Nursing assistants are valuable parts of every health care facility staff. They do all the basic assistant jobs required, such as bathing, feeding and dressing their patients, making their beds etc. They are often also the first people the patient or the patients family turn to, as they are near the patient most of the time. In hospitals and clinics they are expected to help the other medical staff at a moments' notice, when they are to needed to set up medical equipment or getting a patient ready to be taken to X-ray or surgery.
In spite of the hard work CNAs (that is Certified Nursing Assistants) are expected to do, their salary expectations are the lower on the medical staff salaries scale, as this is considered the entry level position for the health care providers. People entering the Nursing Assistant field don't do it only for the pay. They do it out of a desire to help people, as well as of a desire to enter the medical field before going into nursing schools. Though when they compare the hard work they are doing to that of the entry level nurses - the LPNs, they sometimes get frustrated or angry when comparing the salary they are getting.
A CNA annual salary may be anything between $19,500 to $29,000, depending on the location, the work experience, etc. The median salary is around $26,300, which means just a little over $2,100 per month. So this is a bit over the minimum wage, and you often can also secure health insurance and retirement plans.
Comparing these figures to that of the expected salary of a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN), gives you a sense of the frustration CNAs may experience. The median annual salary of a Licensed Practical Nurse is around $43,000. Of course, an LPN had a longer training: around 2 years, as compared to a few weeks training for a certified nursing assistant, and holds more responsibility. But the LPNs job does seem easier when looking from a nurse assistant's perspective.
Many health care facilities understand this and work hard to make their nursing assistants staff content. They give higher salaries to those who show better performance, which in turn gives them more pride and makes them offer better services to their patients. No one wants to lose their better employees to other facilities who may have a better pay scale.
Working as a nurse assistant can still be beneficial for those who want to check out the medical career before immersing themselves into the longer training of nursing schools, or for those who want to start working while following their studies. Working as a CNA in a hospital may serve as putting your leg in the door for getting a better job when completing your education.
Learn more about how to become a certified nursing assistant in cna classes.
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By Lisa Wyle