Update: My husband is now a CNA!

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
#1

Follow-up to this thread.

In September Mr. S quit the soul-sucking school custodian job and took a 7-week nursing assistant course at the technical college. Pretty much 5 weeks of class, two weeks of clinical in a nursing home, which he really enjoyed. Got an A in the class and a glowing review from the teacher. This past Tuesday, two weeks after the class ended, he took the certification exam, written and skills. PASSED! So he’s now on the state and federal CNA registries and eligible to work.

He was a very conscientious student, and he has been spending the past few weeks practicing the HELL out of the skills for the exam. Of course, I served as his tackle dummy: getting me out of bed, giving me hand/mouth/foot care, practicing dressing me, etc. Still he was pretty tense about the test, as he did NOT want to have to take it (and pay for it!) twice. He ended up having to wait a few hours for his turn in the skills exam, and he was bouncing off the walls with the jitters. I felt his hands – cold and clammy. They really build up the tension for this exam! But once he got in there and started doing his (randomly) assigned procedures, he got into his groove, and everything was fine.

When the tester gave him his results, she complimented him and asked where (as in, at what health-care facility) he had been working. (!) He told her his most recent work was as a janitor, and she was impressed. She encouraged him to continue on in nursing, as she thought he had a real knack for it. Just from observing him for 30 minutes. That made his day, I think even more so than passing the test.

Today he dropped off a job application at his first-choice employer, the state veterans’ home. State job/bennies, on-site LPN and RN training, good pay. Sweet. They said they’ll start looking at applications in December for January hires. So in the meantime he’ll find some temp work or something.

Please keep your fingers crossed! This is a man who’s been working at some truly crap jobs for the past 6 years, and with yet another change of career he’d really like to start off on the right foot and get into a professional environment again. And he deserves it. It’s so great to see him jazzed again.

Plus we’re looking forward to being a true two-income household again!

#2

Yay! Crossing fingers etc. that he gets hired soonest.

In the meantime are there home care agencies that might be looking for temporary assistants?

#3

Congrats! My husband is a RN - went to LPN school first and then did his RN. I hope your husband enjoys his new career!

#4

Mama Zappa: Yeah, possibly. He did a lot of work for Adecco a few years ago, and they know him there. All he’d have to do is let them know he’s looking, and he’d be on the list again. They may have health care work. He’s going to check early next week.

In the meantime there seem to be a lot of “casual” CNA positions, I suppose filling in for people who call in sick. He’ll check those out too.

SnakesCatLady: Thanks! After the exam he was talking about maybe doing some teaching if he goes on for the RN, like teaching CNA classes. So neat, for a guy who doesn’t have a college degree but everyone who meets him thinks he does. He’d love to be a teacher. Right now he just wants to build experience. (Another cool thing about the veterans’ home is that they have a comprehensive mentoring system for newbies; they don’t just toss you in to sink or swim.)

#5

Congratulations to your husband Scarlett67! I’ve been doing the same type of work for several years now, and I know that there is such big a need for good CNAs.

#6

If you’re in range of Madison there are 3 hospitals hiring CNAs all the time. Any position .5 or higher has health insurance and vacation benefits. There are a half-dozen openings at my hospital now. Also, most hospitals will subsidize further education if he wants to go for a nursing degree. Those gigs pay some really serious money.

Best of luck to you both.

#7

Certified NetWare Administrator?

#8

Certified nursing assistant. :stuck_out_tongue: Silly rabbit!

We’re close enough to Madison for the occasional day trip but not a daily commute. (Believe me, if we were willing to give up our current property and could afford to move closer, we’d do it in a heartbeat!) The veterans home is only about 35 miles away, a reasonable commute from out here in the sticks. There are a few other good possibilities as well, with the advantage that we have friends working there to serve as references.

Everyone has been saying all along that he’ll get a job quickly. We’ve been burned so many times by losing out on good opportunities that I’ll believe it when I see it. Hopefully we can hold out long enough to give the veterans’ home a serious go.

#9

Update: he has an interview tomorrow at the nursing home where his instructor works. So an inside (and excellent) reference! Stay tuned.

#10

Update: My husband is now an EMPLOYED CNA!!! Orientation is next Thursday. Night shift (not a problem for us), tuition reimbursement, bennies. Yay!!!

#11

Oh, yeah!!! I love these sorts of stories :slight_smile: Best of luck on his new career.

#12

Excellent news! Congratulations to Mr. S on the new job!!!

GT

#13

Well, hot damn and congratulations to your husband!

I hope he enjoys his job, and if he’s of a mind to, continues his education along the medical ladder.

Nurses are priceless. You can never have enough nurses.

#14

I suggest he start using that education benefit ASAP. CNA is a well-known burn-out job, there’s a LOT of turnover. I hope he will be ready to move on to something more rewarding when and if he decides he’s had enough of being a CNA.

#15

Oh, absolutely. He wants to keep up the certification for a bit, but definitely continue on to at least LPN. And he’s still hoping to get in at the veterans’ home, where they have onsite LPN and RN training. And if he could eventually get into teaching new CNAs (or other teaching), that would be pretty cool.

#16

Whoo hoo! Congratulations to your hubby!

#17

Way to go, Scarlett67’s Hubby!

#18

UPDATE (if I may) . . .

Last Friday hubby got the call from the state veterans’ home (he interviewed there about 2 weeks ago, and I thought he did a kick-ass job, from his description):

YESSSSSS!!! HE’S IN!!!

He’d been toughing it out at the first job he got, described above: overnight shift, not a lot of training, a few difficult co-workers. Night shift had turned out to be a problem after all, as he found out that he just doesn’t sleep as well during the day as he used to. He was really dragging ass, a zombie most days, even his days off. He had a resignation letter in his pocket one night, but decided to try to stick with it, partly because that night the supervising nurses pulled him aside to tell him what a great, professional job he was doing. :slight_smile:

Then the veterans’ home started setting up interviews, and he went. And apparently he showed them that he’s what they’re looking for.

Man, he deserves this after all these years of being shat upon in the job world. State job, awesome bennies, immediate $3+/hour increase in base pay from what he makes now. Officially it’s only part-time (includes the bennies), but supposedly there are lots of opportunities to work extra shifts. And he’s at least got his foot in the door. He’s hoping he never has to go on a cold job interview again. Once he’s a state employee . . . just think of the opportunities! Plus that chance to get into the LPN/RN training program. What’s that, if he completes the training program, they’ll MAKE him work there for 2 years? Give that man a pen!!!

We keep hearing about what a nice place the veterans’ home is, both to work there and to live there. He’s dearly hoping that he gets co-workers who are nice to be around. People seemed pleasant while we were there (I drove him to the interview, and then hung out in the lobby working and people-watching, because he worked both the night before and the night after). Plus it’s 2nd shift, which is what he wanted, so he’ll have more variety in his work and be able to deal with the residents on a more interpersonal basis, instead of just waking them up all night long to change them, which is pretty much what he does now.

He turned in his resignation letter today (made a special trip in so they’d have it first thing, heh). Two weeks, and then he’s allowing himself a week off to decompress, and then jump in to the new job on February 18.

We just had to buy a new car, and the other one will need replacing soon. So not only do we have one shiny new car, and another on the horizon (OK, that one probably won’t be new, but hopefully it will be shiny :smiley: ), but a nice new job with which to pay for them. We finally have two Real Jobs again.

It’s so awesome to see my hubby jazzed about his future. This was the final hurdle, the Holy Grail. (There’s still the prospect of LPN/RN schooling, but that’s a different set of hurdles. :slight_smile: )

Go Hubby!!!

(And now to fix the walls, which are all dented from our bouncing off them all weekend . . .)

#19

Good for him! I hope working at the Veteran’s Home is everything good that you’ve heard that it is.

#20

That’s excellent news! Somewhat the reverse situation, but a mate of mine is a Royal Marine and as part of his Combat Medic training, he’s been posted to a civvie hospital and they too really like him.