Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)
Becoming a certified nursing assistant can be a good choice for many-particularly those who need to start earning money as soon as possible. Few jobs offer the ability to enter this quickly. In most places, all it takes to become a CNA is a few weeks of training. After training and licensing, you are then able to go to work assisting nurses in their duties and gaining exposure to the inner workings of a health care facility. Pay is pretty decent, about $15 an hour (give or take depending on the region of the country). The downside of course is that you're only an assistant, and without additional training, that's pretty much as high as you will be able to climb. Many who become CNAs go to school part time in an LPN program and work towards becoming an actual nurse.
Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN)
For many people, LPN training is the 'sweet spot', striking just the right balance between length of training time and career prestige and stability. LPN school only last 1-2 years, depending on if you want to go part-time or full-time. After completion of LPN training and passing the board exam, you are ready for a rewarding career as a nurse. The pay and benefits are good, and the long-term job outlook is exceptional. When you consider that these days many 4 year liberal arts degrees will land you nothing more than a spot in the unemployment line, LPN school is a great option.
Registered Nurse (RN)
The top rung of the nursing ladder is an RN. RNs are the supervisors who are in charge of the LPNs and in charge of looking after a certain number of patients. The job comes with greater responsibilities and better pay. The only real downside to RN training is that it takes a couple years longer than LPN training. But if you can afford to wait, it would be well worth going after. And even if you can't afford to wait that long to start working, you can always get into the workforce faster through an LPN program, then go to school part-time and finish up your RN training.
Whichever direction you choose, the bottom line is that that nursing field is wide open and there is an abundance of job opportunities. And with increasingly aging populations in most western countries, this trend is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
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