The Gateway to the West is one of the nicknames for St. Louis, MO, but for many it is just a great city to live or work in. If you are considering a move to this amazingly diverse town, why not consider training for one of the hottest jobs there too? This is the job known as a CNA, and it is a career that lets you enjoy a diversity of work situations and opportunities. The first step is to enroll in CNA classes in St. Louis.
Finding Information about CNA Jobs in St. Louis
If you take a look at the ways in which people are seeking out CNAs you can see that they might range from live in caregivers for short or long term assignments all of the way up to CNAs that work in some of the top hospitals and medical centers in the country. This means you can really decide how you use the training you must get when you become a CNA in St. Louis.
To get a good idea of the current job market we would recommend a peek at the Craigslist pages for St. Louis as they give an accurate portrait of the CNA openings available. You can also forgo the look through classifieds and just get in touch with some of the best staffing services to see if there are jobs that meet your needs or wants as well. The names to use include:
CNA Classes and Licensing Requirements in St. Louis
All CNA programs within St. Louis and Missouri will have to be approved by the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services. These CNA programs include the training and the examination required to become a certified nursing assistant. In Missouri a student is going to exceed federal standards by meeting the demand for at least 175 hours of CNA training.
In addition to the 75 hours of CNA classes and the 100 hours of clinical training, the student has to submit to a health screening and a criminal background check. Until all of this is done, they cannot sit for the Missouri CNA exam to become licensed. Most of the testing sites are not in the same locations as the training, but this does vary by school or site.
Key CNA Training Programs in St. Louis
So, where can you get all of this mandatory CNA training? The state of Missouri knows it is facing a shortage of CNAs and makes a long list of approved programs available, but the ones most appropriate for students looking for CNA classes in St. Louis include:
Key CNA Employers to Know in St. Louis
Now that you have succeeded in passing the course and the exam, and appear on the official nurse’s aide registry, you can get any type of work you desire as a certified nursing assistant in St. Louis. This means you might contact one of the staffing services listed earlier, or turn to classified ads, but you may also want to consider the biggest employers in the region – the hospitals and medical centers. Some of them are award winning and nationally recognized, and include:
Salary Information for Certified Nursing Assistants in St. Louis
Living in a Midwestern city can mean a much more reasonable cost of living, and this is true for those living and working in and around St. Louis. This means it is likely to come as a very pleasant surprise that those working as CNAs in this region earn more than the national average for this field. According to Salary.com the median annual Certified Nursing Assistant salary in Saint Louis, MO is $31,780, as of August 4, 2020, with a range usually between $26,393-$38,104.
Key Skills Learned in CNA Training Programs
Because all CNA training programs in the state of Missouri exceed federal guidelines, you can anticipate learning many more skills in your classes, including:
- Caring for all kinds of patients;
- Working knowledge of human anatomy and physiology;
- Providing services to the supervising nurse at your facility,
- Patient safety techniques; and
- CPR training and certification.
It is likely that you will also need the essential training that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has identified as well. This includes all of the skills you will acquire through CNA classes in St. Louis, plus the dispensing of medication, dealing with positioning in wheelchairs, and knowing how to communicate a patient’s needs properly to medical staff.