Fun Facts

The recent economic crisis may have got you thinking that your career is under serious jeopardy and that maybe switching to a more stable job will be the key to your success.  If you had been planning to get a foothold into the healthcare industry, then becoming a Certified Nursing Assistant or CNA may be one of your options.

A CNA is known by many other titles, depending on the place where you intend to work.  In the United States, they may also be called as a Nursing Assistant-Registered (NA/R), a State-Tested Nurse Aid (STNA) or a Patient Care Assistant (PCA).  The basic role of the CNA is to do routine tasks in place of the LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse) or RN (Registered Nurse).  This is to help them do the tasks that only they can perform, such as administering medication, formulating care plans, assisting surgery room preparation and nursing assessments.

The CNA’s basic duties are to assist the patients with regard to their personal and room hygiene, exercise, feeding, checking of vital signs, as well as preparation and transport of patients to treatment, surgery or examination rooms.  If there are any significant changes in the vital signs of a patient, the CNA should report this to the attending nurse of doctor immediately.  In an emergency situation, the attending CNA should be able to administer CPR or to initiate a Code Blue, to alert medical staff for assistance.

To become a CNA, one must first undergo formal training by taking CNA classes.  Ask your local hospitals or nursing homes if they offer any courses, or search the internet for ones you can take online.  In case you prefer to take online courses, it is best to go with one that gives hands-on training during internships.

CNA classes will take you roughly 140 hours, but you must also need to go through an internship before you are eligible to take a certification exam.  Some nursing homes and hospitals will offer free training for aspiring CNA’s.  This is good if you are on a tight budget, as you get to work and train at the same time, but this also means that you will have to stay with the hospital for a period of time after you get certified.

Although you may be able to work as a nursing aid without certification, there are certain tasks that you will not be allowed to do due to issues on legality or liability.  It is therefore recommended that you take the CNA exam to get certified and be able to make most out of your potentially good career in healthcare.

There are a lot of cna training classes available across the nation.

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Does any one of you experience indigestion, heartburn and/or severe pain, especially in the stomach area, two or three hours after taking food? Or does any one of you experience severe pain when you do not take food at regular intervals?

If the answer is in the affirmative, then there is every possibility that you might be suffering from Ulcer – one of the most common disorders many people suffer from, due to irregular food habits and/or other reasons.

What is ulcer? Ulcer is type of disease in which the sores erode either the skin or the mucous membrane and penetrate through the muscles that lie beneath the skin or the mucous membrane. The common types of ulcer that most people suffer with are peptic ulcer and gastric ulcer.

Peptic ulcer is caused in the lower part of the esophagus, the stomach or the duodenum, because these are the areas that are exposed to stomach acids and also pepsin, the enzyme used in digestion. Erosion caused in the mucous membrane of stomach is referred to as gastric ulcer. When the duodenum or upper part of the small intestine is exposed for erosion, then one might suffer from duodenal ulcer.

What causes Ulcer – in the first instance?

There exists a notion that over-secretion of the stomach acids is the primary reason for erosion and the resultant ulcer. But, it has been found that the primary reason for ulcer is the existence of Helicobacter pylori, or H pylori, – a common bacterium, which infects the intestines.

Other causes for ulcer might be excessive smoking and/or heavy drinking of alcohol. Excessive consumption of some of the drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen are also found to be causes for this disease.

What can be done to treat ulcers?

If you were one of those patients suffering from ulcers, then the first thing you should do is to cut down drastically on the number of cigarettes you smoke, and try to avoid it completely as early as possible. So is the case with the case of alcohol consumption. The quicker you get away from these ill-habits, the quicker you can get permanent relief from this pain and agony.

One quick way to get relief from stomach acid or neutralize the impact of that acid is to use over-the-counter drugs that contain sodium bicarbonate or baking soda. This might give temporary relief but prolonged consumption of baking soda might have other side-effects.

A cup of aloe-vera juice, three times a day, is one of the best home remedies to over come the agony of ulcer.

If you suffer from ulcer, the important thing you should do is to ensure that your diet does not include elements that would elevate the secretion of gastric acid and also cause irritation at the gastro-intestinal lining. In simple terms, you should avoid taking spices such as garlic, cloves, pepper and chili peppers.

You can also avoid taking fatty foods and also avoid taking snacks at irregular times such as late nights.

Reducing the consumption of coffee or other forms of caffeine might also provide relief for people suffering from ulcer.

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“It is very easy to advice but difficult to practice” – this is one common lament we hear very frequently, whatever may be situation and the context in which it is uttered.

One such advice we find very commonly in discussions related to food consumption and especially body weight or obesity is all about fats, high-intake of calories, exercises, burning of calories, etc..

While every one of us have some idea of carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, fat and minerals, we cannot measure or assess how much of each of these things we consumed on a single sitting or in a day and whether that were adequate, more than required or less than required.

One fine day, when we visit the doctor to check our weight and height, we will be shocked to hear from the physician that we are either obese or underweight and need to control our food intake. Is it not? It is a common feature among most of us.

You can check for yourself whether you are of normal weight, underweight, overweight or obese by keeping track of your BMI Index.

What is BMI Index?

BMI Index, or the Body-Mass Index, is a measure that is used to assess whether you are normal weight, under weight, overweight or obese. It is calculated by using your body weight and the height.

If a person’s BMI index is less than 18.5, then he or she is said to be Underweight and needs to put on some weight.

If the BMI Index is between 18.5 and 24.9, then you are said to be of normal weight and the onus rests on you to ensure that you maintain that index to enjoy the prescribed normal weight.

If the BMI Index ranges between 25 and 30, then you are said to be Overweight and you should strive to bring it down.

If the BMI index exceeds 30, then you are Obese, and you should take measures to bring it down to overweight and gradually to normal weight.

How to keep track over your BMI?

The formula for calculating BMI is [kg/m2]

It is simple to calculate your BMI. You need to do some simple things.

a. Take a reading of your weight; if it is in pounds, then divide it by 2.2 to get the weight in kilograms.
b. Take a reading of your height; if the reading is in inches, then divide it by 2.54 to convert the height in to centimeters..
c. Divide the height converted in centimeters by 100 to get the height in meters.
d. Now, calculate the square of the height converted into meters.
e. Now calculate the BMI – which is nothing but your weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height calculated in meters

Now, you can arrive at the BMI. Compare it with the standards slated above and now, you are in control over your body weight.

It is just as simple as it can be.

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