certified nursing assistant | Distance Learning Systems (DLSI)

Patient Care Assistants

Patient care assistants carry out a variety of tasks such as observing patients, assisting with daily living activities, taking vital signs, charting changes in patients’ health or behavior, obtaining lab specimens, escorting patients among other tasks. These healthcare individuals work in hospitals clinics, nursing homes or other health care environments. They are generally under the supervision of a registered nurse.

Programs for patient care assistants are offered in vocational schools and community colleges. Training can be acquired through nurse technician, patient care technician or personal care assistant/technician programs. Requirements for admission may vary. Some programs may require that an aspiring patient care assistant be a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) or Certified Home Health Aide prior to admission. Others may only require a high school diploma or GED equivalent.

Such programs prepare graduates to perform their duties in hospitals, general surgery units, homes and nursing homes. Training usually consists of lectures, clinical rotations and lab work, including studies in in pre- and post-operative care, anatomy, physiology and nutrition. Students in medical assistant programs are also supplied with instruction in medical terminology, lab procedures, physiology and pharmacology. Graduates can either pursue the CNA credential or take other certification exams.

Employment for home and personal care aides are seen to grow by 70% between 2010 and 2020 – a growth rate much faster than many other job sectors. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) predicts that there should be an increasing demand for care in the growing elderly population and in-home setting. The average salary for patient care assistants was around $20,830 as of 2012, while home health aides made an average of $21,830 annually. According to the BLS, there are no certifications or licensure requirement for these types of jobs. Some may be required to pass a competency test to break into this field.

Transition from CNA to LPN

It is good to start your profession in the healthcare field as a CNA, but to advance in your profession and to take up higher patient care obligations, a CNA to LPN (licensed practical nurse) program will be of excellent help. Although both the CNAs and the LPNs work under the guidance of a nurse (RN) or a doctor, the obligations managed by them are different. Typically, an LPN must finish one year of training before getting hired. However, a CNA can find work after attending a course for 6-24 weeks, based on the schedule of classes chosen, that includes 75 hours of approved training.

In a CNA to LPN program, you get trained to work as a licensed practical nurse through classes and clinical experience in medical centers. You learn to take vital signs such as blood pressure and help doctors with various surgical procedures. You can enroll for a CNA to LPN bridge course at a college or a vocational training school. Online CNA to LPN bridge programs are also available. In order to get registered into a CNA to Licensed Practical Nurse program, you must have a secondary school degree or GED. You should also have excellent scores in college placement exams and must complete background checks. It is not essential that you have training as a CNA to seek admittance to a CNA to LPN training course, but you stand a better chance of getting selected if you have experience as the entrance process for an LPN program is very competitive. Some institutions may require you to clear the ACT test.

The CNA to LPN education and training specifications vary from state to state. For example, you need to have 51 months of experience in an acute care hospital in the state of California. Clinical specialty requirements consist of 200 hours in pediatric medicine, 200 hours in genitourinary or maternity and 64 hours in Pharmacology. 64 additional hours in one of these specialized areas is also needed. After finishing the CNA to LPN program, you need to take the NCLEX-PN to get qualified as an LPN. To be able to get employed in any wellness care facility in any state, it is important that you get licensed as an LPN. As an LPN, you will find perform in nursing care features, residential care features, physician’s offices, out-patient care centers, medical centers and also with home nursing services.

Online BSN Degree Program

Online BSN degree programs are perfect for peak career individuals who are already employed but really want to upgrade or perhaps a licensed practical nurse that really wants to improve his or her position. Even when you’re a CNA or Certified Nurse Assistant, you are able to make an application for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing and employ your experience to assist using the beginning clinical work. Online BSN degree programs require regular liberal arts training to start. You will find several online correspondence courses, although not all schools are produced exactly the same. Make sure to seek advice from your potential employer to verify they’ll accept the internet nursing degree you’ve selected. Each school has different criteria for admittance, the clinical work, and also the degree needs. Obviously, each school also charges in a different way while offering varying scholarship grants.

Nursing schools reject 40,000 applications annually due to the coveted spaces within the class for any area that’s growing more every single day. Nursing schools take a look at several factors before selecting students. If you’re deficient in a single area, make it up in another section. For instance, if you have been absent from school in a long time, acquire some current experience within the medical area like an aide or licensed CNA (Certified nursing assistant). These are areas that you are examined: grades, experience, prerequisites, application, and presence.

You can expect that the school will provide class instruction along with a testing site in your area in a college or university for the exams. Online colleges use local schools as a spot for your results and final exams to be supervised by a proctor. You’ll be needed to furnish identification and meet on campus at least one time per month of these exams. It’s also wise to expect the vast majority of the instruction to become on-site in a hospital or clinic. Online schools supply the instruction for the class section, but nursing is really a vocation as well as an academic degree. There are some limited accelerated online nurse training programs typically for LVN or LPN nurses that can make the leap to RN in less than 2 years accomplished completely online by obtaining an ASN degree. However, you’ll need on-the-job training provided in tangible situations and configurations. Your accredited online BSN degree program may have an arrangement with a local hospital to get your working experience and become rated by their professional teachers.