- Partnership Marks Launch of National Institute forCNAExcellence (NICE) to Train and CertifyCNAsAmid Health Care Staffing Shortage
ShiftMed, one of the largest workforce management platforms in health care with over 60,000 credentialed health care professionals, and the National Association of Health Care Assistants (NAHCA), the professional association for Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs), have joined forces to launch the National Institute for CNA Excellence (NICE). NICE is an integrated training platform that includes a learning management system to recruit, train, certify, and retain CNAs. The solution will be immediately available to skilled nursing facilities.
With CNA workforce shortages at record levels, and the need for long-term care among older adults on the rise, accessibility to quality education and training are national imperatives. As a virtual platform, NICE is designed to address this crisis by providing both CNAs and skilled nursing providers with recruitment, certification, job placement, continuing education, and ongoing career support all in one place. ShiftMed’s network of over 1,500 enterprise health care partners will also help solve the workforce shortage by providing the required on-site, hands-on experience required for certification.
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Through NICE, CNAs will have access to highly qualified instructors, including post-acute and long-term care physicians, aging services policy leaders, and luminaries on topics that include Alzheimer’s disease, person-centered care, infection prevention and control, palliative care, survey and certification, and relevant federal regulations.
For its part, ShiftMed will tap its database of health care professionals to provide a purpose-driven career pathway for uncertified personal care aides through NICE. Once prospective CNAs have completed their online education through NICE, they will download the ShiftMed mobile app and be matched with nearby health care employers.
“NICE takes successful training programs one step further by going beyond the normal requirements to educate the learner on essential skills such as team-building, conflict resolution, person-directed care, and much more,” says Lori Porter, NAHCA CEO and creator of NICE. “We have collectively spent more than 100,000 hours with CNAs over the past couple of decades, we know CNAs, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to bring empowerment and quality professional training and education to millions of individuals who are looking to care for others in a meaningful way.”
Initial launch of the partnership will take place in Texas, a state that has been heavily impacted by the Delta and Omicron variants. Senior Living Properties, LLC, a 50-location provider across the state of Texas, has signed on as the initial launch partner of NICE.
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Todd Walrath, CEO of ShiftMed, sees the daily toll that the workforce shortage is taking on providers and the residents they serve. “In ShiftMed’s Annual State of Nursing Report, we found that nearly half of U.S. CNAs, LPNs, and RNs are at least somewhat likely to leave the profession in the next two years, a finding that is incredibly telling of the shortage’s impact on nurses. You also have CNAs working with more than fifteen residents per shift and leaders who are working 24/7 to fill in the gaps,” he says. “By educating, training and empowering CNAs, we will improve access to care and improve quality of care and quality of life while addressing the shortage. We are thrilled that NICE will share in NAHCA’s mission to demonstrate professional pride and advocacy for policies and practices that advance CNAs in their careers.”
According to the latest reports from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are now over 1.8 million unfilled health care jobs available. The toll that this workforce shortage is taking on providers is something that CEO Cassie Mistretta of Senior Living Properties is managing each day. “Having access to more CNAs through this partnership will be a much-needed respite,” she says. “This is the biggest challenge that we are facing, and I’m filled with hope of finally having a solution.”
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