CNA Exam - Evaluating Nursing Care Competencies
CNA Exams are developed to evaluate knowledge, abilities, and skill of prospective nurse aides for offering safe and competent nursing care.
In the nursing field, nurse aide career has high demand among individuals who wish to enter the healthcare field. The primary reasons for the popularity of nurse aide career include employment opportunities after completing short duration training, rapid growth opportunities, better job outlook, shortage of nursing professionals, and massive demand for nurse aides.
However, Federal OBRA-87 Act passed by the Congress specifically requires nursing homes and other health care facilities to employ only these nurse aides who have sufficiently proved their nursing skills by passing the competency assessment exam. The Act also requires states to implement these provisions for safeguarding public health and welfare. In order to accomplish these stipulations, the states also develop and administer competency evaluation exam to qualified candidates and assess their nursing skills. Today, it is mandatory for nurse aides to complete their training programs, meet the Application requirements, pass the CNA exam, and earn Certification before they apply for a nurse aide job.
CNA Exam
Nurse Aide exam is developed and administered by the states or testing agencies for evaluating the skills of the testing candidates. Pearson VUE, D & S Headmaster, and Prometric are these testing agencies that have responsibilities for developing and administer competency evaluation exams on behalf of respective states. However, in the state of Indiana, the state health department has assigned test administrating responsibilities to Ivy Tech Community College.
The features of competency evaluation exam include two separate and independent parts – the Written or Oral Test, and b) the Skills Test.
The Written Test consists of 60-70 multiple-choice questions and choice answers depending upon the test providers. Each question has four choice answers and candidates will have to choose one correct answer for scoring. The test questions are obtained from the Nurse Aide Training Program. The written test assesses the nursing knowledge and abilities of the candidates.
The Skills Test is a crucial part of the OBRA-87 requirements and competency evaluation exams because it assesses skills of the candidates for performing nursing care services. The feature of the test consists of 5 kills, out of 25-30 given skills. The candidates demonstrate these skills upon a client or volunteer. The volunteer is selected from among the testing candidates. Hand-washing is always one of the skills. The candidates will have to perform all five skills correctly to get a passing score of 70-80 percent. The test is performed under the monitoring of a registered nurse.
The candidates who obtain passing scores also receive Certification that permits them to use the title “Certified Nurse Aide” when they perform in varied health care settings. The certified direct care workers are also allotted a license number by the states health departments that allow them to work legally in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and other healthcare units.
The candidates who fail to clear the CNA test in the first attempt get two more chances, but if they are still unsuccessful, they will have to complete their training program again and sit for the exam again.
However, there are few prerequisites that are to be completed before applying for the competency test. These requirements include the completion of the training program, criminal background screening, minimum 16, or 18 years of age, free from communicable diseases, and submission of Application with the testing fees.
