The State of Connecticut’s Department of Public Health recently approved Quinnipiac University School of Nursing’s proposal for a Certified Nurse Aide Training Program — a program designed to teach students the responsibilities of a nursing assistant.
Certified Nursing Assistant, or CNA, works in healthcare settings to provide basic care to patients, works under the direction of a registered nurse and is trained to help patients with daily tasks like bathing and dressing, as well as checking patient’s vital signs and so on, according to the American Red Cross. CNAs can work in a variety of healthcare settings, including hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, hospices and home care.
“Quinnipiac, both the School of Nursing and the School of Social Work, received the Connecticut Health Horizon’s Grant, which was about $3 million, to diversify and increase the flow of those professions,” said Lisa O’Connor, innovative programs manager and professor of nursing. “Part of that grant was innovative programs for nursing. The innovative programs, two things come from that (and) one was the CNA program.”
This course will consist of five weeks of training — including 45 hours of asynchronous lectures, 31 hours in a lab setting with hands-on skills on the North Haven Campus, 24 hours of clinical rotation at a long-term facility and eight hours of written and skills review and exam review with a simulation component, according to the MyQ announcement.
“A lot of people, not just nursing students, are interested in healthcare, in patient care,” O’Connor said. “In Connecticut it is very defined in what (those who undergo the training) can do and how they are educated. It’s about patient care, patient safety, communication, dignity, privacy.”
However, it is not open to just Quinnipiac students. Anyone in the community who is interested in this certificate, is open to register.
“At first we are going to be focused on our internal students,” O’Connor said. “Then we’ll also open it up to the public, for those in our community who might be interested in becoming a CNA. Through (the Department of) Lifelong Learning, they have a different registration, it still goes through our Registrar so to speak, the class is in Blackboard.”
O’Connor hopes to start the first round of the program in February, but understands that it might not attract a lot of students as they would have to stay during Spring Break. But it will be offered every month, and more frequently during the summer.
For now, the training is not worth any school credits, though O’Connor is open to the idea of possibly making it an elective in the future.
“It is considered continuing education,” O’Connor said. “Any students in good standing, we welcome them to register. Given that it’s 108 hours, we also want the students to think about if it’s a good timing for them. It’s an add on. We wanna get it launched and then we’ll see how we can make it an open elective for students at Quinnipiac. There’s been a lot of hands raised by parents and potential students, they wondered if we had it. We knew there was interest from incoming students. In addition we’re hearing from social work students and those across the campus, there are people who are interested in patient care.”
While the course is not yet available for registration through Self Service, students interested in signing up should email either O’Connor or Angela Falcon, student support liaison.
“Falcon is the certified educator, she’s the hands-on expert in that material in terms of teaching,” O’Connor said.
The Certificate is valid only in Connecticut, however O’Connor and Falcon can help assist those who would like to transfer it to another state.
“It opens doors into employment around our area,” O’Connor said. “Some (states) require a little bit of a different education but mostly we can help transfer it.”
If the CNA is not employed at least part-time regularly, they will have to redo their registration to maintain their status.
