Ohio CNA Program Basics
All residents in the state of Ohio that wish to work as CNAs must first undergo a training course of at least 70 hours (or more), then sit for the state’s final assessment. All CNA training programs cover essential topics such as basic nursing, patient care, and infection control. In addition, emergency procedures, fire response, and certain specialized topics such as dementia and rehabilitation are also taught in training. While these health care topics are covered in most training courses, for those who will be assigned to work in special rehab or memory care units of a certain facility, more in-depth modules will be taught.
Ohio CNA Training Requirements
- The state of Ohio requires that all training courses, regardless if they are in-facility or elsewhere, have classroom instruction segments along with separate modules for manual skills or clinical training.
- Clinical exercises are performed first on classmates and then, later in the program, on actual patients under the supervision of an experienced nurse, usually an RN.
- In an employer based training course, the trainees will often work in the facility during the final weeks under a senior CNA.
- This gives the students a chance to practice all of the lessons they have received and hone their hands on skills for the final CNA assessment.
Ohio CNA Examination Information
- When the students finish training, they are eligible to sit for the final assessment.
- During the state certification exam, the student will be required to take a written test first.
- A passing grade is needed to proceed to the manual skills test portion of the exam.
- The test administrator will select several skills for the student to demonstrate during the clinical skills portion of the exam.
- The hands on exercises may be performed either on the test facilitator or on a fellow classmate that has already completed the assessment.
- Examinees that have failed to pass any portion of the test will need to leave the testing area in most cases.
- Those who passed are often invited to sit in as ‘patients’ for the next examinee.
Ohio CNA Certification Renewal
- Renewal of certification is similar to that of other states.
- Every twenty-four months the state’s department of health or board of nursing will send out a renewal packet to aides that need to renew their certification.
- This packet will typically come at least a month or so before the expiration of the aide’s certification.
- The aide may not need to complete the packet in full if their employer trained them and covers renewal.
- Some employers may reimburse aides for renewal if the aides were not trained in their facility; this depends solely on the facility.
