If you would love to work in a medical facility but don’t fancy years of training, why not start by becoming a certified nursing assistant. You have to be at least sixteen years old and may want to wait until you are bit older. You can qualify in as little as six months although some people take longer.
If you work in a medicare facility, your employer will pay for the cost of your training. At the end of the study course you should sit your certification exam. It may also count as the state exam or you may have to sit an additional examination to get your state nursing license. As part of your exam you will be accessed on theoretical knowledge such as the rules around patient care, medical ethics, hygiene etc. This test can be written or oral depending on where you sit it. Then you will be assessed on your clinical skills such as how you would feed a patient, wash them if they had mobility problems, take their vital signs including blood pressure etc. Once you are certified your license is usually valid for a minimum of 12 months but may be 24 depending on your location.
Once you have your CNA exam and are working in a hospital environment you may decide that another medical career would be more interesting. There are several certifications available including that of x-ray technician, ultrasound technician etc. You could also continue with your studies to become a registered nurse. Some people say that a certified nursing assistant will make an excellent nurse as they have started at the bottom and worked their way up.
The only real skills you need for this role is a love of people. When people are sick they are not usually at their best. They can be demanding and difficult to deal with and it takes a special kind of person to deal with these individuals in a caring and professional manner. This is not a job you get because of high salaries or other benefits as they don’t exist. Its a job for those who want to help people in a vulnerable state. You should be physically fit as you will spend most of your 12 hour shift on your feet and may have to lift or turn patients during the course of the day.
Once you have started working in the medical world you may decide that you would like to pursue a different certification and could look at the role of the pharmacy technician or x-ray tech instead.