CNA to RN

[sanantone]

I don't really understand why you would feel this way. Sure, we're having a little misunderstanding -- as is the nature of online communication -- but it seems that we're all being relatively civil here.



I still assert that the work of a CNA does not, in any way, directly correlate to working as an NP or PA. Yes, I will agree that being a CNA will help one in the first month or two of RN school -- which is a route that I recommended against. Yes, I agree that being a CNA will give one insight as to the working environment on a hospital floor -- which is an environment that practitioners see very little of, as they spend more time in the work room and less time at the bedside. I will not, in any way, concede that working as a CNA will give one insight as to what it's like to actually work as a midlevel.


Being a CNA is very physically difficult, dirty work that -- as you've shown by sharing your own experience -- would turn someone off to working in healthcare. That should be chalked up as one more reason to NOT become a CNA. Perhaps your life's path would have taken a different turn if you'd instead gotten a job in an outpatient OB clinic, where the work environment was quieter and the daily duties were not so physically exhausting. But, perhaps not. Who knows?


I'll still push for shadowing a midlevel to see if that's what one actually wants to do with their life. And, I'll still push for OP to go to PA school rather than the considerably longer nursing path to NP.


As a side note, CNA attrition from the profession is extremely high, cited at 72% after five years in one article[SUP]1[/SUP]. I think that this is a pretty good indicator of how difficult and stressful the job is. 37% of new nurses were ready to change careers after just one year, in one study[SUP]2[/SUP]. One study on NP's showed that 5.5% were ready to leave the profession at the time of survey[SUP]3[/SUP]. A study modeling physician assistant supply for the future noted that the mean attrition rate from the profession was 5%[SUP]4[/SUP], which is pretty close to the NP rate. I think that those numbers illustrate pretty well that the job of NP/PA is significantly more satisying than the job of CNA or nurse, which further negates the idea of using the experience in one profession as a basis for how much one will enjoy working in the other.


References


1. How to Prevent CNA Burnout | Chron.com
2. https://www.aacn.nche.edu/media-relation...tageFS.pdf
3. http://fpb.case.edu/news/Docs/Fitzpatric..._Dec10.pdf
4. Predictive Modeling the Physician Assistant Supply: 2010

I understand what you're saying, but now we know that the OP has a very unconventional goal.