Like most other states in the USA, California has a relatively strict set of requirements when it comes to becoming a certified caregiver. This is certainly a good thing. Caregiving roles involve a great deal of responsibility and varying degrees of medical and social care knowledge. As a result, not all caregiving roles require the same amount of training. This article takes a look at some of the different requirements for licensed caregivers in the golden state.
Certified Nursing Assistant
In California, Certified Nursing Assistants are licensed by the California Department of Social Services and the Home Care Service Bureau. Certified Nursing Assistants are essential to the smooth running of a medical facility. They assist Registered Nurses and Doctors. In addition, they help patients with tasks that are geared towards daily comfort and living. This can include reading vital signs, bathing, turning, cleaning, and addressing patient concerns. Because of their responsibility for these tasks, CNA staff are often the first port of call for a patient, so interpersonal skills are a must. Additionally, many Certified Nursing Assistants use the position as a springboard into other areas of nursing as, unlike other roles in the field, you are not required to have a college degree before entering training.
To find work as a Certified Nursing Assistant in California, you will need 150 hours of training at an approved caregiving school. Certified Nursing Assistants primarily train vocationally, although some basic medical training is given before you sit the certification exam. This largely focuses on the homeostatic system.
Home Care Aides
Home care aides provide support and care to patients or clients living inside their own homes. Instead, they are not medical staff but provide care that helps alleviate some of the limitations that clients or patients may have in their lives.
Californian Home Care Aides are certified by the California Department of Social Services and the Home Care Service Bureau. They are not required to undertake very much training – only 5 hours of study is required before they can sit their certification exam. Despite this, you will have a much better chance of finding work as a Home Care Aide if you take additional first aid courses. Despite not being medical staff, Home Care Aides are often first on the scene when one of their clients experiences medical issues. Try and be prepared.
Home Health Aides
Home Health Aides operate in similar environments to Home Care Aides but are trained much higher. If you want to become a Home Health Aide in California, you need to get at least 120 hours of training under your belt. HHAs are certified by the California Department of Public Health Training Program Review Unit and the California Department of Public Health Licensing and Certification Program.
Home Health Aides assist patients with severe, long-term medical issues who want to stay at home instead of living in a facility. They are expected to fill the basic healthcare needs of the patients they look after so that they do not have to constantly visit doctors and nurses in the hospital, which can induce a great deal of stress and unnecessary discomfort in people with serious long-term medical conditions. Home Health Aides need to have enough medical know-how to familiarise themselves with their patient’s treatment plans and intervene in the case of a medical emergency. Interpersonal skills are a must-have as this role involves spending a great deal of time with individual patients. Home Health Aides provide an immensely valuable service to some of the most vulnerable people in the United States.
Residential Care Facility Staff
The California Department of Social Services oversees the certification of Residential Care Facility Staff. 811,500 People live in residential care homes across the USA. There is a huge variety of individual medical and social needs represented in this large community.
The training legally required before you can become certified to work in a residential care home is relatively light: only 40 hours. This does not mean that your training will end when you achieve certification. Far from it: because of the huge variety of needs represented in care home communities, extra training will often be given by individual care homes before admitting staff in active caregiving roles. In the United States, almost all residential care homes are administered as profit-making businesses. This is a rather cowboy way of administering care, but it is the system caregivers, and patients have to deal with for the moment. Be prepared to fight for better pay and better provisions.
Nursing Professional
Nursing Professionals in the golden state are certified legally by the California Board of Registered Nursing. Registered nurses are increasingly tasked with performing complex medical duties alongside more traditional nursing activities. This slow restructuring of the medical pyramid may well benefit patients as a whole due to the increased amount of expertise that nurses are required to develop, both during training and when out on the wards.
Registered Nursing Professionals need to take a 4-year college course to gain their license and undergo annual refresher training at an approved school. Nursing is one of the most well-respected professions in America and is widely considered a noble and fruitful pursuit. There are many very senior nursing positions, meaning that roles in nursing have excellent career progression opportunities, There are also further education opportunities that can help your career to progress in so many specialties, like working with children, families, in midwifery, wherever your passion takes you.
Mental Health Nursing Professional
Mental Health Nurses need to have a specialist set of medical and interpersonal skills that help them provide care to people with difficult mental health issues. In addition to their college qualifications gained while acquiring their registration with the California Board of Registered Nursing, Mental Health Nursing Professionals must gain two years of clinical experience. This reflects the difficulties that are experienced on the job. They earn considerably more than the other professionals listed in this article, with an average salary that exceeds 73,000 dollars.
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