The cna certification Examination requires that you first take a CNA certification course, that you then pass the exam, and then you can act as a certified nursing assistant. Studying on your own is an integral part of developing your skills and confidence enough to pass the exam, but it’s no substitute for taking an official course.There are a lot of different courses and classes offered, by a number of different organizations. While any and all should prepare you for the exam, few have the same positive reputation that the American Red Crosses’ courses have. Most students prefer the Red Crosses’ courses, and feel like they prepare them totally for their exam and instil them with confidence in their knowledge and skills. While there are a lot of great courses out there, not all of them have the pedigree and reputation of the Red Cross courses.
The CNA examination itself is composed of two separate sections- one of theory and one of practice. You need to pass both parts of the exam to pass the exam as a whole and be able to practice as a nursing assistant. In the first half, you’re going to be taking a written examination. This part of the test is filled with multiple choice questions for you to answer that all have to do with the information you learned during your course and study.
The first half is generally made up of about 100 different questions. This part of the test takes most people somewhere between 1 and 2 hours to complete. There’s no bonus to completing it early though, as you need to sit down in the test-taking room until everyone who is taking it with you has completed their tests. Once you complete the first half, and once everyone else is done, you’ll be able to move on to the second half of the examination- the skills test.
Now, in the second half, you’re going to be tested on your hands-on skills. While everyone took the writing section together at the same time, skills tests are administered one at a time. You’re going to need to be ready to perform any of the skills that you learned in your course, as your evaluator can make you do anything that you are expected to know how to do, even if it’s not related to the other skills you have tested that day. You will also need to have someone there to perform your skills tests on. If you are performing your skills tests in a medical environment, then you will most likely be practicing on real patients. Otherwise, you’ll need to bring someone to act as a patient for you.
Most skills tests require that you demonstrate about 5 different skills for your evaluator. Obviously you are supposed to know way more than 5 different skills to be a practicing nurse, but you will only be tested on a few of them. You still need to know them all for the exam though, as it can be any 5 that you learned in your course.
By Rita Hayward
