CNA Written Exam

CNA written exam is the last leg of the process to become certified. It is an important phase, where you are tested to know how much you learnt and remembered in your CNA training. This part of the exam includes testing on different medical concepts, procedures and terms taught during CNA classes. You are expected to answer around 70 multiple choice questions. The number of questions in the exam can vary from state to state. The students, who find difficulty in reading or consider English as their second language can look for the oral format of written test. This article will cover some important topics covered in the study guide.

Resident's Environmental Needs

Patient's cleanliness and safety are the topics of utmost importance in any medical profession. Being a CNA, you are expected to provide a healthy living environment to the patient. You should learn the proper way to bathe and care for patients. Besides, the chapter also demonstrates how to make a patient's bed and what precautions you should take while transferring the patient from bed to a wheelchair or gurney.

For the well-being of patient, a proper rest and an adequate amount of sleep is necessary. CNAs should take care of the noise and lighting in their settings. They should properly understand the protocol regarding noise needs to help the patients in hospitals and nursing homes. This is because the patients reside in closer quarter situations in these settings. In case of elderly patients, lighting is an important issue, as they won't like strong lights to lighten their rooms, so adequate lighting should be provided to them to avoid falls.
Arranging the living space area for patients is another important issue. Personal space is important for patients, so that they don't feel that they are violated. CNAs should learn how to maintain the patient's privacy in nursing homes and hospitals.
To explore these topics in detail click on the below mentioned links:

Resident's Physical Needs

Hygiene is another important issue while providing care services to sick and elderly residents. Understanding different physical needs of the patient and confidently evaluating them is the basic duty of nursing assistants. In this section, we have discussed how you can help the patients in procedures like, bathing and shampooing their hair, moving them to shower and brushing teeth. Don't forget to read the safety concerns for the aforementioned activities.

Well-balanced diet is an essential tool in health recovery. For a proper care, CNAs should take care of patient's nutrition on priority. Supplementing proper nutrients to the patient is very important. CNAs are expected to report patient's intake of food. For improving patient's health, responsible food choices should be made. Understanding different reasons of malnutrition is important for CNAs. This part of the topic will include issues like, physiological, mechanical and cultural. Healthy nutrition is a key to healthy living, so you should learn to overcome the roadblocks in this path.

Movement is an important sign of a healthy body. Circulation is restricted by immobility, which can result in other physical problems. Assisting patients in some physical exercises and range of motion movements (ROM) is also a vital part of nursing assistant's duty. Detailed description of these topics is covered in the below mentioned links:

Communication Skills

CNA should be an effective communicator. Skills required for an effective communication should be compulsorily incorporated in the training programs of nursing education schools, according to the US National Library of Medicine. Successful CNAs are mostly good communicators.

Carrying yourself professionally in a medical environment and properly addressing patients are other issues you should study in detail. Besides, you will also learn different points of communication in verbal and non verbal applications, under this topic.

CNAs of any setting are expected to document their daily care giving activities in a brief and clear way. All written communication, such as incident reports, shift reports and charting should be done proficiently. List of abbreviations used by health care professionals is also included in the study, to make your work easier.

Resident's Psychosocial Needs

Besides assisting patients in their daily activities, CNAs are also expected to understand basic human emotions. This part covers the psychosocial needs of the patient in detail.
Listening and understanding the situation of the patient calmly and patiently can be one of your important qualities, which can differentiate you from other assistants. Patients need someone, who can give them enough time and understand their pain. Thus, empathetic nature by a CNA professional is necessary, which is further discussed in detail.

It is a humbling experience to be in a hospital or nursing home. Sometimes, patients become violent due to excessive pain or sickness. Certified nursing assistants have to be kind and gentle in these situations. They need to understand patient's emotions.

Isolation and loneliness can result in depression and more sickness. Social environment is necessary for making someone feel healthy and living. Loneliness, in case of ill patients of nursing homes, should be avoided. Here, we have discussed some effective techniques that can help nursing professionals in dealing with patients of isolated nature.

Infection Control

Infection is a serious issue in most of the medical settings. To better understand this, you can look at the survey report, which states that nearly 10,000 deaths are caused by hospital infection and there are 4.5 hospital infections for every 100 patient admissions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has disclosed these figures.
You will further learn about different contagious diseases and germs and agents, like bacteria, viruses or protozoa that cause infection. Chain of infection and its identification is also discussed in detail in other chapters. You will also learn how to disrupt a link in the infection chain, so that you can prevent the spread of infection. List of infection controlling techniques is also covered in detail.

Resident's Rights

To improve the overall quality of nursing homes throughout the nation, Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) also called as The Federal Nursing Reform Act was enacted. A number of questions formatted on this act are asked in the CNA exam. Scope and provision of this legislation is covered in detail in this chapter. This act includes certain competencies and qualifications, which should be met by a CNA to be employed.

Ombudsman programs, designed to preserve the well being of patients in nursing homes, are discussed in this part. It also includes particular rights, inherent to each resident and the role of these programs in nursing homes.

Neglect and abuse will be covered in the remaining section. According to recent studies, 44% of the residents in nursing homes have suffered from abuse or treatment of the staff was rough with them. This is one of the tragic realities of some nursing homes. Explore the detailed section of the article to know the warning signs of neglect and abuse.

Role of Nurse Aides

Nurse aides shoulder a variety of responsibilities in medical settings. They should learn different time management skills, for effectively performing their multitasking role in nursing homes or hospitals. You may have to face some challenging and fast-paced days as well, during your CNA job. This section of the chapter will help you in learning how you can remain stable in stressful times and also in handling several duties at a time.

Good interaction with patients is not only important for patients but also for you. To provide them the best care and comfort, you need to communicate with them and get their feedback regularly. The quality of your bedside manner will play a leading role in deciding your relationship with the patients. You should become well-versed in therapeutic communication, to become a professional CNA.

Privacy and discretion are other important topics. Being a CNA professional, you should know about the basic rights of your resident, which includes health related issues, medical records and confidential information. You are legally bound not to leak patient's information without proper authorization. Your legal obligations as a CNA are discussed in detail in this section.

Special Care Procedures

CNAs are the requirement of every medical setting, be it a hospital, nursing home or other care facility. Depending on the type of setting they are employed in, they can be expected to shoulder different responsibilities. Sometimes they are exposed to dying patients, who might require intense care and comfort.   Palliative care is one of an essential part of the training. In this section, you will learn how you can provide physical and emotional support to dying patients.

Caring for emotionally stressed patient is a little difficult task, so you need to keep all your personal feelings aside. This is because these patients sometimes become frustrating, anxious and violent; due to severe pain. Understanding the basic human emotions is discussed in detail in this section, which will help you in dealing with these types of patients.
Elderly and chronically sick patients require nursing professionals most of the time to care of them, as they find difficulty in performing their day-to-day activities. Sometimes, these patients hire these professionals to work at their homes. You will further get to know about the duties these professionals perform in a nursing home facility.

Certified nursing assistants in hospitals will be expected to work in variety of departments, like surgical rooms, operating rooms or emergency care units. These professionals need to understand the proper procedure they should follow, while providing care to this type of patients. Nursing assistants should be aware of the set of issues they might have to face, while dealing with surgical patients. Click on the below mentioned links to explore these issues in detail.

CNA Exam Guide

CNA eBook