A certified nursing assistant (CNA) is someone who helps patients with their health care needs for daily living and beside care too. They work under a registered nurse (RN) or a licensed practical nurse (LPN). A nursing assistant is incredibly important to the daily workings of the medical community. However, they cannot do any tasks which may require deeper qualifications. If a CNA attempted to do any of these tasks the legality and liability would be breached. CNAs must complete a brief certification program which enables them to carry out the required tasks by giving them the knowledge and hands on experience in a medical setting.
The nurse may be responsible for many tasks that keep the work place a high stress environment and as a result of the number of tasks they are responsible for, they cannot spend too much time directly interacting with patients. A CNA must be very patient and understanding because in most circumstances they are dealing with elderly or very sick patients who are not always in the best mental or physical state.
Some tasks that they must do are to answer any requests of the patients through their call buttons or signals and turn and rotate patients in their beds in order to prevent the development of bed sores which commonly occur with patients who don’t get on their feet or move at all. Another skill that a CNA must have is to keep an eye on the patient’s status by measuring simple signs such as food and beverage input and output both along with their vital signs such as heart rate. They report the conditions back to the nurse that they work under.