Biggest Challenges Facing CNAs in the Healthcare Industry

There are many different benefits facing certified nursing assistants in the healthcare industry, including an inherent lack of support from coworkers. Hospitals, nursing homes, and other places like these can be extremely hectic, which means that nobody else you are working with will have a lot of time to help you. It will be important that you learn to take care of all your duties and responsibilities on your own. Independence is definitely one quality that will work well for you as a CNA.

Perhaps the biggest challenge that faces all CNAs is their patients. While it is true that many of your patients will be friendly and easy to get along with, there will be others that really make it challenging just to get through the day. This is precisely why it will be important for you to learn how to deal with these patients so you can keep your cool and remain calm. Aside from uncooperative patients, there are those who have conditions like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease and require specialized care.

It is okay if you get a little impatient or angry over a patient once in a while, but you will need to keep calm most of the time, especially when you are around them. You will need to act as professional as possible, even when you are faced when patients that are abusive and uncooperative. It is highly recommended that find out as much as possible about your patients, so you will be in a much better position to help take care of them on a daily basis. Every patient is going to be different in some way, so make sure that you try to develop a rapport with the ones you get.

Although forming close bonds and friendships with patients can be one of the most rewarding aspects of working as a CNA, it can also lead to loss and frustration. Death is very common and an unavoidable part of working in a hospital or nursing home. Those nurse’s assistants who develop close friendships with their patients will find that it can be very difficult to deal with their deaths. It is difficult to prepare yourself to deal with losing someone you care about, especially when it comes out of nowhere. You can, however, deal with it in your own time without letting it affect your job.

Sometimes the actual facility that you work in as a CNA can present some challenges. There are certain places that have an inefficient layout as well as other things that make it difficult to work there on a daily basis. Sometimes your supervisors will also present you with challenges, especially if they are very demanding and put unrealistic expectations on you. Unfortunately, sometimes being a nursing assist means having to answer to people you are not fond of. As long as you know what to expect as a CNA and take on the challenges as they come, you should be very successful at your job, no matter where you work.