Florida State CNA certification exam

[HabibTouani]

Hey guys I currently reside in Florida and need to obtain paid clinical experience. I feel that my best route towards achieving this is taking the Florida CNA exam as opposed to taking a CNA course as I am already a full time undergraduate student. A few questions in regards to the exam, is it hard? What did you use to prep? All other advice is greatly appreciated!

[DD2PA]

On August 15, 2017 at 9:20 PM, HabibTouani said:

Hey guys I currently reside in Florida and need to obtain paid clinical experience. I feel that my best route towards achieving this is taking the Florida CNA exam as opposed to taking a CNA course as I am already a full time undergraduate student. A few questions in regards to the exam, is it hard? What did you use to prep? All other advice is greatly appreciated!

 

Hi, I just took the exam back in June. It took almost a whole month for the state to give me a test date so just keep that in mind if you are on a time crunch. I did use a training services company in order to prep for the state board even though I knew in Florida you just need to pass the exam. There are many programs that have a Friday- Sunday prep course, have you looked into those? Anyways, to answer your question, the exam is not hard but you can fail for silly mistakes due to nerves. A couple of girls who took the exam with me didn't pass. They grade you based on multiple choice exam, handwashing(part of all 3 skills), plus 3 different skills (picked at random out of 19 possible skills) as well as indirect care (checking for safety, privacy, giving the call light etc) I have seen some books online to study from in order to take the exam but I just used the book the program I went to provided me. It really helped that the instructor was able to show me the skills and test me as if she was the state nurse proctoring the exam. There are also videos on youtube which also show how the skills should be done but may vary by state so just keep that in mind. Let me know if I missed anything or if you have any other questions I would be happy to answer them. Goodluck!

[MT2PA]

I also did a Friday-Sunday prep course that basically help you learn the skills part of the test (and a little for the MC part but that is easy enough to study on your own).

I tested with someone who spent thousands of dollars on a program that had clinical time and she utterly failed the skills part.  I spent <$200 on my weekend course and aced it without much effort.  Definitely worth it to get *some* training so you know what you're getting into.

That said, I found it incredibly difficult to find a position (I eventually did and left after 3 shifts bc they felt that was enough training for me) so keep in mind that getting the cert is just one step; there's no guarantee that it will lead to A: a job or B: a good job.

[cateline]

I was in your exact shoes 1 year ago, but signed up for the course first as I didn't even think to consider the alternative of just taking the exam. The CNA cert written portion is a joke- pretty much common sense. The clinical portion isn't hard, but unfortunately, it can include determining factors out of your control (the mood of the scoring nurse and their impression of you, nerves depending on if your first, etc). The only thing I got out of taking the course was information on all the tricks that they try to pull that can lead to a failure, which skills and aspects to focus on, and how the test will actually be. I passed my first try, but had a friend of equal intellect and skill fail. The test itself is so dumb and highly unrealistic (i.e. the six paper towel method of washing your hands- you will fail if you don't scrub long enough, etc) and feels like it ignores common sense and real world application. 

So I passed, applied to CNA jobs and didn't hear anything for a long time, even for the literal shittiest jobs at ALFs, etc. I kept applying to various jobs and after a few weeks of applying to MA type jobs, landed one without my MA cert and they could not care less about my CNA license. I worked my ass off and ended up getting more advanced clinical experience than any certification course could give me and have accumulated valuable PCE hours that require more than changing bedpans. 

I honestly felt as though I wasted almost $1000 and a couple months on a license for something I ultimately really did not want to do (wipe up feces and scrub fungus filled toe nails). I would recommend volunteering as an MA at a family practice that is privately owned (most are) a couple days a week and work everyday towards being the best MA there and they will eventually hire you as hard working MAs are hard to find.