Most of your education will require you to learn from a textbook and while on the job, but this is not enough. Any licensing board will require potential certified nursing assistants to take and pass a certification exam. There are two parts to this exam: the written and the practical and you have to pass both exams or else you won’t be certified. This means that you will be making less money and have fewer employment opportunities. Therefore, it’s important to prepare well for your exam. But as long as you have been doing the coursework and paying close attention on your practicals, the exam should not be too brutal.
Getting Ready for the Exam
First things first: set up a date for your exam. You have to do this as soon as possible because you need to have sat your exam in a ninety day period after completely your course. Doing your course through a college is advantageous here because the college will set up the exam time for you. If you did the course online, then you can set up an exam time through your health board. Once you know the date of your exam, you should then start studying. Using study guides at this point is a good idea because they let you see where you should be studying and where you know all you need to know. These guides are easy to find; you can usually download them or purchase them through your school.
Written Exam
The written part of the full certification exam is usually in a multiple choice and/or simple answer question format and the intent is to test everything you should have learned about becoming a CNA in your classes. These questions will ask everything from ethics to vocabulary, so make sure that you have studied your notes and listened in lecture. The written exam is usually done in a small room and you will either be writing it alone under supervision, or in a small supervised group in order to reduce cheating efforts.
The Practical CNA Exam
If you have to choose which exam is most important, the practical will probably win because it tests you on how to do basic procedures in a real world situation. This exam will test how well you can do things like bathe a patient, feed a patient, help him or her get up or down and do it all with respect to privacy and dignity. These are things that will come up daily, so it’s important to have them perfected. Generally, you will be tested on between three and five basic work skills and in order to pass the exam, you have to show that you have mastered these basic skills.
The certification exam is stressful, but important. The exam will show whether or not you are truly ready to work as a nursing assistant help you get better work. While it’s not necessary to become certified to work, most employers vastly prefer it and if you skip this, you will be cheating yourself out of more money and more employment. Study, do the work to get ready for the exam and make sure to take care of yourself so that you can do the exam and pass it. Once it’s finished, you will be able to enjoy all of the benefits of becoming a full CNA.
