CNA Certification – How to Get a Certification for CNA

You can work in the medical industry without any specialized training or licensing as a nurse's aide. However, the federal government requires that any medical facility, such as hospitals, nursing homes, and more, that receive reimbursements for Medicare also hire only certified nursing assistants to do the duties of a nurse's aide. So you can see that to have the most job opportunities available as a nurse's aide, you should seek out the certification for CNA.

While the federal government has its requirement for CNA certification, it is up to the states to monitor licensing and to govern licensing requirements and procedures. Each state has slightly different requirements for certification for CNA. However, in general, you can expect a state to require at least a high school diploma or a GED equivalent. On top of this, a state may require you to take at least 50 to 185 hours of CNA training. These hours may include a portion of classroom hours as well as clinical or practical hours that take place in a medical facility and under the guidance of a licensed nurse or other such medical professional.

Training programs for certification for CNA are often easy to find. Many community colleges throughout the country will offer a training program, and these programs often provide you with excellent resources for finding medical facilities to complete your clinical hours. Some states will allow you to take online courses, and with these it may be slightly more challenging to locate an opportunity for clinical hours. In addition, some employers will offer free or reimbursed training for the Certified Nursing Assistant certification, provided you work for them for a set period of time after your training is complete. The length of time the training program takes can vary between a few weeks to six months or longer.

After the certification for CNA Training Program is complete, some states, but not all, will then require you to take a licensing exam. These exams largely are done in-person and may include both a written exam and a skills test where you perform various skills for a test monitor. After you have passed your exam, this may be all that is required to be certified and placed on the state's licensed registry. However, other states may require additional documentation before you will be fully licensed. Other documentation may include completion of a background and criminal history check, proof of a negative tuberculosis test in the last six months, immunization records, fingerprint cards and a photo ID.

Becoming a certified nursing assistant is easier in some states than in others, but you will find that in most states the demand for a CNA is high. Many certified nursing assistants will continue on with education requirements to later fulfill requirements for a registered or licensed nurse. Because the CNA is used as a career stepping stone in many cases, you often have that high level of turnover. However, this high turnover rate creates demand for new certified nursing assistants as well as provides you with job security.