Overcoming barriers as a certified nursing assistant in healthcare

Certified nursing assistants are an important part of health care settings today. Certified nursing assistants and professional health care settings experience challenges and barriers in their day-to-day experiences. They are challenges that certified nursing assistants must go through during their training or during their career, so that they may learn and experience different situations and how to deal with those situations.

I experienced a barrier at one point when I saw blood and could not handle the situation. One day, I was placed responsible for a certain patient, along with another certified nursing assistant. We would take care of her at certain times of the day. During an evening shift, the patient was going to have some blood work done and the registered nurse on duty came in to take her blood. The other certified nursing assistant and I were asked to observe the situation that was about to occur. As we were watching the registered nurse take out the blood, the nurse did something wrong where the blood began to spatter out. The patient got nervous and so did I. I saw the blood spattered on her arm and began to feel dizzy. I then felt as if I was going to faint. I told the other certified nursing assistant and my supervisor that I needed to leave the room for a few minutes. As I began walking out of the room into the hall way, I began to black out and couldn't see for a few seconds. I felt very uncomfortable with the whole situation and I do not know what came over me. My supervisor walked with me to the nurse's station, I sat down and was told to remain seated and to relax.