The Certified Nursing Assistant, or CNA, course offered through the school at Johnson County Community College, Kansas City Kansas Community College and Eudora through EDTEC gives students who are aspiring to be in the medical field an opportunity to take the CNA exam and to obtain extra hands-on experience and get their certification.
The class is divided into two parts: lab work and book work. Lab work consists of hands-on activities that teach students basic nursing skills like checking vitals or moving patients into wheelchairs. Book work is studying a textbook to help the students prepare for the CNA exam.
Junior Esther Kisivo, who is taking the course at JCCC, liked the lab work over the book work.
“I prefer the labs because I’m a more hands-on learner, and seeing it happen is easier for me to remember,” Kisivo said.
The CNA exam has a written portion and a skills demonstration portion. If students pass the exam, they get their CNA certification. While a person does not need to become a CNA to work in the medical field, becoming a CNA or taking the course can provide students with extra experience that can give them a leg up when they get a job or begin college.
The course also provides clinical experience. Students are paired with licensed nurses and work alongside them to treat patients and work with medical equipment.
Senior Molly Griffin, who took the course through EDTEC, got to work at a nursing home for her clinicals.
“We were there for six weeks [for] three hours,” Griffin said. “We were there from 5:45 to 9:00, and we would get the entire floor out of bed. We’d shower them, get them dressed, [move them] down to breakfast and help them eat breakfast.”
The emotional impact of coping with a patient’s death in the medical field is harder to teach students. Senior Kennedy Goertz, who took the course at the Kansas College of Nursing during the summer, works at Kaw River Care and Rehab and has experienced death first-hand.
“There was [a] lady I had, she recently just passed, but I was on my shift on a Saturday [and] I had to check her pulse and her aspirations to make sure she was alive every hour,” Goertz said. ”It’s sad to watch them decline because they’re talking to you and trying to get better, and you’re doing the best you can [to help them], but you can’t control it.”
In the future, Kisivo wants to go into the obstetrics and gynecology field, Griffin wants to get her Bachelor of Science in Nursing to become a registered nurse and Goertz wants to become an ER nurse. Kisivo believes taking the course will help her become an OBGYN.
“[The class is] teaching me the proper medical terminology that I’ll be using in the medical field and giving me experience working with patients and residents,” Kisivo said. “I think it’s gonna benefit me when I get to the higher-level medical field, and having had that familiarity.”
