The busy schedule of some people doesn’t allow them enough time to care for aging parents or grandparents. Therefore, these individuals may likely opt to take their elders to a nursing home.
There, there are young and compassionate healthcare workers called nurse aides who work to care for the special needs of the elderly.
Although a lot of nurse aides take care of the elderly, their work responsibilities also extend to patients in the hospital’s ward.
In this article will get to know what a nurse aide does, her qualification, training, salary, and benefits.
What is a Nurse Aide: Nurse Aide Job Description
Nursing aides are well-trained healthcare professionals who help the weak and aged perform all necessary daily activities. Remember most older people are frail and need special attention to make it through the day.
So it is the job of nurse aides to patiently and compassionately help them with some things as common as bathing, toileting, brushing teeth, and changing cloth wears.
Nurse aides may also help patients or the elderly take their meals orally, parentally, or via a nasogastric tube. The job responsibilities of nurse aides call for endurance and loving-kindness because it can be labor-intensive and tiring at times.
Nursing aides commonly work in nursing care facilities (geriatric nursing homes), the family house of an elderly person, and hospitals. In some instances, nursing aides may be employed by community care facilities for the elderly.
Similar to registered nurses, nursing aides’ duties also include moving patients from one place to the next and transporting patients from one operating room to the other or otherwise to the ICU for recovery.
Nursing aides may also help doctors in the theater in sterilizing medical equipment and in the wards in taking daily records of vitals i.e, blood pressure, blood glucose, and body temperature.
They must change the patients’ bed linen, put in compression stockings & pressure foams for bed-ridden patients, and ensure they’re comfortable. From the above description, it is obvious that nursing aide jobs are also viewed as nursing assistant jobs.
Nurse Aide Qualifications
This section teaches how to become a nursing aide.
Becoming a nursing aide is a thing of joy for those who love people because the job requires endurance, patience, fun, and love for elderly seniors.
The good thing about that is that you do not need to complete the standard 4-year BSc nursing degree from a university.
Some technical or vocational schools offer nursing aide training. Community colleges and even high schools offer nursing aide training programs. Those who have completed their high school education with a diploma certificate can apply.
The nursing aide training process is not as rigorous as medical or nursing students. Many US states require that a nursing aide complete a minimum of 12-18 hours of in-service health education. Those nursing assistants who may not be actively involved in patient care may even begin the job while getting trained.
The subject areas often emphasized are infection control, sanitation & patient hygiene, in-ward transportation assistance, moral support, and measurement of patient’s body vitals such as blood pressure.
These recruits or students will be taught and allowed to practice under clinical supervision in the first few days of enrollment.
To finally become a nursing aide and nurse assistant, recruits or students must pass the trial exam to receive the job and be added to that state’s registry as a nursing aide/nursing assistant (the specific title depends on the nursing care facility or agency).
How Much Does a Nurse Aide Make in a Year?
According to Glassdoor, a well-known salary report website, a nurse aide worker makes $47,856 per year in the United States. This $47,856 is estimated as the median salary for a nursing aide.
This implies that this figure may represent the average annual pay a nursing aide receive according to data collected from thousands of those workers. Indeed.com, another such site says that a nursing aide makes an average hourly rate of $16.73 per hour.
Interestingly, both websites report that job satisfaction is high compared to some jobs in various industries within that similar pay range. Registered nurses, however, exceeded nursing aides in both average annual salary and job satisfaction.
Nursing aides receive overtime pay and other benefits available to those in the healthcare sector. Insurance, 401(k) plans, paid sick leave, and employee assistance programs are just some of the benefits nurse aides receive.
How Much Does a Nurse Aide Make in Cities
Some cities pay nurse aides better than the rest.
- Columbus ($31.33)
- Cincinnati ($23.13)
- Indianapolis ($20.04)
- New York City (18.26), NY, is among the highest paying cities for Nurse aides in the USA.
You can also become a therapist. How Much Money Does a Therapist Make?
Is being a Nurse Aide a Good Career?
Do you feel you can work as a nursing aide to make it a long-term career? Or are you just doing it temporarily for just a short while? Many nursing aides fall into the latter category.
If you’re in it for the short run, you may not fully enjoy the job as you’ll be tempted to find greener pastures instead. Nurse aides may not earn as most as certified nurses and doctors, but they may get opportunities to advance into full healthcare practice.
The stress level is medium and job responsibilities might be slightly odd. But becoming a nurse aide is still a blessing, especially if you’re working this job as a middle-aged person close to retirement, as you can still work well into your 60s as a nurse aide.
This career may become long-term in that situation, and the job satisfaction of caring for mature senior citizens will be great. Nevertheless, the best decision to make is to become a certified nurse assistant. That way, you’ll be better positioned to get a raise and more opportunities for career advancement.
Nurses already understand how childbirth works and making money through surrogacy can be easier. How Much Do Surrogates Get Paid? What You Need to Know About Surrogacy
How to become a Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) vs Nurse Aide
The role of a CNA is similar to that of a nurse aide. However, people prefer nurse aids because they may be allowed to take the name of a nurse assistant or patient care assistant in some facilities.
Some perks come with becoming a certified nurse assistant.
A certified nurse assistant is preferred to a nurse aide during the hiring process. Also, you will quickly be accepted into a nurse program, thus making your transition into being a full nurse possible.
To become a CNA, you must first have your High School Diploma or GED. Assuming that has already been earned, you will complete a State-Approved CNA Training Program wherein you will be put through in-person clinical training.
You will learn all the medical staff required to fulfill your nursing duties—things like basic anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology. But the emphasis will be hammered on attaining clinical skills such as wound dressing, assisting medical and surgical emergencies, setting up IV lines, and collecting patients’ specimen samples for lab tests.
At the end of your CNA training, you will be required to write a State-Approved CNA Certification Exam, which you must pass before being certified as a CNA.
Never forget that it’s not just the hard skills that matter but the soft skills of being compassionate, patient, and enduring that will count in your training.
See Also: How Much Does it Cost to Start a Podcast in 2022 | Full Guide
Conclusion
You can become a nurse aide and still care for your basic needs with the salary you receive.
However, a young man with a wife and children who becomes a nurse aide might struggle to equate his work efforts with the financial obligations of sufficiently caring for his family.
Many nurse aides have great interpersonal and communication skills that help them perform their roles with empathy and efficiency. So would you become a nursing aide worker in 2022? You’re left to decide that!
FAQs on How Much Does A Nurse Aide Make?
Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) make $15.35 per hour, which amounts to an annual average salary of $34,670. Other job pay review websites (example, salary.com, payscale.com, zip recruiter) report figures similar to Indeed.
Ohio and New York are two of the highest paying states in the US for nurse aides and nursing assistants in general. one can aim to work in those states or work extra hours in your locality to earn more.
Most of the nurse aide training courses take at least 12 hours in total to get all the required information. but depending on the healthcare service providers training you and the specialty area you’ll be working in, your course my reach 28hours.
A nurse aide training is a specialist vocational course that walks you through how to perform your job duties and responsibilities as a nurse aide or nurse assistant. You may visit the site below to learn more https://pmi.edu/programs/certificate/nursing-assistant-nurse-aide
The good thing about that is that you do not need to complete the normal 4-year BSc nursing degree from a university. Some technical or vocational schools offer nursing aide training. There are community colleges and even high schools that offer nursing aide training programs. Those who have completed their high school education with a diploma certificate can apply.
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