Career Exploration: Nursing Assistant

The Nursing Assistant curriculum is a pre-requisite for admission to nurses training in Minnesota. For many people of all ages and backgrounds, however, being a registered nursing assistant (NA/R) is a rewarding long-term career.

By Laura French, Star Tribune Sales and Marketing

Last update: March 25, 2009 - 9:32 AM

"There's always a market" for nursing assistants, according to Pat Reinhart, faculty coordinator for the Nursing Assistant and Home Health Care programs of Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC). Many community colleges and health care organizations offer the curriculum that is mandated by the Minnesota Department of Health. The five-credit MCTC course is offered about 30 times a year and graduates about 600 students. After taking the course work and passing a state examination, a nursing assistant is placed on the State Nursing Assistant Registry and can use the title Nursing Assistant/Registered (NA/R.).

The curriculum covers basic skills like bathing, toileting, feeding, dressing and undressing patients. In addition, says Reinhart, at MCTC, "We're becoming much more aware of residents' spiritual and emotional needs." In a new curriculum introduced in December 2008, "The focus is changing from task orientation to how nursing assistants can vitally involve residents in their care," Reinhart says. "If there's a picture on the dresser, the nursing assistant can ask about it and engage in conversation." The new curriculum also addresses the increasing cultural diversity of Minnesota, with information on traditions, foods and religious rituals and objects.

Pre-requisite For Nursing

The nursing assistant curriculum is a pre-requisite for nurses training in Minnesota, Reinhart says. "Nursing programs need to know that basic skills don't have to be taught from ground up again." Some graduates work as NA/Rs while waiting to get into a nursing program. But, says Reinhart, "It's not that we're pushing them up the career ladder - there's always a need for NA/Rs."

The most common place for nursing assistants to work is in nursing homes, says Reinhart. A nursing home NA/R can work 40 hours a week in a day, evening, or night shift. In some cases, the NA/R can work part-time.

All Ages And Ethnicities

With additional training, the NA/R can also work as a home health aide. While most of the skills for a nursing assistant and home health aide are the same, Reinhart says that being a home health aid is "Sort of like camping out. At the nursing home, everything is there for you. When you're in someone else's home, you modify the basic skills and apply them to the client in his or her home while maintaining client safety. Home health aides work independently, think on their feet and use critical thinking skills."

Nursing assistants who want to work in a hospital setting can take the Acute Care Nursing curriculum, which includes clinical training in a hospital.

Reinhart says the nursing assistant students at MCTC include people just out of high school as well as people who are looking at a second or third career. The emphasis on diversity in the curriculum also reflects the fact that students come from "all different age groups and ethnicities," Reinhart says.

For more on the nursing assistant and home health aide programs at MCTC, visit the website: www.mctc.edu.

Laura French is principal of Words Into Action, Inc., and is a freelance writer from Roseville.

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