Certified nurse aides provide most of the direct hands-on care to the nation’s 1.3 million nursing home residents. Aides’ central role in caregiving means that the training that aides receive to become certified must be adequate and appropriate to ensure that they are capable of providing high quality of care and quality of life services to residents.
At present, training can be provided by a variety of entities, including vocational schools, unions, and nursing facilities themselves. If a nursing facility wants to provide certification training using its own staff, it is crucial that care practices in the facility meet or exceed federal standards, so that new aides are taught good practices. Equally important, a facility conducting a nurse aide training program must have sufficient numbers of staff so that residents are not put at risk when a facility shifts nurses from the floor to the classroom.
Center for Medicare Advocacy