CNA is an acronym that stands for Certified Nursing Assistant, which is a job type that has people working in either hospitals or nursing homes. CNAs are not true nurses; instead, they are referred to as unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP), which means they don’t hold a license, but have certifications. In general, a CNA helps to perform daily living tasks for both sick and/or elderly patients who are too infirm to take care of themselves.
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CNAs often work under the supervision of a true nurse, but this career choice is a viable option for those who want to get into the field of nursing fairly speedily. Programs for CNAs frequently take no longer than just a few semesters to complete. The advantage to choosing the career path of a CNA is that you can experience what nursing is like without having to invest too much money or time in education. Nursing as a career in a broader sense allows people to already start earning decent money without having to spend a relatively long time getting a degree.
Even though many of the educational programs for CNA students only last several weeks or months, this can still subject them to a financial burden. This is especially true if budding CNAs are burdened with supporting a family. That’s where CNA scholarships come in. There exists a decent amount of money out there that supports education in certain professions; it’s just a matter of knowing where to find it.
Some of the most promising sources of CNA scholarship funding actually stem from the very facilities that provide CNA training. Many medical facilities are desperate to land more nursing assistants who are both qualified and professional. Due to this neediness, said medical facilities are more than happy to either offer free training to budding CNAs or to reimburse students for the cost of their education and training at their facilities. However, nothing in life is truly free, which is why these same medical facilities subject students who have received free training to come and work for the same facilities after graduation.
Grants for CNA and other forms of scholarship are available from corporate organizations, as well as federal donors. Sometimes, though, federal scholarships may not be as readily available for CNA students on account of the shortness of the training courses, relative to other health care professions’ duration of training. Nonetheless, nursing assistance is a high-in-demand field that should still provide an ample choice of both corporate as well as federal scholarships and even grants. An effective way for budding CNAs to secure state funding, for instance, is for them to agree to work in a state’s most high-in-demand locations for a specific period of time after receiving their certification.
Nursing is a rewarding profession, not just morally, but also financially. Nurses who are highly trained and hold degrees and certifications can make between $50,000 and $100,000 per year. In addition, the amount of time and money a person has to invest to get a taste of the nursing profession is relatively less rigorous than with other healthcare professions. Finally, the demand for people in nursing jobs like CNAs means that there is a good chance of getting hired after completing the necessary training.
To learn more about CNA scholarships and nursing, see these links.