CNA Schools in New Jersey

Educational Requirements for Certified Nursing Assistants in New Jersey

Although New Jersey does not require CNAs working in hospitals to be certified, it is required if you want to work in long term care facilities or assisted living. New Jersey CNA training programs also help students master the skills needed to perform the job safely and well.

A prospective nurse aide must successfully complete the New Jersey curriculum for Nurse Aide in Long Term Care Facilities Training and Competency Evaluation Program (NATCEP) to be eligible to work in a long-term care facility. The NATCEP training course is 90 hours, consisting of 50-classroom hours and 40 clinical hours in a New Jersey licensed long-term care facility for Nurse Aide.

The State of New Jersey does not require nurse aides to be certified to work in an acute care hospital. However, if a hospital has a licensed long term care unit or a licensed sub-acute unit, Certified Nurse Aides must staff those units. Therefore, it's a good idea to become certified. N
After completing your 90 hours of training, you may take the NNAAP NA examination given by Pearson Vue. Two parts are required: Skills and Written. The Skills Evaluation comes first. Candidates must perform five randomly selected nurse aide skills and are rated on each by a Nurse Aide Evaluator. You must pass all five in order to be able to take the Written exam. The Written exam consists of 70 multiple-choice questions taken on a computer.

Once you are certified, you must stay certified. To be able to re-certify, you must have been employed as a CNA for at least 7 hours within the 24 months before the expiration date on your certificate. You must pay a recertification fee of $30 and update your Criminal Background Investigation with the NJDHSS (New Jersey Department of Health and Human Services).

Through either online or campus based programs, aspiring C.N.A.s in Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth, Edison and Woodbridge, New Jersey may be able to prepare themselves for the possibility of employment in some of the largest hospitals and healthcare facilities in the state including the Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, Bergen Regional Medical Center, Atlanticare Regional Medical Center and Hackensack University Medical Center.