What was the first thing that came into your mind when you finished your CNA training and finally got your job? As soon as I entered the hospital as a CNA the first thing that came into my mind was how to be a good CNA at the hospital and help people get better!
Certified nursing assistants are considered entry-level nurses. They are expected to perform different tasks and help patients with their daily life activities.
CNA is assigned specific tasks by a registered nurse, the tasks might include giving medication to patients, helping them use bathroom facilities, cleaning the room, changing the bedsheets, removing the trash, and many other tasks.
CNA is also expected to take vital signs along with the history of patients and deal with visitors of the patient as well.
After getting all the knowledge and skills you need to pursue your career as a certified nursing assistant, now you have finally stepped into your professional life! You must know what you should do and what you should avoid doing to be a good CNA.
Top Qualities Of A Good CNA
Here are some personality traits that you should adopt to make a successful career.
Communication Skills
Having good communication is the main thing when it comes to the nursing profession! As a CNA you need to communicate with RN, doctors, patients, and their visitors on a daily basis. You have to report the patient’s condition properly to your nurse in charge and document the patient’s vital signs along with his medical progress to them.
A CNA has to communicate with the patient as well in order to direct them while taking medicines and give them clear information about their health condition.
A CNA should be polite when communicating with patients so that they can seem more approachable and the patients will open up about their condition to such certified nursing assistants in a better way.
Flexibility
A CNA should be flexible with his/her working schedule because they can be called on duty at any hour whenever there is a rush at the hospital.
When you work at a hospital as a nursing assistant, your every day at work is different from the other, some days it will be calm and smooth with a less hectic routine while the other days will be draining and challenging, you are expected to deal with critical patient and emergency conditions.
You might be needed to work extra shifts and fill in for your fellow nursing assistant if they are not able to make it to the hospital.
So, you must be flexible with your schedule and timings, along with this you must be quick in adapting to a new working environment and different scenarios every other day.
Physical Strength
During your full-day shifts, you have to spend almost all the time standing on your feet.
Good physical strength is essential in your profession because your everyday work revolves around transferring, positioning, and lifting the patients throughout the day.
To be a good nursing assistant at a hospital, one should be physically fit and should be able to lift heavy weights in order to help patients and their co-workers.
Good physical endurance and stamina are required to walk around the hospital all day long and keep in check different wards.
Observation
During your working hours at the hospital, you are required to observe the patient’s recovery rate and behaviors.
A CNA also has to take the vital signs of the patient and monitor blood pressure, pulse rate, breathing rate, oxygen saturation, and others.
A CNA is also required to observe and monitor any changes in the patient’s condition. he/she must report anything unusual in the patient’s condition to the nurse in charge.
Time Management
Time management is everything when it comes to working at a hospital! A CNA should know how to manage the time between different patients because hospitals are always flooded with patients.
A CNA can help more patients effectively and quickly if he prioritizes his task on different levels. You can reduce your stress and take longer breaks if you are good at managing your time.
Empathy
Patients go through a lot during their stay at the hospital, mostly they are not in a good state mentally and emotionally.
Developing empathy for patients enables the nurse to understand what the patient needs and their concerns as well.
It enables a CNA to put himself in the shoes of a patient and help him understand how his patient feels.
Empathy is crucial to developing a healthy relationship between a patient and his nursing assistant, this enables the patient to communicate his worries, discomforts, preferences, and pain with the certified nursing assistant more openly.
Having empathy towards your patient is never taught in any kind of nursing program, instead, it is only developed to understand your patient better and give them good care.
If you develop the above qualities in your personality as a CNA then you can be one of the most successful CNAs working at the hospital.
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