The responsibilities of my profession as a Clinical Nursing Assistant are to provide an additional level of care to patients in a clinical environment including the following: dressing and feeding patients, monitoring the relative comfort levels of patients, assisting patients with their pain tolerances and monitoring their vital signs for any patients as well as the consumption of medications to assist with any pre-existing or current conditions. The CNA must ensure that the patient’s needs within the clinical environment are looked after and constantly monitored to promote greater wellbeing and recovery from their conditions or requirements.
Technology further affects my profession by making it more efficient to monitor and assist patients. Such technologies as automated blood pressure and heart rate monitors make it easier to quickly check the vital signs of patients whilst automated or highly technical equipment can assist in the mobility of patients if they are attempting to recover from bone or muscular conditions. Technology also allows CNA’s to better maintain patient records and ensure that they remain on the system and are constantly updated for future records.

The contribution that CNA’s have in the health industry include the facilitation of patient recovery times and improving the overall quality of care and efficiency of the healthcare system. Without CNA’s, the healthcare system would not be able to maintain these high standards of healthcare and would struggled to improve the overall health of society in general. Further to this, my professional goals focus on assuming more management based clinical nursing roles in the clinic that I am currently working in. There is the potential to assume roles that can effectively change practices to make them more efficient and also effective with respect to the care of patients in the clinics. I intend on meeting my professional goals by shadowing more senior nurses and managers in the clinical setting and assuming more responsibility with respect to training the junior nurses and strictly enforcing procedures and practices that maintain a high level of patient care and prevent liabilities from occurring.

A role transition from a Clinical Nursing Assistant to a Licensed Practical Nurse would involve a number of changes mainly focused on how patient care is delivered. In contrary to the roles of the CNA, a Licensed Practical Nurse would be required to take a more proactive role in diagnosing patients and then delivering effective patient care in response to their diagnosed conditions. It requires more analysis of patient conditions and overall knowledge of medical procedures and diagnostic tools that can be used to assess the overall health of a patient.