How to Become a Certified Nursing Assistant Instructor

To show someone a path that leads to the destination is a noble gesture. In our lives, instructors play that role. The directions and guidance we receive from  instructors contribute towards our careers. Take the most in-demand profession of certified nursing assistants (CNA). These professionals manage the crucial activities of the health-care industry – patients’ care. They take training, pass the CNA certification exam and dedicate their lives for the well-being of patients. If someone who makes them capable of what they are, it is the CNA instructors. These certified nursing assistant instructors ensure that nursing students receive the right education before they start working in the industry.

Job Description

CNA instructors are playing a major role for the sake of humankind by imparting their knowledge to individuals interested in nursing occupation. They are registered nurses who have cared for elderly and all-aged patients in a setting for minimum two years, and have completed a CNA instructor certification program. Registered nurses are the best candidates for instructing nursing assistants. They knew the duties of CNAs and supervise their work wherever nursing care is provided to patients.

Qualifications

Any candidates with a RN license and two years of experience can become a certified nursing assistant instructor. The course for CNA instructors are planned by the Department of Public Health of the respective state. Participants have to complete the one-week course of 32 hours. The duration of the course may vary in states. Since nursing assistants also work with Alzheimer’s patients, instructors have to attend a training workshop to teach nursing students in assisting these patients.

Training Course

The main aim of the course is to teach participants on how to instruct students about nursing fundamentals. In the one-week training course, prospective instructors will learn to plan and chalk out important things to share. They will also learn the teaching skills so that students can easily understand the complex subject during the training.  Instructors have to learn and teach legal complications involved in the profession. Further, the course will also include to learn the tricks and methods to evaluate clinical skills of nursing assistants.

When a nursing assistant completes his/her course, they are employed in nursing homes and hospitals or other medical treatment centers to assist and take care of elderly and chronically ill patients. To teach them these primary duties, CNA instructors have to learn caring for these patients so that they can teach students accordingly.

The course they take helps them to understand teaching principles, and how to plan and develop nursing study materials. They gain knowledge to develop effective ways so that students can grasp topics easily, evaluate students, come up with new examples, and all about Alzheimer’s disease. At the end, instructors have to take exam and obtain a license to teach nursing assistant. A certified CNA instructor can find employment in local community colleges, nursing schools, municipal health centers,  vocational-technical centers as well as some high schools.

Amira is a CNA instructor in a Nursing School in Houston, Texas. As a nurse and a teacher I find this job extremely satisfying. I suggest you to read the page at Cnafaq.com  that will offer more insight into the career of a nurse aide instructor.