Per Diem Jobs in Olympia Offer the Highest Pay Rates to CNAs
Living and working as a Certified Nursing Assistant in Olympia, Washington, is a great experience. With its beautiful views of the Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound, you can never get tired of the scenery! The city is a great place to live and work, with plenty of shops, restaurants, and museums. Plus, the city has a great sense of community and a vibrant arts and culture scene. The cost of living is also quite affordable.
Olympia is conveniently located near Seattle, making it easy to take day trips to the larger city. It's only a one-hour drive away, so you can easily get to Seattle for a weekend getaway or a fun day of exploring. Seattle offers many attractions and activities, from the iconic Space Needle to the iconic Pike Place Market.
All in all, Olympia is a great place to live and work as a Certified Nursing Assistant. With its beautiful views, affordable cost of living, and proximity to Seattle, it's an ideal place for anyone looking for an enriching lifestyle.
What is a Certified Nursing Assistant?
A certified nursing assistant or CNA works in a healthcare facility by helping patients hands-on.
What Does a CNA Do?
Mostly, CNAs take care of every patient and their physical and emotional needs. A job description example for a CNA is:
- To provide as much comfort as possible to patients by meeting their basic needs and assisting with what patients are unable to do on their own. This may include dressing, bathing, grooming, combing hair, feeding, staying hydrated, etc.
- Assist in transporting patients, either from one bed to another or from one physical space to another.
- Take the vital signs of each patient at a pre-determined time. For example, more critically ill patients may need to have their vital signs taken by specialized equipment more often, while other patients may need to have their vital signs taken once or twice a day.
- Respond to patients' calls and talk to them about their concerns, as well as communicate with their families.
- Maintain order and cleanliness of the patient's environment.
What Are the Characteristics of a Good CNA?
CNAs need to take care of their patients within these responsibilities. To do so, CNAs need to have certain qualities, whether acquired or innate, such as:
- CNAs need a lot of physical strength and stamina. In general, transporting patients or assisting them with hygiene may, in some cases, require lifting, and CNAs may not have a lot of sitting time on the job.
- Empathy for patients. Empathy is a very important quality for the work of CNAs. The ability to put themselves in the other person's shoes helps them to have more compassion and to treat them with more affection and gentleness.
- Love for their work, and certainty that the impact they have on the hospital services where they work is great, i.e., the certainty that their presence makes a big difference.
- Organization. CNAs need to be able to prioritize and have a lot of order in the different tasks they must perform daily to attend to all patients and cover all possible needs.
Read About Working Per Diem Jobs as a CNA
Where Do CNAs Work in Olympia?
Thanks to these qualities, CNAs can work smoothly in many different areas of work. CNAs work alongside many other healthcare professionals, including registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs). Some of the settings in which CNAs work include:
- Long-term care facilities. Long-term care jobs are jobs in which the patients are to stay long-term, usually geriatric patients, but they can also be young or disabled patients.
- Hospitals. Hospitals need an enormous number of CNAs to function, as they are the bases of hospital units and basic patient care.
- Home healthcare, or home health aide. Patients in home healthcare often require someone to help them in their own homes and take care of them. This job is relatively easy for CNAs, as they only have to care for one patient at a time, although it can be a bit monotonous.
- Intensive care unit or ICU. This job requires a CNA for a few patients, monitoring medical equipment closely and training to know how to act in case of an emergency.
- Emergency room. The emergency room can be a bit stressful, especially when there are several patients at once in busy hospitals or at certain times, such as during the holidays. However, working in an emergency room adds to the variability of CNAs' capabilities, as they see all types of cases and patients.
- Pediatric facilities. In pediatric hospitals, CNAs are dedicated to caring for children, taking anthropometric measurements, and constantly assessing their behaviors. For those who like younger patients, it's a job full of life and color.
- Geriatric facilities. Geriatric facilities are one of the places where most CNAs are needed, and many CNAs make friends they will never forget in these settings. However, it is difficult to let go of patients who pass away, and it can be hard on CNAs mentally.
What's the Average CNA Salary in Olympia?
It is in all of these settings and more that CNAs find jobs with permanent contracts or through PRN CNA jobs in Olympia, Washington. The average salary for a CNA in Olympia is $35,490 per year for permanent contracts; however, when CNAs take PRN nursing jobs through the PRN CNA jobs app, they can get higher hourly wages.
What are PRN Nursing Jobs?
PRN jobs, also called per diem jobs, are temporary jobs that have three main advantages over permanent contract jobs: earning more per hour, choosing the hours and days the CNAs want to work, and having more work experience in different fields, due to the constant changes in the type of work.
Check Out This Article to Learn About Highest-Paid States for CNAs
How to Find CNA Jobs Near Me?
To get per diem CNA shifts in Washington state, Nursa's PRN CNA jobs app is at hand, and the best part: it's completely free! Once a profile or account is created, CNAs upload their license and can search for jobs in any area they want, be it Olympia or anywhere in Washington state. Thanks to healthcare staffing tools like this app, it's becoming easier and easier to find hospital CNA jobs, to the great advantage of both CNAs and facilities looking to fill their shifts.
