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Nursing assistants don’t have to end up in long-term care

The common perception of State Tested Nursing Assistants (CNA) is that they predominantly give non-medical aid to people with chronic illness or disability. This is known as long-term care (LTC). While there is some validity to this association between CNAs and long-term care, since nursing homes are major employers of CNAs, this doesn’t mean that as an CNA you will forever be relegated to bed pans and sponge baths.

The mere fact that hospitals and other non-LTC areas employ nurse assistants on a regular basis should give you confidence that you don’t have to work in LTC if you don’t want to. Even psychology wards need nursing assistants more often than you would think. However, if you don’t take any specific action to work at a venue where you want to work, then yes, chances are you will end up in LTC because nobody else wants to.

But you could say that about any qualification for any field. An engineer could end up doing rudimentary number crunching on a project to build a bridge, or he can be the chief engineer on the project. The difference is in drive and determination, and not so much intelligence, especially since drive and determination often are harbingers of intelligence.

A good way to demonstrate your drive and determination is to volunteer. If you don’t want to end up changing colostomy bags for a living, then volunteer at the job you do want and make yourself useful.

Or, if you simply cannot afford to work for free, then take an LTC job but help out with other duties as well. Once your supervisor takes notice of your utility, you’re sure to get an opportunity, or at least the chance to learn more, which is usually all the opportunity you’ll need.