Hi. My son is 16 and recently received his CNA. He learned that he probably still wants to go into nursing, but that taking care of elders in a nursing home is def not where it’s at. We told him that’s called the ground floor. But, in college, will the Clinicals be better? What types of things do you do? Thank you in advance.
hi sorry if this is unrelated but how did your son receive his CNA at 16?
We live in Michigan and that’s the age requirement in this state.
Define better. He will probably do a rotation at a nursing home early on, he will also spend time on a hospital med surg floor, an L&D unit, in some kind of psychiatric or rehab facility, community health (if a bsn), etc. while nursing homes don’t have the best reputation, not liking the work a CNA does might (or might not) be a red flag. Be sure he explores some other career paths as well as nursing.
I think it’s to be expected that a large part of the patient population will be elderly (aside from peds and ob, of course). My S16 noted that the majority of ambulance calls he was on as an EMT were for elderly patients. He’ll be nursing major this fall so I can’t comment on the clinicals yet.
There is a big difference between being bored doing routine chores vs. not wanting to care for old people. In the first instance, it should be an inspiration to get a good education so you can order other people to do much of the dirty work (smirk), and so that your work is more challenging and more rewarding. In the second case, a person should find another career.
He doesn’t have a problem with old people - I’m sorry, my post did make it sound that way. I think, of course, he’s not looking forward to bathing them or changing diapers. But, I think there are areas of nursing where you don’t have to do that. Hopefully the CNAs do that when he becomes a nurse.
The first semester clinicals my daughter did involved interviewing patients, reviewing their records, and writing up reports about their conditions. The clinicals get more advanced as you move forward. However, my daughter is saying she is learning more working in a major hospital for the summer than she learned in her first clinicals. Many hospitals hire nursing students who have completed their 3rd year for nursing aide/assistant positions, even though they don’t have formal CNA certifications.
My first clinicals were with the elderly, but eventually he should rotate through nearly every area. Hopefully he will get enough exposure to decide where he would first like to work. There are so many options in nursing. I loved it all, but my heart is at home in the NICU.
My rotations matched the area we were studying for the semester. Learning theory of Pediatrics, clinicals in pediatrics. Learning Psych, clinical in psych, Learning maternity, L & D rotation.
In my experience, male nurses tend to get jobs in more acute areas of health care. The most men I worked with were in the Emergency room. Next would be CCU or ICU. Last would be the floors.