In 1987, the U.S. Congress passed a law requiring states to regulate official certified nursing assistant (CNA) training programs in order to improve the quality of care provided by health care workers in long-term care facilities.
In California, the Department of Health Services (DHS) approves hundreds of official CNA training programs across the state, and maintains a Certified Nursing Assistant California registry which lists only those who have passed a CNA certification California program (or its equivalent).
This article explains how students can find a legitimate state-approved CNA program in California, describes the characteristics of proper CNA programs, and lists those programs available throughout the state.
Certified Nursing Assistant – California Requirements
To pursue CNA certification, California students are required to be at least 16 years of age, must complete a program with a minimum of 150 training hours, and be able to pass a state-approved licensing examination. (Note: students can begin training in high school, and can even begin at age 15, so long as their program is completed by age 16).
Certified Nursing Assistants in-training must also undergo medical and physical examinations to ensure that students do not pose any health risks or hazards to those for whom they will be caring.
California CNA Program Characteristics
There are hundreds of CNA certification California training programs available, most of which can be found in community colleges, adults schools, community centers, and health care facilities. All programs are approved by DHS, and offer 150 hours of training.
Certified Nursing Assistant California programs train students in a number of essential skills, including:
- Long-term care safety procedures
- Emergency procedures
- Infection Control
- Patients' rights
- Medical assisting (including medication delivery, temperature monitoring, and blood pressure gauging)
Students are also required to work under supervised clinical settings to ensure that they have acquired the proper skills, both medical and interpersonal, to be effective care givers in long-term care facilities.
CNA Certification – California Programs
The state of California and DHS maintains a registry of all approved California CNA programs which contains hundreds of on-site and on-campus offerings across the state. Those interested in finding a physical program can reference the DHS programs list.
California also approves certain vendors to provide online and continuing education training opportunities for students. The following vendors are those currently approved:
- Silverchair Learning Systems
- aQuire Training Solutions
- Care Train
- Care 2 Learn
- CME Resource/NetCE.
- Tenet Healthcare Corp.
- Upstairs Solutions
- EC CPR
- Fox Learning Systems, Inc.
- My Free CE
- Med Com, Inc.
- HealthCare Academy
- CiNet Healthcare Learning
Those students and practitioners in need of in-service training hours can explore any of the above vendors for online and continuing education training opportunities.
California CNA – Warning Signs
While there are a broad number of Certified Nursing Assistant California programs available at physical locations, there are currently no fully online training opportunities which are state-approved.
Students are encouraged to shop around and consider all of the advertised programs available, but should be wary of any program claiming to offer state-approved California CNA training fully online.
Students who encounter a program they suspect is disingenuous, or offers certification claims which run counter to those established by California, are encouraged to report offending schools to DHS or their local authorities.
Benefits of Proper Certified Nursing Assistant California Training
Students who complete a state-approved program are able to sit for a CNA licensing examination, and those who pass are added to the state's list of certified CNA practitioners, giving students a wide range of employment opportunities.
For information on additional training options, see also:
The Best Nursing Programs Online
David Harris-Gershon - David Harris-Gershon – a blogger for Tikkun magazine and a freelance writer on Israel, the Middle East and America’s role in ...
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