Health Careers
Certified Nursing Assistant
Professional Activities
Nursing assistants help nurses in nearly every aspect of nursing care in hospitals, clinics, home health, assisted living, private homes, and doctor’s offices. In hospitals, nursing assistants also provide daily care to patients, such as helping with meals, baths, exercises, and treatments. Nursing assistants are responsible for recording vital signs (pulse, respiration, blood pressure, and temperature), recording fluid intake and outputs, weights, and recording other observations. They must be familiar with normal values for vital sign measurements and observations and report normal and abnormal findings to a registered nurse or licensed practical nurse.
In outpatient clinics, nursing assistants are primarily responsible for preparing patients for the examination by a physician or nurse. They are also responsible for making sure the patients, nurses, and physicians receive the help they need during examinations or treatments. Other duties involve monitoring and stocking medical supplies, clinic scheduling, and patient teaching. In rural Alaska, Native speaking nursing assistants are often called upon to provide crucial translation skills.
Nursing assistants work wherever nurses are employed. Rural Alaska employers include regional hospitals, specialty clinics operated by regional health corporations or state and federal agencies, and community-based health care programs.
Educational Requirements
Certification is required to work as a nursing assistant in long term care and home health settings; many acute care hospitals and clinics also prefer to hire nursing assistants who hold certifications.
- Graduation from high school is not required, but if students do not have a high school diploma, they need to have a GED or take the ABLE test.
- Completion of an approved Nursing Assistant training program. All Alaska programs are required to provide a minimum of 60 hours of classroom instruction and 80 clinician hours of supervised clinical practice.
- Successful completion of a certification examination is increasingly being required.
Academic Programs
Training programs are available at vocational schools, community colleges, some high schools, and at many facilities that employ Nursing Assistants, such as Providence Extended Care.
The Alaska Vocational Technical Center (AVTEC) has an 8-week program that runs throughout the year. It includes 230 hours of classroom, lab skills practice and clinical experience. For more information, contact:
Elyce Boyd, Admissions Recruiter
AVTEC, Allied Health Department
1251 Muldoon Road, Suite 11
Anchorage, AK 99504
Phone: (907) 334-2230
Toll free: (800) 478-5389
Fax: (907) 334-2237
Web site: www.avtec.edu
Contacts
There does not appear to be a state or national association for Nursing Assistants. For information on programs and program requirements, call the Board of Nursing/CNA Program Director at (907) 269-8169.
This page was last updated by Janice Troyer on July 16, 2007
