Benefits and Pay for Certified Nursing Assistants

Your yearly compensation as a CNA will depend on if you are a salaried employee or paid via an hourly wage.  Most CNAs are paid by the hour and compensation will depend on if you work 10 hours a week or pull extra duty and log in 60 hours.

The hourly wage earned by CNAs in Texas is dependent on location and the number of available jobs.  Currently in Texas, there are more than 40 thousand positions available for medical assistants of one type or another.  CNAs are is great demand and that bodes well for career opportunities after graduation and for long-term job security.

Pay is typically higher in bigger cities where the need is greater and there are numerous unfilled positions.  A good certified nurse’s aide can generally earn from $20,000 per year to over $30,000 per year in areas of high demand.

CNAs that travel can earn more than employees of a particular facility.  This higher pay compensates them for the lack of company benefits (which are not typically available to them) and the fact that they have to travel to get to each of their patients.

As a valued employee of a health care facility, you may be eligible for the company benefits program which may include things like group health care, a retirement plan such as a 401k, and paid vacation.  Another common benefit is access to a life insurance policy at attractive rates.  It is also worthwhile to mention that vacation time, especially paid vacation time, is a priceless benefit that many health care institutions now offer.

More time on the job will also influence how much you can earn as a CNA.  Many employers also have a bonus pool for their employees who perform above and beyond.

The best way to know your value as a certified nurse’s aide is to apply to several jobs at a variety of healthcare facilities near you such as a hospital, medical office, nursing home, assisted living facility and with a health care agency.   Where there is a shortage of help and a high demand for CNAs is the place you will find the highest salaries or hourly pay offered.  It is important that you compare job offers that are near you.  A higher paying job farther away will necessarily cost you more in commuting expenses and the higher pay difference may be completely wiped out in extra gas or transit costs.

 

Contact Us At:

CNA TRAINING INSTITUTE,INC
140 Eldridge Road # G, Sugar Land, TX 77478
Phone: (832) 532-9514
https://cnatraininginstitute.org/

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Six Health Tips for CNAs

Caring for people that need your help is a rewarding part of being a certified nursing aide.  But it can also be a stressful and physically demanding position.  In order to be at your best at work, and at home, here are a few tips to help you take care of yourself so you are in a better position to take care of others.

1. Take care of your feet. It is no secret that CNAs can spend hours at a time on their feet.  Choose your footwear wisely. Make sure shoes are comfortable and roomy so that you don’t get blisters.  They should also provide good support while walking or standing.  Rest your feet and legs when possible – at lunch or when you are on a break – so that you are ready to resume your shift when your break is over.
2. During training, CNAs are taught how to move patients safely for the sake of the patient and to protect the CNA’s back from injury from lifting incorrectly. If you exercise and have good posture, your back should not become an issue.  Stretching and using proper lifting methods will go a long way to making sure you don’t get a sore back.
3. Keeping hydrated is another secret to keeping you refreshed and focused during a long work day. Drink plenty of water every day and especially during your shift and you won’t get headaches or become overly fatigued.
4. Without plenty of sleep, you can also become tired, become irritable and lose focus. Determine what amount of sleep allows you to wake up well rested and ready for another day and try to meet that minimum each night before work.
5. Maintain a healthy diet to fuel your body. A healthy diet is good for your patients, but it is also essential for you.  A balanced diet will help you feel good and give you the nourishment to do your job and enjoy life.  A good diet is the first step to taking care of yourself.
6. Our final tip is related to the stresses of the job. Working in the medical profession comes with stresses that are hard for other outside of health care to imagine.  Practice relaxation techniques such as meditation or taking a walk on your lunch break.  Exercise is also a great stress reliever.  Too much stress can ruin your health and your positive outlook, both of which are essential for a CNA.

Remember that your health and well-being are important, too.  Maintaining a healthy lifestyle and optimum fitness for the job will allow you to face each demanding day refreshed and fit for the challenges that may lie ahead.

Get Your CNA Certificate Today!

Contact Us At:

CNA TRAINING INSTITUTE,INC

140 Eldridge Road # G, Sugar Land, TX 77478

Phone: (832) 532-9514

https://cnatraininginstitute.org/

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CNA Professional Career Life Lessons

Those considering a career as a certified nursing assistant might be drawn to a career in medicine and need a place to start. Others heed the call to serve and a position as a nurse’s aide fulfills that calling. Days spent in the service of others who truly depend on you CNA be both rewarding and frustrating, yet most who enter the profession wouldn’t trade those experiences and difficult lessons learned for anything.

One of the key lessons that one learns as a CNA is that relationships matter. From the bonds formed with patients, to the lifelong friendships with other staff members, to the respect earned from the doctors and medical staff, each of these relationships contributes to job satisfaction and an elevated feeling of self-worth.

There are few other professions where so much is needed by so many. It is a profession where even the smallest kindness is rewarded in ways that are too numerous to count. Playing a pivotal role in the quality of life for those in need is life-enriching and empowers one to do more than ever thought possible. Relationship-building skills are essential in any profession, and especially so as a nurse’s aide. The strong bonds that develop are the glue that holds everything together when it seems that everything is going wrong.

Another lesson that CNAs learn is how to calmly and effectively adapt to any situation that arises. This survival skill serves CNAs well on the job and in life in general. To be able to assess the situation quickly while thinking on one’s feet and managing a dozen patient residents at the same time is the kind of multi-tasking that translates well to personal life situations. Knowing that so many people are depending on the nurse’s aide to figure it out and make it work develops confidence in one’s ability to handle any of life’s crises at home that seem to occur on a weekly basis.

The ability to persevere no matter what happens is one of those life skills that can’t be taught, it must be earned through overcoming obstacles that seem insurmountable at the time. CNAs face these challenges almost on a daily basis. Whether one is faced with an unplanned disruption to patient schedules, lack of support due to absenteeism, or fixing careless mistakes made by other CNAs, delivering consistent care in the face of these obstacles gives one the ability to endure most anything that life throws at them.

It is the toughest parts of being a CNA that are, in the end, the most personally rewarding. If one takes a moment and reflects on these lessons learned, it becomes crystal clear that these are the very life lessons that enrich our lives and enable us to improve the quality of life for ourselves and our own families. And the beauty of it all is that these lessons are learned while dedicating our professional careers to the service of others which is reward in and of itself.

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What Kind of CNA Salary Can You Expect?

CNA TRAINING INSTITUTE,INC

140 Eldridge Road # G, Sugar Land, TX 77478

Phone: (832) 766-0929

https://cnatraininginstitute.org/

Here in Texas, the demand for certified nursing assistants is quite high.  A growing elderly population and greater access to healthcare brought about by the Affordable Health Care Act are fueling an increase in the need for qualified nursing assistants.

According to highcharts.com, the national salary range for certified nurse’s aides ranges from $25,349 on the low side to $37,473 per year with a median annual salary of $30,855.  These figures are countrywide and include nurse assistants with little or no experience on up to aides with several years’ experience.

Regarding total compensation, bonuses do not add much to the national median annual salary.  However, healthcare benefits are a significant portion of total compensation provided by employers and must be factored into an evaluation of a compensation package.  Other benefits which are available to certified nursing assistants include social security, retirement savings plans such as 401k and 403b plans, pensions and time off.  These benefits make up a substantial portion of a pay package for CNAs and, compared with other entry-level careers, are significant and noteworthy.

Even better news for students that are currently enrolled in CNA classes in the Houston area is the fact that Texas’ salaries a bit higher than the national average and Houston salaries are near the top of the range of Texas salaries.  So if you are enrolled in training at the Consolidated Nurses Aide Training Institute, your prospects for earning a good starting salary are good.  Current data provided by salary.com and updated on January 31, 2017 show that median salaries in the state start at $21,771 in the Midland-Odessa region and top out at over $31,000 (median for all levels of experience) in the Houston area.

If you are a CNA in Texas, Houston is the place to be.  Salaries vary widely across the state and nationally and depend on level of experience and other factors.  But it is good to know that demand in Houston is great and keeps CNA salary levels on the high side compared with other places you might choose to work.

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Talk about death, be kind and trust your instincts: tips for new nurses

Don’t be afraid to question senior doctors

Never be scared to question a doctor, however senior they may be. We are our patients’ advocates and can protect them from potential mistakes. A good doctor will respect you for this. If you feel something isn’t right but are not confident enough to challenge a situation yourself, go to someone you know, trust and respect – watch how they deal with it and learn.
Emma McLellan, staff nurse in the ICU, Manchester

Learn to trust your gut instinct

I believe good nurses are really tuned into their gut instinct and new nurses should learn to trust it. A nurse’s gut instinct is their deeply grounded knowledge base developed in practice, their critical awareness and what they have learned from previous situations plus an overall sense of knowing the patient well. You’ll just know something doesn’t add up, or you may convinced there’s something more going on, so make sure you go that extra mile to cover all bases. Maybe, for example, all of a patient’s baseline observations are normal, but you just sense that there is still that underlying thing you can’t put your finger on – monitor them really closely because you’ll often be right.

Death is a part of nursing – talk about it with patients

Death is a regular part of nursing. Patients need someone to talk frankly about death. We plan births for nine months, but talking about death always seems awkward and hard. One of the best things you can do for a patient who is nearing the end of their life is to give them opportunities to talk about their death and how they would like it to be. Being able to give advice and support to help them get their affairs in order can relieve a lot of their pain and worry. It is possible to have a good death but the conversations have to be had.

When death is unexpected this is very hard to deal with. I worked in an accident and emergency department for 10 years and learned that life and death is unpredictable. I have seen many patients and nurses struggle with the last words that they said to that person, so I try to adopt the approach of being kind. Really think about what you say during emergency situations – it is likely that patient can hear you right to the end – even if the rest of their body is not responding. Use their name, talk calmly to them, explain everything you do as you are doing it. Speak to them as if they are awake.
Christine Bushnell, advanced nurse practitioner, nurse partner in a GP surgery and trainer, Harrow

Read the full article here: https://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2017/mar/15/trust-your-instinct-talk-death-tips-new-nurses

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MULTI-PASSIONATE. WHEN YOU REFUSE TO CHOOSE JUST ONE.

Multi-passionate. It’s a gift and a curse at the same time. I know because I’m multi-passionate and most of my life I didn’t understand the benefit of it. As a child, I didn’t have an answer to the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I had 10. As I grew and experienced more that answers grew too.

To the outside non-multi-passionate world it can look like non-committal, to a girl who didn’t get being multi-passionate it equated to fleeting happiness. Here’s why. I’d get into something, throw myself into it then I’d feel the pull to focus on another passion, throw myself into to it. You get the gist.

To someone who’s multi-passionate it feels like a constant pull in different directions. The pull to do, be, have and experience many things. This pull is innate its part of who we are. There’s no changing it or denying it and the pressure to change leads to unhappiness.

In society, there’s a spoken and sometimes unspoken (depending on who you’re with) rule that says “commit and stick it out, no matter what”. Great, if you’re a single passion kind of person, but it doesn’t work for us multi-passionate people. The only way around it is finding a way to weave multiple passions into what we do and find space for the rest.

So how do we weave multiple passions into what we do? Here’s how I did it and what I discovered along the way.

1. I stopped trying to pick one. I stopped trying to find my “1” special gift I could give the world. I accepted I have various passions and I just need one vehicle to deliver them in.
2. I got crystal clear on my strengths. I took the StrengthsFinder® test. I realized that one of my strengths was the starting of things, jumping in. I learn by doing. This helped me understand my passions better. I love the beginning of building businesses. I’m not a procrastinator. Hence, to others it may appear like I’m jumping around but I do the things others only think about. I learn that it’s not for me by doing it.
3. I accept that there’s a bigger calling for my life and that my passions were going to serve as the drive, excitement, and motivation to deliver that calling to the world.
4. I listed my passions and got clear on my purpose. I made a list of all the things I’m interested in and all the things the world needs. I narrowed down and married the two.

Read the full article here: http://www.thechangeblog.com/multi-passionate/