Health Sciences

Employment opportunities are available in skilled nursing and personal care facilities, hospitals, and residential care agencies. Many individuals find jobs through temporary staffing agencies and home health-care services. The job outlook is very good for this field. Individuals interested in career advancement may pursue further study to become licensed vocational nurses and then registered nurses.

Completion of this training program also prepares the student to take a competency examination, which qualifies the candidate for certification as a Nurse Assistant/Home Health Aide in the state of California. The cost of this exam is $85.00

To check the status of a Nurse Assistant or Home Health Aide certification, call the registry line (916) 327-2445. To address problems or delays with certification, call (916) 552-8878 or fax to (916) 327-4320. Be advised that these lines are often impacted with calls and patience and repeated calls may be required.

It is important to keep copies of all records, receipts, transcripts, and documents in your personal file. Loss of paperwork due to bureaucratic error can then be quickly remedied.

Maintaining Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) status in the state of California requires 48 hours of approved continuing education every two years. Obtaining, documenting, and submitting records of these continuing education hours is the responsibility of the individual Nurse Assistant.

If you work at a skilled nursing facility or in a home-health agency, the facility will provide classes that are approved for continuing education. In addition to fulfilling your requirements for recertification, the classes help you improve your skills and keep current with new practices and laws governing health care.

If the agency you work for does not provide classes, they may have a list of resources. Many skilled nursing facilities and acute care hospitals accept people in their classes who are not employees of their facilities.

Locally, the North Bay Network for Health-Care Education offers classes. They can be contacted at (707) 888-2114 or online at www.NBNHE.com.

St. Joseph Health System offers their courses to CNAs/HHAs in the community by calling Cathleen Lukrich at (707) 525-5300, ext. 3417 or online at CLUKRICH@st.jo.org. Classes are also available through:

Effective immediately, there is a new post office box exclusively for the Professional Certification Branch of the Licensing and Certification Program. The new address is:

Using this new address will ensure that all application material for Certified Nurse Assistants (CNAs), Home-Health Aides (HHAs), Hemodialysis Technicians (CHTs), and other correspondence will get to the Aide and Technician Certification Section (ATCS) quicker.

The number is (916) 327-2445. The CNA registry’s automated telephone responses are user friendly. Responses to status verification for applications will state whether or not the registry has received the application material and whether they can work as a Nurse Assistant or Health Aide.

For status inquiries for those previously certified, the response will state whether their certificate is active, inactive, or pending and whether they may work as a Nurse Assistant, Home Health Aide, or not. When the response is “under review” or “pending” or “delinquent,” the caller must talk to a telephone representative.

Due to severe staffing shortages in the registry, facilities are encouraged to utilize the registry’s automated telephone response option for verification instead of having to speak to a representative. We are confident that this new system will help answer most questions.

The registry has established a direct e-mail for inquiries. Send e-mail to cna@dhs.ca.gov

There will be a new Internet accessible database that can be used to verify the certification for CNAs, HHAs, CHTs, and licenses of nursing home administrators. Only those who hold current certificates and licenses will show on the database. Access this through http://www.dhs.ca.gov/lnc/cert/default.htm. There will also be a link through the licensing and certification program, aide and technician certification sites. This database will be updated weekly.