There are plenty of skills that students acquire over the course of a CNA program, but there are also a number of skills that the person will need to develop elsewhere in order to be successful in his or her job. So which CNA skills are the most important? The following article will outline what many nursing assistants consider to be the crucial ones.
Important CNA Skills
Dependability
A huge part of being a good certified nursing assistant is being dependable. Because you work in a healthcare facility, lives are at stake and the simplest thing could mean the difference between life and death. Saying that you’ll be there for a patient and following through on it will allow you to establish a bond with the patient and create trust in you. The same goes for your coworkers and supervisors. Following through on commitments and displaying a high level of dependability will help you get positive performance reviews and advance more quickly in your career.
Ability To Work With A Team
Another of the important CNA skills is the ability to work well as part of a team. Some certified nursing assistants will try and take on too much work and too many patients and, as a result, wear themselves thin. Working within a team and coordinating with other members of the medical staff will allow you to be more effective.
Ability To Follow Directions
Many nursing assistants find it difficult to work with some members of the nursing and medical staff. One of the best skills that you can master is to follow directions effectively regardless of personal issues. It’s okay to voice your concerns and to write down incident reports or talk things out with your superiors. But it is important to never be insubordinate to a superior as it could damage your career or lead to other members of the medical staff not trusting you. Certified nurse aides are required to work fairly long hours and in very demanding conditions. Having a staff that you can fall back on and others that you trust is important. Gossiping and insubordination will only work against you.
Accountability
When you are fresh out of CNA training there are plenty of mistakes to be made. For somebody that does not have very much work experience it is possible that you could make some careless errors which may get you in trouble. A good nursing assistant skill to learn is to admit when you’re wrong. Admitting that you are wrong in admitting to your mistakes will help you build on the mistakes that you’ve made and potentially learn from the other staff members on how you can prevent these mistakes in the future.