Dignity Health
Dignity Health is one of the largest employers in Bakersfield. They have 3 hospitals in Bakersfield: Bakersfield Memorial, Mercy Hospital Southwest, and Mercy Hospital Downtown. Bakersfield Memorial employs 1,400 people, and routinely has well over 100 open positions. The best way to see the most current job is directly through their website. You don’t need to open an account to view open jobs.
I use my online account to see how many openings they have specifically for CNA’s, and there’s always at least a few. I know a couple of CNA’s that work there, and the average pay is $11.00-$13.00. But one of the biggest benefits of working for any of the Dignity Health hospitals in Bakersfield is their tuition assistance. A lot of the CNA positions are 12 hour shifts, so if you like working just 3 shifts a week, they’ve got it! The employment link below is for ALL of the Dignity Health hospitals in Bakersfield, but you can also narrow down your search. They add jobs daily.
Current Dignity Health Job Board
CNA Jobs In A Kern County Corrections Facility
So, what if you’re a CNA, but you have minimal experience? All the jobs you’ve been searching want at least a couple of years of experience? You can still land a good CNA position! California’s Department of Corrections is ALWAYS hiring CNA’s, and the open positions usually require just 6 months of experience. Whenever I think about healthcare, I never think about corrections.
So, even though you’ll be working in a very controlled environment, CNA positions with the California Department of Corrections STARTS at $14.09 per hour, and tops out at $18.00 per hour. There’s State Prisons in Wasco, Delano, and Tehachapi. I did a quick search, and they have open CNA positions at Both of the Delano Prisons (North Kern State Prison, Kern Valley State Prison), as well as Wasco State Prison. Lots of us know people who work either at Kern or Wasco, and one thing always stands out: whenever there’s a “lockdown”, the overtime is awesome! The link below goes right to the search page for open healthcare positions for the California Department of Corrections.
California Correctional Health Care Services Open Positions
How Do You Get A CNA Position With No Experience?!?
Yep, the same old problem…you need a job to get experience, but no-one will hire you without experience. Always a conundrum! Bakersfield hospitals typically want the most experience. The Kern County Prisons will hire you with as little as 6 months of experience, and their pay starts at over 14 bucks an hour.
But what if you’re a brand new CNA, or even still IN the CNA program? That’s when it’s time to start considering working at a Bakersfield nursing home. A lot of people think “nursing home” and “assisted living” are the same thing, but they’re not. Typically, the assisted living facilities want more experience. But there are a couple of places in Bakersfield will hire someone right out of the CNA program. There’s also Golden Living Centers, which will not only hire brand new CNA’s, they’ll even hire you if you’re still taking your CNA class. They have a large facility in Bakersfield on San Dimas, right off of Union Avenue. If you haven’t yet taken a CNA class, check them out. They have an internal CNA training program. I haven’t heard yet how it works, but I’ll post info if I come across it. Checking their Job Postings, they usually have several open CNA positions, usually with no experience required. Now, I would guess that the pay is on the low side, since they’re providing you with training, as well as the experience you need so badly to move up to a higher paying job.
Golden Living Centers Open Bakersfield Positions
How To Obtain The Needed CNA Training
Jobs that were once basic and did not require special education or certification are now requiring formal training and recognizable certification. This is especially true of healthcare positions including nurse’s aide and nursing assistant or CNA. Until 1987, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities did not have to follow specific standards or regulations. Each facility was responsible to set their own standards which in many cases were quite lacking when it came to proper patient care. Instances of mistreatment and abuse were highlighted by the media. Outrage eventually led to the government’s involvement in regulating patient care. OBRA or Omnibus Budget and Reform Act, was created and it requires that all institutions follow certain guidelines especially if they receive funding from government programs like Medicaid or Medicare. OBRA regulations protect the rights of patients while also improving the qualifications for registered nurses, food handlers, maintenance, housekeeping and other medical services associated with patient care. OBRA also requires that each state keep a registry of CNA activity including certification date, conduct reports of abuse or neglect, and any lapses in employment. The new standards also forced each state to become more involved in the regulation of training and certification of a CNA or certified nursing assistant. Examination and certification for CNAs and other healthcare workers varies from state to state. Certain steps must be followed in order to become a CNA. The process begins by contacting a local state or community health agency to find out about the minimum training and certification requirements. Check in the blue pages or government section of a local phone book or contact employment agencies. You can also contact the human resource department of a specific facility you are interested in working at. Some facilities offer training and certification to potential employees. Most facilities require that a CNA have at least a high school diploma or GED prior to enrolling in a state approved program for training. Most CNA classes in Bakersfield Ca require 75 to 150 hours of classes and training. Some institutions will hire you before you complete the certification but you will need to get certified within the first four months of employment. Each facility will have a specific set of duties for a CNA but basic training consists of maintaining the emotional and physical well being of each individual patient. The work is not easy and can get even more difficult depending on a patient’s special needs. Characteristics or traits expected in nursing assistant jobs include patience, dedication, compassion, and most important reliability. If you plan to work for a hospital, nursing home, or any other type of medical office, you must be willing to work a flexible schedule with shifts that range from 8, 10, to 12 hours. Communication and ability to work cooperatively with others is important if you are looking for success in CNA work. The physical strains alone are also quite demanding. Standing for long hours, lifting and moving of patients, supplies, or equipment are very physically demanding activities. CNA careers can be quite demanding, both emotionally and physically, but it is much easier when a team of medical professionals are able to work together with complete focus on patient needs and care. CNA training basically consists of the most common aspects of providing care to patients including duties such as communication with both patients and other healthcare professionals; bathing, dressing, and feeding patients; assisting patients in and out of bed when necessary; prepping and storage of medical supplies and equipment; ability to take a patient’s vital signs including pulse, temperature, respiration, and blood pressure; cleaning or emptying of bedpans and measuring the output of urine when needed; ability to change bed linens and other sanitary items; answering phones and delivery of messages to patients and other staff. CNA classes prepare individuals for a CNA certification exam which typically includes both written and performance tests. The written portion consists of 55 to 70 multiple choice questions and the performance potion includes three to five performance tests which determine skill and knowledge of basic care procedures. The skills portion tests performance in basic nursing tasks such as personal care, basic nursing knowledge, ability to recognize a mental health or social service need, basic restorative devices, and patient’s rights. CNA jobs are in high demand with many shortages of certified individuals. Certified nursing assistant jobs typically pay from $7 to $14 per hour. CNA employment compensation varies depending on the region in which you live. Northern states tend to pay more than southern states. Most facilities offer paid holidays, medical benefits, overtime pay, and even pension plans to their employees so the field does have its perks. Heath care careers are also quite rewarding when it comes to receiving praise and appreciation from patients, family members, and other professionals. In many institutions, patients come in contact and receive only 10% of their care from doctors. The rest of the care comes directly from nurses, nursing assistants, and aides. CNA employment in Kern County also helps prepare the employee if they plan on furthering their education through one of the LVN programs in Bakersfield Ca. After gaining experience as a Licensed Vocational nurse, the Bakersfield College Nursing Program can be completed in as little as 12 additional months of schooling. Working as a nursing assistant is no easy task as the CNA job description is overly demanding. As a CNA you will be expected to input your physical as well as psychological efforts and dedicated whole-heartedly to the tasks at hand to keep everything flowing normally. As a primary care-giver for plenty of patients, you will require steel nerves and great compassion to change someone’s life for the better. To grasp the CNA job description better, you need to look at it from the 3C’s view: care, comfort and communication.
Duties as Per CNA Job Description
Regardless of where in Kern County the CNA is employed, providing care to patients is one of the roles outlined in the CNA job description. Most of the tasks that are performed by the nurse aides may seem trivial but they are essential for the overall well-being of the patient. The specific tasks that are performed by the nursing assistant are:
- Checking and recording of vital signs, collecting specimens from patients, analyzing how the patients are responding to care and reporting to the nurses any significant information.
- In meeting the patient’s nutrition needs, a CNA will check the food trays and feed the patients who can’t feed themselves, ensure the patients observe a proper dietary regimen and provide fresh drinking water and nourishments to the patients.
- Assisting the patients with ambulation. The CNA will turn and position patients, transfer them to and from the wheelchair and provide them with a wide range of motion exercises.
- Helping the patients observe personal hygiene. This includes bathing them, giving them oral hygiene and maintaining their nails and hair.
- Helping with unit management and efficiency. Such tasks as admitting, transferring and discharging patients, taking specimens to the lab and assisting the nurses with special procedures.
Educational Background to fit the CNA Job Description
To fully meet the description for CNA jobs in Bakersfield Ca, most states require that one has a high school diploma before you can start training for Bakersfield CNA certification. Nursing scholarships are available to offset the costs. The number of credit hours required for the training varies from one state to the other, and that is why the overall training takes between 6 to 12 weeks to complete. On average candidates will be required to log 50 to 75 hours before they can become eligible to sit for the exams. Upon passing the tests, which involves the oral and clinical parts, the students gets certified and their names placed on the state registry of certified nursing aides. Comfort and communication are two key elements of the CNA job description. Comfort can be viewed as care to some extent, but it is more than just that. As a certified nursing assistant, you are required to care for your patients. Above that, ensuring that they are comfortable is one of the highest mandates of this career. Indeed, you can call this aspect empathy: putting yourself into the shoes of your patients. Tasks under this category include keeping them warm and comfortable, attending to their privacy needs and offering a shoulder to lean on. As far as communication is concerned, timeliness and efficiency are key elements. Effective communication avoids errors in patient treating and saves on time and resources. As part of the communication training, the nursing assistant will be taught how to document, to observe and to report all vital information both to the nurse and to one’s replacement during a shift change. All nursing assistants are required, by the nature of their work, to have all these qualities with them. a perfect combination of all these will enable you to meet the specific tasks outlined in the CNA job description with a lot of ease.