I am currently an STNA and I finally took the bull by the horns and enrolled in nursing school which Im due to start in a week, in my opinion, I feel that in order to not burn out and make a good nurse someone should start at the bottom as a CNA, does anyone else agree with this?

I also feel that every Nurse should be a CNA first. Especially when you have a nurse that will come all the way down a hall to stop u from what u r doing because someone needs a bed pan. By the time u get there it is usually 2 late. If she had been a CNA first she would have taken the few seconds it takes and put the person on the damn bedpan.

I think a person is more sensitive to the patients needs if they are a C.N.A. first. I was a C.N.A. at a local nursing home, and I was on the unit with 32 bed ridden patients to take care of (The unit holds 64). There were only two aides on the unit, and I politely asked the nurse to take an ambulatory resident to the bathroom, because it was after supper, and we were trying to get everyone settled in. Besides, I had 4 other people to take to the restroom. The nurse had replied that she couldn't because it wasn't her job. I want to be a better nurse than that. The strange thing was, we had everyone in bed before the other two units which, by the way were appropriately staffed. They had 4 C.N.A.'s for 42 residents on the second unit and 5 C.N.A.'s for 52 residents on the third, and wanted one of us to help the other two units. Needless to say, it was a very long evening, but it made me appreciate being a C.N.A. even more, because I knew right then and there that people are dependent on C.N.A.'s. C.N.A.'s are the "watchdog" for the nurse. I noticed that sometimes the resident is more likely to tell the C.N.A. that they are in pain rather than the nurse. So, C.N.A.'s are very important.