Morris said there are repercussions to the expiration of temporary licenses. Lately, those temporary licenses have been expiring before applicants can take the tests. Those grads get a temporary license for 120 days, which historically has been enough time for applicants to take their exams and secure a permanent license. “I think anything that impacts the people we serve, prevents them from being able to take care of themselves and their families and stay housed, is a big, big concern," Morris said.Ĭrossroads typically has 80 CNA graduates a year. Two of the schools that offer CNA programs, Crossroads and CCRI, both confirmed they have seen the testing issues firsthand.Ĭrossroads Senior Director of Education Employment and Training, Bernice Morris, said the entire situation is a mess. Last October, the I-Team reported that Credentia still only had three sites for CNA testing, one of which was only testing one Sunday per month.Īt the time, the Rhode Island Department of Health said three new sites had opened since January, yet over a year later, the issues haven’t yet gone away. The state opened new sites shortly afterward to deal with the backlog, but the problem persisted. That was mainly due to COVID, which temporarily shut down the Community College of Rhode Island, one of the testing sites. In April 2021, the NBC I-Team reported that certified nursing assistant trainees were told they’d have to wait up to four months to schedule an exam. Shortly after that takeover, issues began. Testing vendor Credentia took over CNA exams in Rhode Island in March 2021. “Everyone else, and even the girls in the upcoming classes and the class that’s graduating right now, they’re going to have the same issues.” “There’s only one classmate that I know of who has her license and everything is handled,” she said. With few on-site testing locations available in Rhode Island, Smith had to wait another two months before finding an available test, which is now scheduled for October. “The skills got canceled on me once,” she said. When Smith finally scheduled a test this past summer, she says technical issues on the website prevented her from logging on.īy the time she got through to somebody from Credentia, the vendor that administers the test, they told her it was too late, and she’d have to sign up again.Īttempts to take the skills exam has also been met with disappointment. “For the written, when you schedule that, you select a time frame within this date and that date, and then it’ll tell you if there’s any available,” Smith said. That consists of two separate tests - a written portion and a skills exam - both of which have been bogged down by delays. In Rhode Island, CNA applicants must pass the National Nursing Assistant Assessment Program, or NNAAP, exam to get their permanent license. Those issues range from no test availability to technical errors on the website for the written exam. “We graduated in December, and I still don’t have my license because of issues with the test,” Smith said. Months after graduating from the CNA program at Crossroads, Melody's permanent license is hanging in the balance due to months of testing delays and cancellations. Melody Smith has built her life around caring for others, first as a granddaughter, then as a mother.īecoming a certified nursing assistant just made sense, but after going through the schooling, that dream has been put on pause.
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