Nursing Aides And Attendants: Schools and Careers

Job Popularity in Metro Areas for Nursing Aides And Attendants

The map below shows some metro areas where the profession is more popular, compared to the size of the population, than in the rest of the country. A table below the map shows job popularity and salaries across the US.

(Also see our complete career descriptions list.)

Metro Areas Rated for Popularity (as of 2007) for:
Nursing Aides And Attendants

Listed below are metro areas ranked by the popularity of jobs for Nursing Aides And Attendants relative to the population of the city, as of 2007.

Clicking on each city's name takes you to a detailed career profile for that city, providing the number of jobs, salaries, amount of training required, and more, for hundreds of job types.

Career Stories for Nursing Aides And Attendants

The inside stories from people actually working in the field.
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All Types

• Certified Nursing Assistan In An Elderly Nursing Facility

  Job Title: Certified Nursing Assistan In An Elderly Nursing Facility

  Education: Certificate in Nursing Assistant, FCCJ Jacksonville Florida

  Previous Experience: Worked as home health aide back home in my country, Trinidad and Tobago. Actually worked for some time as insurance clerk in Pensacola Florida. I had a hard time getting a job when moved to Jax and it was easier to train to be a nursing assistant.

  Job Tasks: I work in a nursing facility for long term and short term care for the eldery.

  On a typical day I doing the following:

  • bathe dresses/undresses patients and assist with oral hygiene.
  • serve and collect food trays.
  • change bed linens.
  • take and record vital signs.
  • pass and collect bed pans.
  • provide encouragement, support and comfort to patients and family members.
  • orient and mentor new staff members.

  In my free time, I will polish my female patients nails or just sit and maybe have a cup of coffee or a soda. Sometimes we will watch a movie together. Bingo is one of the favorite for most patients in the nursing home so we all look forward to that event. Around the holidays, for example Easter, we have egg hunts for the residents who are able to participate. Keeping in mind some patients are bed ridden and/or are not alert oriented to understand what is going on. At Christmas time employees pick names or choose to be secret Santa for the patients. They get clothing, shoes, cologne, bed spreads to keep them warm and lots of other things.

  Once a week an activities assistant take them to eat at an all you can eat Restaurant. Like any job there is good and bad days.

  Best and Worst Parts of the Job: The best part of my job is when I help an elderly and they will say to me, I appreciate what you do for me every day. Feeding time is also one of my favorites because we can sit and talk with the alert patients. My worst time is when a family member comes in after several months and starts complaining about everything.

  Job Tips:
  1. Treat your patients as if they are one of your family members.

  2. Keep an open mind when dealing with problems that may come up on the job.

  3. Keep a smile on your face at all times, especially when doing care on patients, they can sometimes tell when we are in a bad mood and believe me they will feed on that, which may get you in trouble.

  4. Doing some volunteer work in this field will help you to know if this is what you really want.

  Additional Thoughts: To do this job you must have a good heart. You must be a caring individual with lots of patience. Sometimes you might be right but to make your patient happy be in the wrong. If that is going to calm them at the time. If you are doing the right thing, God is always on your side and that is all that matters.

• Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) In A Hospital

  Job Title: Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) In A Hospital

  Education: Cerificate in Nursing Assistant, Walla Walla Community College

  Previous Experience: I worked as a nursing assistant at a nursing home for six years before switching to work at a hospital.

  Job Tasks: I work in a large hospital in the state of Washington that caters to a variety of people and also the outlying areas. We have a prominent cancer center and are developing more areas every day. We are one of the highest rated hospitals in the area. We are a catholic based hospital one of the first hospitals ever built in this area we also belong to a larger corporation called Providence which is a company known nation wide for hospitals, schools and other places as well.

  As a CNA I am responsible for the direct care of the patients assigned to me. I work at night but have worked other shifts also.

  In my line of work I am responsible for a variety of things such as all personal needs, all the things that the patient might require at the time, and keeping the RN's informed as to the conditions of the patients.

  I work in different areas of the hospital as I am what they call a float which means that I work wherever they need me at the time. I have worked in post-op which caters to all the patients just comming from surgery. Also, I have worked in TCU which is the transitional care unit which usually caters to the older patients either going home or to a treatment center. I have also worked in other areas that cater to infections, wounds, or rehab.

  I am in the process of being trained to work in the OB (Obsterics) department and also the ER (Emergency Room). At times I get put on what you would call "low census" when we might have a low number of patients and I'm put on call so they can call me in at night should the need arise somewhere for additional staffing.

  Best and Worst Parts of the Job: The best things about my job would be the fact that I get to meet so many different people everyday, I get to watch as a child is born, or as a sick person or child gets better.

  Some of the things I hate about my job are the times when no matter what you do you can't make someone feel better or make there pain go away. Also there are times when after everything you lose a patient anyway no matter what you do to prevent it.

  Job Tips:
  1. One of the things i would tell anyone who might want my job is that you can't let your stress interfere with your care of a patient.

  2. Another tip would be if you feel yourself getting burnt out take some time for yourself otherwise it could reflect in your caring for your patients.

  3. Last if you need help ask because nobody knows unless you say something and in this line of work. It can be easy to injure yourself or someone else if you try to take on everything yourself.