Hey {{first_name|there}} 👋
CNA Week starts tomorrow, an observance that's been running since 1977. You'll get plenty of thank-you cards this week, and you've earned every one.
Here's what we've got on top of that: the raise that's already sitting in your shift schedule, why getting hired feels harder than the "we're so short-staffed" headlines suggest, and where the jobs are actually growing right now.
Let's get into it.
THE PAY CHECK
Money, wages, and what you’re worth.
The raise hiding in your shift schedule
Shift differentials are the extra dollars you earn for working nights, weekends, or as charge or float. Depending on your facility, that can mean a few dollars an hour for nights, a bit more for weekends, and sometimes extra for taking the charge or float role. Combined, a night-plus-weekend shift often pays $2 to $5 an hour over your base, and hospitals tend to run higher than nursing homes.
Here's the part worth knowing: none of it is standardized. Every employer sets its own rates and decides which shifts trigger them, so the only way to know yours is to ask. A lot of CNAs never see the differential sheet and pick up shifts without knowing which ones actually pay more.
Run the math and it adds up fast. A $2 to $5 an hour differential on a full-time schedule is roughly $4,000 to $10,000 a year that your base pay never shows.
Your move: ask HR for your facility's differential sheet before you pick up your next extra shift or sit down for a review. If you're working the hard hours anyway, work the ones that pay for it.
SHIFT REPORT
What’s happening in CNA world this week.
Healthcare is hiring. Just not always where you're looking.
The May jobs report, out June 5, showed healthcare added about 35,000 jobs last month, and outpatient clinics and hospitals drove almost all of it. Most of the new growth landed outside the nursing-home floor. So if you've been applying to facilities and hearing nothing back, it isn't you. The openings are real, they're just concentrating in hospitals and clinics.
Bureau of Labor Statistics4,000 trained aides in one state still can't start working
In South Carolina, about 4,000 people have finished CNA training but can't begin working because they're stuck waiting to test. The state runs testing through a single vendor with only a handful of sites, and the line keeps backing up. State leaders met in late May to push for a fix. Wherever you are, the lesson holds: if your certification is in limbo, the bottleneck is usually the system, not you. And keep your own cert current, because lapsing past your renewal window can land you in a backlog of a different kind.
WIS-TV
FROM THE FLOOR
Real talk from the job.
The resident who noticed you were gone
She had a resident who didn't like people. Didn't like being touched, didn't warm up to most of the staff. This CNA kept showing up for her anyway, and one day brought her a cheap pair of shoes, because the resident's feet were always cold and nobody else had bothered.
The resident cried and asked what she could do in return. "Nothing," she told her. "I just wanted you to have them because I care about you and you deserve them." She wore them every single day after that.
Then the CNA took a week off. When she came back, the resident was fussing at everyone who walked by, until she saw her. "My baby! Where have you been? Oh my Jesus, where did you leave me?" And then a hug, from the woman who never wanted to be touched.
You don't always get to know what you mean to the people on your hall.
Compassion isn't on any skills checklist, but it's the part of this job that can't be taught. That's worth saying out loud during your week.
YOUR MOVE
Career paths, certifications, and what comes next.
Where your CNA license can take you next
Like we said up top, the work isn't drying up. CNAs are still in heavy demand, and the field is projected to stay short-staffed for years. The growth is just tilting toward hospitals, clinics, and more specialized roles. If you want to follow it, your CNA license is the on-ramp to most of them.
A patient care technician does everything a CNA does plus skills like phlebotomy and EKGs, usually in a hospital, where pay tends to run higher than a nursing home. The extra training is often just 4 to 8 weeks, and some hospitals will train you on staff for free. From there, bigger jumps open up: LPN, medical assistant, ultrasound tech.
Which one makes sense depends on your timeline, your budget, and what's actually hiring in your area.
BREAK ROOM
You’ve earned a laugh.
"Go home and tell your wife she has a 72-year-old son"
A CNA shared the line that made him laugh so hard he had to sit down and wipe away tears. One of his residents looked at him, dead serious, and announced: "You're my big daddy! Go home and tell your wife she has a 72-year-old son."
He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
What's the funniest thing a resident has ever said to you? Hit reply, we might run a few next week.
That's your brief for this week. Back in your inbox next Wednesday.
Always improving: hit reply and tell us what you'd like to see more of, or less of. We read every response.
If this was useful, forward it to a CNA friend. They can sign up at the bottom of the page on https://thecnaguide.com/newsletter/.
See you next week
The CNA Brief
A publication of thecnaguide.com.