Improving Educational Standards of Certified Nurse Assistants (CNAs)

The recent release of the North Carolina State Long Term Care Ombudsman 2008 Annual Report brings home the fact that despite all the good work and long hours of toil by the state and regional ombudsmen, complaints are still reported, abuses still arise, and resident’s rights are still denied. All of these issues speak to Quality of Life as perceived by the resident, but who and what speaks to Quality of Care?

It is the mission of Friends of Resident in Long Term Care to advocate for and advance Quality of Care in residential living. In long term care, be it assisted living or skill nursing care, the one individual who bears the greatest burden for the care of every resident is the direct care worker. Whether you call them “certified nurse assistants”, “personal care workers” or “nurse aids”, it is these individuals that the resident depends upon for every detail of their daily care which includes response to any emergencies, proper inspection of their food, their clothes, their skin, their cognitive response and interpersonal needs for comfort, support, and love.

In our study of how well prepared our direct care workers are in North Carolina, we have learned that North Carolina requires only 75 hours in an approved training program to sit for the certification exam. Those 75 hours of an approved training program lags behind 28 other states in the union. As a comparison veterinarian assistants who work in all veterinary clinics must have a two year course and graduate from a community college with an AA degree. And did you know that a cosmetologist must have 1500 hours? To work as a manicurist in North Carolina one must have 300 hours of an approved training program. The 1987 federal law states for a person to be qualified to work in a Nursing Home – one must have 75 hours of an approved training program AND / OR pass a qualifying exam. That loophole allows candidates for certification to take a one day training course and pass the exam. And according to the records kept by the Licensure & Certification Section in the Division of Aging in the DHHS , 30% of our CNAs come to their employment through this route. This one day training course is advertised both in the Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News and Observer and the cost the individual almost as much for the entire course at a community college.

Improving the knowledge and skills base of North Carolinas Direct Care Workers will be a major focus for Friends of Residents in 2010 and beyond. We look forward to sharing our strategies and reporting our progress with you.