New member/CNA

Hi Smiles,

I'm a new member too! and a new RN.
I quoted your post just so I could ask you some questions, step by step.

Smiles wrote:Hello all!!

As you can see i'm a new member and I'm an aspiring CNA! Whoop whoop:banana:

Some background info: I'm a freshmen/sophomore in college, i want to major in biology and hopefully work in labs especially cancer institutes! I would like to pursue a career as a CNA for two reasons

1. Clinical experience in the medical field (instead of just volunteering I would like to get paid as well, and also volunteers don't get alot of patient contact). The reason why I want clinical experience is because eventually i would like to become a physician (hopefully).

very cool but that leads me to something said in # 2.

2. I've always wanted to "be a nurse" but that requires alot of time and I would have to change my major to nursing. This CNA opportunity will give me a chance to live my dream of being a "nurse" kinda.
The scope of practice for an RN is very different then for a CNA. This is no slur on CNAs but it is different. During my first nursing rotation we only worked with CNAs at ALF so that we would learn to respect them and what they do. When we were done with a rotation we always bought lunch & enough homebaked goodies for the nurses, CNAs and housekeeping.

You mentioned that becoming a nurse requires a lot of time and it does!! Becoming a physician requires even more time. Again very different scopes of practice so I'm not suggesting one over the other.

There are both physicians and nurses who are researchers and work exclusively in labs especially in hospitals dedicated to only oncology. Then there are people who are full blown scientists of all varieties that also work in lab settings.


Well with all of that said, I've mapped out my schedule and found that I could fit my CNA courses (at a local tech school) during next summer. I would like some advice on how the classes are I'm planning on taking two summer courses

1. Anatomy & physiology (5)
2. Medical Terminology (3)

and the final course Patient Care Fundamentals the following semester along with my other courses.

oh and if you have any other advice by all means share =)

- Thanks

About your courses, does your A & P have lab components? Double check if you are taking an acceptable A & P course for a medical school. I don't know of any medical schools that will accept A & P classes that don't involve Gross Anatomy. On the flip side nursing schools in my area do not accept A & P classes without labs. It doesn't have to be a cadavers but there must be a hands on lab portion. I've seen a few people from my nursing class that had to retake it because they went to colleges in other areas that only did a lecture and not a lab. Medical Terminology good choice regardless of what career path you take later on. It will teach you how to break down medical words. Which is great because on the floor you get to go the other way and talk in abbreviations hahahaha.

Hi Angelique and welcome to the site!!

Thank you for bring that up because in the university course it definitely is paired with a lab however I'm not too sure if the technical college also pairs it with a lab I just sent an email to the program adviser and asked her, should get a reply pretty soon i hope. I just wish the university had a CNA program...it would've made everything easier. And I'm so looking forward to speaking in abbreviations and understanding the fields jargon! But do you suggest taking both of the classes at the same time during the summer?