March 17, 2023 – Certified Nurse Aides (CNAs) are considered the backbone of nursing home care. They provide nursing and nursing-related services in health care facilities and serve as the principal caregivers for nursing home residents. CNA care includes a wide range of important duties, including monitoring of resident health status, feeding, bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, and ambulation.

Unfortunately, CNAs are too often not provided the support and training needed to carry out their job. While the longstanding failure to provide sufficient numbers of nursing staffing in nursing homes is well known, the too frequent failure to ensure that nurse aides have sufficient training and competency generally receives less attention.

A new LTCCC report, “A Guide to State CNA Certification & Training Requirements,” provides an overview of state specific training requirements nationwide and details how different states are or are not augmenting the federal requirements.

On the NursingHome411 report page, you can access:

  • CNA training and certification requirements for every US state
  • Federal CNA requirements
  • A chart comparing state and federal CNA requirements
  • A user-friendly PDF of the report

The goal of this report is to help policymakers, providers, and consumers understand the role of CNAs in nursing homes, the range of CNA certification and training requirements, and how better CNA training leads to professional success for staff while improving outcomes for nursing home residents.

PS: CNA training requirements were the topic of LTCCC’s webinar on Tuesday, March 21 at 1pm (ET). Click here to view the webinar!

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This is the work of the LTCCC. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Health, nor has the Department verified the accuracy of its content.