Pursuing the career of a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) is indeed a praise-worthy goal. So, if you are also aspiring to become a CNA, then here are some accredited CNA schools that you should choose to enroll in.

Keep in mind that enrolling in an accredited CNA program is essential if you want to boost up your nursing career. After all, completing an accredited program will make you eligible to sit for the state certification exam, without any inconvenience. And, once you pass the state certification exam, then your name will also appear in the Nurse Aide Registry, which gives the official acknowledgement of you being a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA).

City College of San Francisco

As the name itself tells, the City College of San Francisco is indeed located in San Francisco, California. Now, for your information, this college has got an outstanding reputation for yielding skilled Certified Nurse Assistants. If you are anxious to ask why you should enroll in this college’s CNA Certificate programs, then read below to learn the answer.

Appealing Features of the City College of San Francisco’s CNA Certificate Program:

You will be able to complete this Certificate program in the time period of 18 weeks, which is a mere 4 months.

After the successful completion of this 18 weeks long course program, the graduates will find no difficulty in getting along with the entry-level CNA jobs, which can be found abundantly in nursing facility centers such as home healthcare agencies, acute care facilities, hospitals and clinics.

Best of all good things about this college is that its CNA certificate program has got the accreditation from the California State Department of Health Services, which means that after graduation from this CNA certificate program, the graduates would be qualified to sit for the state certification exam, which is, by the way, formally known as National Nurse Aide Competency Examination.

Another good thing to note is that the graduates of this CNA program are basically entitled for the Certification of Home Health Aide; they do not need to bother themselves with further examinations to seek this particular nursing certification of Home Health Aides.

Contact Details:–

• Accredited CNA Schools: – City College of San Francisco
• Address: – 50 Phelan Ave., San Francisco, CA 94112
• Phone No.:– 415-239-3000
• Online Address: – ccsf.edu

American River College

Another reputed educational institution for offering accredited CNA training program is the American River College, which is also located in the state of California.

Appealing Features of the City College of San Francisco’s CNA Certificate Program:

As this is an accredited program, the students will be eligible to sit for the state certification exam right after their graduation.

Recommended Online CNA Schools!

Stratford Career Institute

Stratford Career Institute can help you earn your diploma from home in as little as six months, thanks to their proven study methods.

Programs:

• Health Care Aide
• Dental Assistant
• Pharmacist's Assistant
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Keiser University

Keiser University eCampus Online offers degrees in fields that are in high demand and provides job placement assistance to all its students and alumni.

Programs:

• Medical Assisting, AS
• Nursing, MS
• Health Services Administration, AA (Online)

Walden University

Balance your personal and professional commitments while earning a respected Ph.D., master's degree, or bachelor's degree online at Walden University. Programs offered in management, education, psychology and health and human services.

Programs:

• B.S. in Nursing (BSN)
• Post-Masters Certificates in Nursing - Nursing Education
• Doctor of Nursing Practice (D.N.P.) - General
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Western Governors University

At Western Governors University, your competence - the knowledge and skills you possess - is the ultimate focus of every degree program.

Programs:

• B.S. in Nursing
• M.S. in Nursing - Leadership and Management
• M.S. in Nursing - Education

Grand Canyon University

Don't Miss a Day of Your Future! Grand Canyon University is offering Bachelor and Master degrees through our College of Education, Ken Blanchard College of Business, College of Nursing & Health Sciences, College of Liberal Arts, and College of Entrepreneurship. Classes start soon!

Programs:

• M.S. in Nursing with an Emphasis in Leadership in Health Care Systems (Bridge)
• M.S. in Nursing: Nursing Leadership in Health Care Systems
• M.S. in Nursing: Nursing Education
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Graduation from this accredited CNA program will mean that the students have accumulated the necessary nursing skills to qualify for the entry-level jobs in the healthcare facilities.

This program is designed to make the students go through around 63 hours of theoretical classes along with the clinical internship of about 135 hours. These credit hours are essential for earning the eligibility to enter in the state certification exam.

Students will be completing a nursing curriculum, which encompasses the essential subject matters such as rehabilitative nursing, patient rights, body mechanics, emergency procedures and checking vital signs.

Contact Details:–

• Accredited CNA Schools: – American River College
• Address: – 4700 College Oak Dr., Sacramento, CA 95841
• Phone No.:– 916-484-8011
• Online Address: – arc.losrios.edu

Salt Lake Community College

Residing in the Salt Lake City of Utah State, the Salt Lake College is another reputed educational institution, which also provides an accredited CNA certification program for interested students.

About the Salt Lake College’s CNA certificate Program:

This accredited allied healthcare program will take the students through a nursing curriculum, which encompasses the essential subject matters such as anatomy, medical terminologies, physiology, human relations, body mechanics and bacteriology.

The successful completion of this CNA certificate program will make the graduates skilled enough to get along with the entry-level works of the nursing facilities such as in hospitals or health homes.

The provision of co-operative externship is another good thing to note about this CNA program. This provision tells that the students have to use their newly-gained nursing skills in the local hospitals and thus get some hands-on practice by being around professional nurses.

The fact that this college’s CNA certificate program is accredited is proof enough to represent that the graduates of this program will be thoroughly prepared for taking the state certification exam for the nursing assistants.

Contact Details:–

• Accredited CNA Schools: – Salt Lake Community College
• Address: – 4600 South Redwood Rd., Salt Lake City, UT 84123
• Phone No.:– 801- 957-7522
• Online Address: – slcc.edu

General Enrollment Criteria for the CNA Certificate Programs:–

• The CNA certification programs have the tendency to accept only those applicants who are over 18 years old.
• Applicants are expected to be physically & mentally healthy.
• The applicants will also be asked to show the proofs of immunizations.
• Likewise, the CNA programs will also for a criminal background check of the applicants, in which they should pass so as to get enrollment.
• Most programs will also expect the applicants to sit for a placement test as well as take participation in the orientation.
• An English language test might also have to be passed for enrollment in some CNA programs.

Before you seek for employment in the hospitals or nursing homes, it would be wise of you to first ascertain that your CNA certification is “Active”. After all, you would not probably want to show up for a job interview with an “Inactive” or “Expired” CNA license.

And, to tell you the truth, your would-be-employer generally has the tendency to check out the status of your CNA license on your behalf, for the sake of removing his doubts about whether you are currently licensed or not.

So, better check your CNA license status yourself unless you would like to give your would-be-employer a golden chance to give you a “no-active-license” speech.

Note:–Although the federal state law in the US dictates that a Certified Nursing Assistant has to renew his license every 2 years, you can still be sure that each of the states will have different provisions regarding the renewal of the CNA certification.

Checking whether your CNA certification is “Active”, “Inactive” or “Expired”:–

Now, if you are wondering how on earth you can check the status of your CNA license, then let me inform you that your state’s Nurse Aide registry is the responsible entity, which will tell you whether your CNA license is “Active”, “Inactive” or, even worse, “Expired”.

So, contact the Nurse Aide registry of your state to check the status of your CNA license. For your information, there are 2 ways of contacting the Nurse Aide registry of the state in which you are practicing your CNA profession.

By calling the Nurse Aide registry:–

The first alternative is to look in your state’s telephone directory and fish out the telephone number of your state’s venerable Nurse Aide registry. Upon finding its number, you are expected to call it and ask about the status of your CNA license.

By visiting the website of the Nurse Aide registry of your state:–

If, unfortunately, you can’t get your hands on a telephone for some reasons, then your second alternative would be to contact the nurse aide registry through online means. Just search for the specific web address of your state’s Nurse Aide registry and verify your CNA status there by filling out a certain form.

How does your CNA license become “Inactive” and “Expired”?

Upon passing the CNA certification test of a particular state, you will then be licensed as a Certified Nursing Assistant and would be legally permitted to practice the CNA profession in that state.

Now, as you have just earned your CNA license, it will be shown as active in the Nurse Aide registry of your state, but only for a period of 2 years.

During the period of these 2 years, if the CNAs have not been employed for certain time length or have not taken any special CNA training courses of certain credit hours, then their CNA license would be registered as “Inactive” in the Nurse Aide registry.

Updating the “Inactive” status of your CNA certificate into an “Active” one:–

Upon being notified about your “Inactive” CNA license, the state will expect you to re-activate your license by participating in the CNA certification test again. Once you successfully pass this licensing exam, the Nurse Aide registry will update the status of your CNA license or, rather say, make it “Active”.

Education Requirements to update an “Expired” CNA license to an “Active” one:–

However, if you ignore the status of your CNA license for 5 years, then the Nurse Aide registry will list your CNA license as an “Expired” one, the renewal of which does not include only passing the CNA certification test but also requires the CNA to re-take CNA training classes by enrolling in any of the state-approved CNA schools, be it on line or in a college-based-teaching environment.

In short, you will have to start over as a novice CNA-applicant. If the idea of starting over again seems a dull thing for you, then you would better reactivate your CNA certification in time.