is usually ascribed to caregivers who are in a hospitals or nursing homes while Personal Care Attendant is the title given to those who are working in assisted living facilities. Nursing assistants who are providing direct care on patients’ homes are often referred to as Home Health Aide.

Becoming a Certified Nursing Assistant is easy and only requires a relatively short training course. The programs vary in length, depending on the school you enroll in. the price of education can also differ but you do not need to have previous experience or even a high school diploma to be accepted in such a program. Classes are usually conducted by a Registered Nurse and cover a wide variety of topics that include washing and proper positioning of your patient. Topics also elaborate on neglect and abuse, as well as feeding and dressing the patient. Among the other things you will learn from the program are catheter care, how to recognize depression controlling infections and coping with dementia. The course is usually divided into classroom learning and hands-on training.

After the training course, you will have to take a competency test, which is composed of two parts. These are the written and hands on exams. The written test is compose of basic questions about care giving and is in multiple-choice format. The clinical exam on the other hand will require you to perform five randomly chosen nursing assistant tasks. Once you pass the exam, you can start working as a Certified Nursing Assistant. However, the job of a CNA is not an easy one and if you are expecting to be in an office with a personal secretary, you are in the wrong profession.

Several methods are available if you want to become a Certified Nursing Assistant. Medical assistant schools in almost every state and city have accredited programs that you can avail of. If you are living in a rural area and such an option is not available for you, you can get access to the internet where there are certain online programs that will let you learn the written portions of the CNA qualification. However, you still have to register to a medical center nearest you in order to have your hands-on training.