Failure to Ensure Nurse Aides Met Training and Certification Timeframes
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to ensure that nurse aides working more than four months were trained, competent, and certified within the required four-month timeframe, as required by OBRA and the facility’s own policy. Record review showed that NA D was hired on 01/03/2024 and completed the LTCR Nurse Aide Training and Competency Evaluation Program on 12/31/2024, indicating she worked full-time providing resident care such as incontinence care and bathing before timely completion of the program. NA B was hired on 11/12/2024 and completed the same training program on 02/16/2025, also working full-time and providing similar resident care during this period. Both aides reported they had not tested to become CNAs and did not have test dates scheduled. Interviews with facility leadership revealed confusion and incorrect understanding of the required certification timeframe. The DON stated that nurse aides had up to one year to get certified, while the Administrator stated that nurse aides had two years from completion of skills training to become certified. The Administrative Assistant, who along with the staffing coordinator was responsible for ensuring aides were certified within required timeframes, reported uncertainty about what those timeframes were and noted that the facility had been without a staffing coordinator until the day of the interview. These actions and inactions occurred despite a written facility policy stating that no individual would be used as a nurse aide for more than four months unless competent and having completed an approved training and competency evaluation program, or otherwise deemed competent under the federal requirements.
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