I’m sure you must be preparing hard for your Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) exams. How is it going so far? Found enough material yet? There are some CNA topics that you may need to put your focus on more to succeed as a good CNA. Not just in the exam syllabus but these topics will also give you insight into how they can help you to become a better CNA in your day-to-day life.
Here you will find the most common and the most asked topics you can expect as a CNA. I have also included some interesting topics you will likely face in the exams. I have thrown in some practice tests and a study guide to help you along the way.
What is CNA Exam?
Certified Nurse Assistant exams are the primary exams you need to pass to get your CNA certification. The exams contain various subsections of the work you may do as a CNA and you should have knowledge of multiple topics and their contents.
As a CNA, you would require a variety of skills that can help you perform your job in the field. The CNA exams make sure that your practical and theoretical knowledge is put to test. For preparation, you need a reliable CNA study guide that can help you ace the exams.
The Subsections
CNA exams are usually based on the job responsibilities of a CNA. This includes topics, such as hospital management, patient care, medical hygiene, and report maintenance.
While these constitute a major part of the topics, you will get questions about the basic tasks of a nurse. This is because your job as a nurse’s assistant involves assisting nurses with their daily activities. Some of these activities include:
- Taking the vital signs of patients.
- Changing beds and moving patients.
- Inspecting medical prescriptions.
- Front office work.
- Helping patients with their regular activities.
So, what do you do when you get topics like these? It is best to have a bit of practical knowledge about these topics because having only theoretical knowledge won’t help you here. Get your hands dirty in the field to learn some nuances that fieldwork can offer.
To make this simpler, I have provided the following subsections you can start concentrating on.
Medical Hygiene
This is the general maintenance work you do inside the hospital. This includes patient room cleaning, maintaining hygienic conditions, and ensuring proper medical waste disposal. Topics pertaining to medical hygiene would likely include questions on both the psychological and technical aspects.
For example:
- What is the correct procedure to dispose of a used syringe?
- How would you clean a patient who has paralysis?
Report Maintenance
Report maintenance is an integral part of the nursing assistant industry. This includes collecting data regarding the patient’s medical history based on details, such as the reason for the current visit, health conditions, previous medications, ongoing medications, past history of undergoing surgery, previous prescriptions, and previous test reports.
Report maintenance requires proper data collection of the patient. It is also required to maintain accurate reports of patients.
A good medical report must have the following data:
- Patient demographics.
- Reason for the current visit.
- Diagnosis report.
- Medical history.
This topic would likely include questions regarding patient data collection. For example:
- As a nursing assistant, what is the first task you would perform?
- If you have a patient who is deaf, what method would you use for effective communication?
- How does accurate documentation of medical reports assist the entire healthcare team?
Hospital Management
All the information required and procedures in a hospital are brought together with the hospital management system. Hospital management is all about managing inventory, finances, patients, doctors, appointments, and billing information.
Hospitals offer quality service in addition to professional medical care with the help of the Hospital Management System (HMS).
Topics related to hospital management would likely include the following questions:
- As a nursing assistant, you may have been asked to help a patient with ambulation who has suffered a stroke. What would be the best position for doing this?
- What healthcare team member is responsible for determining the communication and socialization skills of a patient, and then finding suitable resources for them?
Patient Care
Patient care involves taking care of patients and assisting them with their daily activities. Basically, patient care is most of the tasks a nursing assistant would perform on a daily basis. Patient care includes the following activities:
- Bathing.
- Feeding.
- Monitoring the patient’s health.
- Dressing the patient.
- Taking vital signs.
- Assisting patients to move around.
Topics related to patient care would likely include questions related to the basic tasks of a nursing assistant and their daily activities. For example:
- How do you obtain the most accurate weight of a patient?
- Where should the nursing assistant stand when transferring a patient from a wheelchair to a stationary chair?
- Give an example to demonstrate upper body mechanics when you lift a patient in bed.
Wrapping Up
This article consists of some of the most common and most asked topics on a CNA exam. Now you can plan and prepare accordingly for your CNA exam. You can check out our other article to learn more about what to bring to a CNA exam. You can also try our free practice test to take your knowledge of the topics covered on the CNA exam to the next level.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What will your duties be as a CNA?
A Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) assists patients with performing their daily activities under the supervision of a registered nurse. They usually assist with daily living activities, such as but not limited to, feeding, moving patients from one place to another, bathing, and dressing.
Why is hygiene important in nursing practice?
As a nursing assistant, it is good practice to maintain proper hygiene when working with patients. It is necessary to wash and sanitize your hands before and after performing the task.
This helps to prevent patients from becoming sick and reduces the risk of the patients getting infected. This also helps to keep the patient’s family members safe from them getting infected or becoming ill.
What is a CNA report?
Generally, CNAs work with patients closely compared to nurses and doctors. They also observe changes in a patient’s health. CNAs have a report of each and every patient they work with.
The health report of the patient should have accurate information with the proper use of medical terms, grammar, and spelling. The report consists of information, such as the patient’s name, safety information, and any changes observed in the patient’s health.
Is the CNA test multiple choice?
The CNA exam comprises 2 sections. They are a clinical skills test and a written exam.
The written exam consists of 60 multiple-choice questions (MCQs) based on nursing concepts. The duration of the written exam is 90 minutes.
The clinical skills exam is a hands-on practical exam. You will like to be asked to perform nursing duties in front of an evaluator who is a licensed registered nurse.
