Certified nursing assistants perform their duties for the care of the patients in health care institutions like hospitals and nursing homes under the management and supervision of a registered nurse or medical staff.  Some of their duties are answer call lights or intercoms and gives the patients their needs. It is also their responsibility to bathe the client when needed and dresses them up. These certified nursing assistants also serves the food trays to the patients and helps them in feeding. Then, they will also collect the food trays after. They also assist the patients in transports may it be on a wheelchair or stretcher or assist them to walk. It is also their task to provide privacy by draping the patients or closing the curtains when the patient undergoes examinations and treatments. Certified nursing assistants also turn the patients and position them properly with or without assistance. Turning is very important especially for those bed ridden patients to avoid the formation of bed sores or pressure ulcers. Changing the bed linens and monitoring vital signs as directed are also a part of their responsibilities.  They should also maintain the cleanliness of every patient’s room by cleaning and dusting it.
Certified nursing assistant education is the first thing that everyone aspiring to be one must have. There are a lot of certified nursing assistant schools out there offering programs for this course. These schools have programs consisting of both lectures and hands-on trainings. The program is usually taken in colleges or universities and completed for 100 to 120 hours. All skills needed as a nursing assistant is being taught in certified nursing assistant programs. The CNA schools also cover topics on legal issues, patient care, rights of the patients and their procedures like bed making, bathing and feeding the client. Emergency interventions are not being taught but when one has trainings on this it will give them the higher skill level of work. Trainings may cost up to $1000. Once the training for CNA is done, students take a certification exam. These exams are given by the health board of a state or by certification programs. After passing the exam, the student is now a certified nursing assistant and qualified to start working.
Certified nursing assistants are the important part of the health care team because they do all the basic assistant jobs required. They are also one of the first people the patients and their families turn to. Sadly, with all the hard work that they have been doing, they are still on the lower part when it comes to salaries. A certified nursing assistant may earn $19,000 to $30,000 a year depending on a lot of factors. The median salary is $26,000 giving them only $2000 a month. But some facilities who understand the hard work of the CNA’s give higher salaries to those who work better and in return the facilities will be given the pride on how better the services are. Working as a certified nursing assistant is beneficial for those who really wanted to have a medical career.