Requirements and Resources
A person or institution desiring to offer a new NATP must submit an Initial NATP Application for approval by the Board prior to enrolling students.
Requirements
- A NATP applicant that is not affiliated with a nursing facility, or a comparable nursing practice setting, must have on file an agreement with a clinical facility. The agreement must describe how the training program will provide the training in the facility and how students will be directly supervised by a licensed nurse when performing client/resident care.
- A NATP must have a Board-approved RN Program Director. The Director must be actively licensed as an RN and have a minimum of one year of licensed clinical RN experience. Review the RN Program Director duties and other instructor qualifications to identify nurse(s) who can best accomplish the requirements of the NATP.
Prior to starting the training program, a student must be screened for findings of and convictions for emotional and psychological abuse, neglect, exploitation, or physical abuse.
Approved Teaching Resources
All NATPs must use one or more of the following Board-approved teaching resource(s). The curriculum guides, linked below, are designed to ensure that all of the required theory content is taught to students and that an instructor evaluates a student on the ability to safely perform all of the commonly performed nurse aide skills.
- Curriculum Guide for Hartman's Nurse Assistant Care: Long-Term Care (2022); 5th Ed.: Text and Workbook.
- Avera Education Staffing Solutions (AESS) online (Uses Hartman's text and workbook)
- WeCare online (Uses Hartman's text and workbook)
- Curriculum Guide for American Health Care Association’s (AHCA) How to be a Nurse Assistant (2022); 8th Ed., online and text.
Sample Schedules provide a guideline for instructors on incorporating all of the content, skills, and supervised practical training into a student's schedule. All students must complete supervised practical training in a skills lab and skilled facility (or a comparable nursing practice setting).
Skills
Skills lab instructors must provide time for students to practice and demonstrate the ability to safely perform all commonly performed skills.
Commonly performed skills include: handwashing, PPE Use, obstructed airway, moving up in bed, log rolling, positioning on side, use of a transfer belt, transferring from bed to a wheelchair, assisting with ambulation with cane and crutches, obtaining a blood pressure, obtaining a pulse and respiration, obtaining a weight, completing a bed bath, oral care, oral care for an unconscious resident, denture care, foot care, dressing and assisting resident with weak side, applying elastic stockings, output measurement and documentation, use of bedpan, emptying a urinary drainage bag, urinary (Foley) catheter care, measuring and documenting input, feeding a resident, and hydration.
The Curriculum Guides identify the required skills and checklists that must be demonstrated by students for the commonly performed skills.
CNA Skills Competency Demonstraton and Evaluation
A student must complete a CNA Skills Evaluation to be eligible for registration as a CNA. The Board developed a pool of twenty-two skills from the list of commonly performed skills. Each student is randomly assigned four skills. An RN Skills Evaluator must use the Board's Skills Evaluation Checklist Forms to evaluate the student; the evaluation may be completed during the skills lab or at the end of the 75-hour NATP. The checklist forms are similar to the skills forms found in Hartman's Nurse Assistant Care: Long-Term Care, 5th ed. Workbook.