Maureen Bonatch MSN, RN

The youngest of the baby boomer generation will reach age 60 this year. As our aging population continues to rise, so does the number of family caregivers. According to “Caregiving in the U.S. 2020,” the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) and AARP survey, 53 million Americans are providing unpaid care, an increase of 9.5 million from 2015 to 2020.

As a CNA instructor, you probably use various methods and tools to teach caregiving skills to your students. Testable skills, like handwashing, have concrete steps to follow. You can review the skill and discuss what to do if something doesn’t go as planned, such as if the client’s blood pressure is abnormal.

The nursing profession comes with many rewards and accompanying challenges. To support your nursing staff so they can focus on providing quality care, proactively address these common issues for nurses — and implement positive changes to help your team overcome daily hurdles.
Nursing Issue #1: Inadequate Staff
Focusing on value-based and holistic patient-centered care requires a larger, more diverse, and highly educated nursing workforce.

As a CNA instructor, you may notice that some students start strong in the course but stall in their progress. Their initial confidence has evaporated, leaving them plagued by self-doubt. These students may be struggling with imposter syndrome. Even if you aren’t familiar with the term, you may recognize the concept. Imposter syndrome originated in 1978, and healthcare professionals frequently experience this unspoken phenomenon.

Nurse managers spend a significant amount of their time recruiting and hiring nurses. The ongoing nursing shortage is a reality of the industry that makes hiring and, in turn, job performance crucial. But if new hires leave or do not meet expectations, the resulting cost and effort to replace staff or to improve performance can impact the quality of patient care and the performance of other team members.

Author: Maureen Bonatch MSN, RN
Your classroom may contain students from different generations with various learning styles. But a large percentage of your class is probably from our newest generation, born between 1995 and 2012, Gen Z. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the highest concentration of United States (U.S.) CNA students are between 20 and 24 years old and classified as Gen Z.

Your CNA students may think that once they finish the course and pass the state certification exam, their next challenges will only be dealing with difficult clients. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Sometimes, the most difficult people won’t be the clients they care for but those they work with.

Conflicts are inevitable when you work in a stressful environment like health care. Tension and stress can result from miscommunication and differing opinions and priorities. You can't ignore a volatile situation between staff members as a nurse leader. Conflicts within your nursing team can create an uncomfortable work environment for everyone. It's often not the conflict that's your biggest challenge — it's how you work to resolve it.

“I’m so burned out.”
Your CNA students may have heard this expression, or something like it, from nursing staff during clinical rotation, their peers, or they may have said it themselves. Burnout may be said casually, but there are times to take it more seriously. Words like overwhelmed, exhausted, and burnout have almost become accepted as expected in healthcare.

If you want something done right, you need to do it together. As a nurse leader, it can often feel like you have too many tasks on your plate and need more time to complete them all safely and effectively. That's where delegation in nursing comes in.
Keep in mind that delegating tasks isn't the same as assigning them. Assigning a task refers to giving a specific responsibility to a team member with the skill set to accomplish it safely and effectively.

Among their many competing responsibilities, good nurse managers lead and integrate activities to ensure everything runs smoothly. As a leader, you’ll typically manage budgets, inventory, and quality improvement efforts. Your duties expand beyond tasks — you’re also responsible for your patients and nursing staff.
Leadership Styles for Nurse Managers
Successfully managing your nursing team begins with developing a trusting relationship with your staff through accessibility, honesty, and respe...

Getting students to come to your certified nursing assistant (CNA) or home health aide (HHA) training program might take more than building it. A long list appears if you search online for HHA or CNA training programs. How does a new student know which one to choose? And how do you get them to enroll in your program?
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Healthcare practices may be open, but it’s not business as usual. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has changed the way the world thinks and acts, and this is especially relevant in healthcare. Most practices stayed open but may have had to lay off non-essential staff due to decreased patient volume. Others increased virtual care, while all have had to rethink how they will conduct business to survive financially after the COVID-19 pandemic.

A late period can be stressful, whether you hope to be pregnant or not. But being late for your period isn’t always due to pregnancy. Various factors, including lifestyle changes, medications, underlying health conditions, or stress may delay your period.
Key takeaways:
Pregnancy is the most common reason for a late period, but not the only reason.
Extreme changes in diet, exercise, underlying health conditions, or taking various medications may delay your period.

Passing the CNA state certification test is essential. Otherwise, your students won’t be able to work as CNAs. Plus, student pass rates are essential for your program. But if all your focus is on teaching your students how to pass the test, will they know how to respond to challenges when working in the real world?