Brandi was accepted into the BNAT (Basic Nurse Assistant Training) program at our community college yesterday! She passed the pre-admission reading, writing, oral comprehension and math tests and interviewed with faculty and was accepted into the January 2011 weekend program.
As some of you may or may not know, this is something she has wanted to do since shortly after having Logan and the time is finally right for it. She will be in class on Friday nights 4-9pm, Saturday's 8:30-3:30 and clinical will also take place on Saturday's and then class again on Monday nights 4-9pm. It is 16 weeks (one semester) and she will sit for the certification exam after the course is over. Her program also has a job training component to help build resumes and interview skills and at the end of the program there is a job fair held just for students in the BNAT program with all the area hospitals, LTC facilities and home health care agencies being present. Most graduates find employment through the job fair.
Brandi will be going back to work part-time, most likely working the 3-11pm shift a couple days a week and probably have a every other weekend rotation as well, it will just depend on where she ends up.
She ultimately wants to end up as a patient care tech (more responsibility than a CNA, they can do blood draws for example) on a L&D/mother baby unit or a OB tech on L&D (she would get to scrub in on c-sections and assist with vaginal births) but the first step is becoming a certified nurse assistant and getting hired on to one of those floors and then they train you in house for those roles. Once the kids are older she can then go on into the colleges LPN/RN program, but that will be down the road a bit, and we most likely won't be living here in district for this school by then, but most nursing programs want the CNA first now so it should transfer fine.
We are so proud of her and excited for her to start this chapter of her life!
You can read more about Brandi's journey to nursing at her blog:
http://bloggingwithbrandi.blogspot.com/2010/08/great-news.htmlAs some of you may or may not know, this is something she has wanted to do since shortly after having Logan and the time is finally right for it. She will be in class on Friday nights 4-9pm, Saturday's 8:30-3:30 and clinical will also take place on Saturday's and then class again on Monday nights 4-9pm. It is 16 weeks (one semester) and she will sit for the certification exam after the course is over. Her program also has a job training component to help build resumes and interview skills and at the end of the program there is a job fair held just for students in the BNAT program with all the area hospitals, LTC facilities and home health care agencies being present. Most graduates find employment through the job fair.
Brandi will be going back to work part-time, most likely working the 3-11pm shift a couple days a week and probably have a every other weekend rotation as well, it will just depend on where she ends up.
She ultimately wants to end up as a patient care tech (more responsibility than a CNA, they can do blood draws for example) on a L&D/mother baby unit or a OB tech on L&D (she would get to scrub in on c-sections and assist with vaginal births) but the first step is becoming a certified nurse assistant and getting hired on to one of those floors and then they train you in house for those roles. Once the kids are older she can then go on into the colleges LPN/RN program, but that will be down the road a bit, and we most likely won't be living here in district for this school by then, but most nursing programs want the CNA first now so it should transfer fine.
We are so proud of her and excited for her to start this chapter of her life!
You can read more about Brandi's journey to nursing at her blog:
