Wash your hands properly before providing any patient care.
Becoming a certified nurse’s assistant is a smart career move. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment opportunities for CNAs are expected to increase by 30 percent to 35 percent over the next five years. This is due, in part, to the rapid swell of senior citizens as baby boomers retire while life expectancies continue to rise. To become a certified nurse’s assistant, you need to be over the age of 18, be able to pass a police records check and drug screen, and participate in a short training course. At the end of your training, you will be given a two-part exam to verify you know everything you need to know to perform the job. The first part of the test is a written, multiple-choice, general-knowledge exam. The second, and arguably the more nerve-racking, is the clinical skills evaluation.
Instructions
1. Listen carefully to the tasks you are asked to perform. You will be given three to five different duties to demonstrate while the state examiner observes and evaluates your presentation.
2. Wash your hands. Before starting any task, walk to the sink and demonstrate proper hand-washing technique. Begin by making a length of paper towel accessible. Then start the water and wash your hands. Use copious amounts of soap and remember to wash beneath your fingernails, between your fingers and past your wrists. Silently sing the ABCs twice, which takes 20 to 30 seconds, to ensure you have washed for an appropriate length of time. Use the paper towel to dry your hands and to turn off the water. Wash your hands again after performing patient care.
3. Be mindful of discretion, decorum and safety when approaching the patient to complete a task. The examiner will study your movements to ensure you are aware of these issues. Do not enter a room without knocking. Give the patient as much privacy as possible by drawing the curtains and keeping them closed for the duration of care. Address the patient by her correct name and don’t forget to introduce yourself.
4. Consider the best methodology for the task. Think through the steps you need to take; carefully consider all the information you have been given. If the task you are asked to perform requires any sort of contact or potential contact with bodily fluid, put on gloves. As you work, explain what you’re doing to the patient. Do not overlook common safety measures, such as using the transfer belt, locking the wheels on a wheelchair, placing the call light within easy reach or returning the bed to the lowest position when you’ve completed your task.
5. Practice the most commonly asked skills before taking the exam: moving a patient with right- or left-side paralysis from a bed to a wheelchair, taking a temperature, providing a bedpan, recording vital signs, taking blood pressure, relocating a patient in his bed, changing bed linens while a bed is occupied, demonstrating the procedure for proper disposal of soiled linen and basic grooming--including denture care and mouth care for patients with and without teeth.
Tips Warnings
Make sure your fingernails are trimmed short and are free of polish.
Make sure the bed rail is up on the side you’re rolling a patient toward; otherwise she could roll off the bed.
Make sure you’re using an oral thermometer before placing the bulb in a person’s mouth. Shake the thermometer to move the mercury to the bottom before use.
Never put soiled linens on the floor.
Do not wear fake or acrylic nails to your CNA exam. They are forbidden in most hospital settings because they are a haven for bacteria and germs.
Tags: pass, skills, test, exam, your hands, Make sure, Wash your hands, asked perform, certified nurse’s, certified nurse’s assistant
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