CNA Certification in Maryland

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It is important to take the training from the state approved program in order to earn the respect of the certified nursing aide in the state of Maryland. Following to this, aspirants must pass the exam, held at an American Red Cross setting. The Maryland Board of Nursing administers the CNA certification program. To conduct the competency exam for the nursing assistant post, a contract has been made between the Nursing Board and Pearson VUE. Aspirants obtain their certification of certified CNA only after appearing on the Maryland’s Registry.

Eligibility Requirements

The prerequisites to become eligible to take the training, enrol for the exam and appear on the state’s nursing aide registry are as follows–

  • Minimum age of the candidate must be 18;
  • Candidate must have a proof of the High School Diploma or an equivalent GED;
  • Candidate must submit the background screening documents as a proof against any taxation issue, previous licensing issue, criminal arrest, etc.

How to Apply

Students can write the exam without appearing for the accredited training program of the state. This privilege is enjoyed by only some of the students and these include-

  • Candidates who are a student nurse in active standing;
  • Candidates who have already attended the training program in the past year;
  • Student nurses who are in inactive standing but were employed in the previous 1 year;
  • Graduate nurses who earned degrees from a foreign university and possess the current foreign license;
  • Graduate nurses who possess the degree from the institutions of U.S. ;
  • Reciprocity CNAs who earned the license from other NNAAP (National Nurse Assistant Assessment Program) states; or
  • Expired CNAs with the expiration period

Those candidates, who do not fulfil any of the above mentioned requirements, must enrol in training programs accredited by the ‘Maryland Board of Nursing’. The list of the approved programs can be checked on- mbon.org

All state approved programs involve at least 100-to-120 hours of study, which is divided between the hands-on training and classroom study. It takes roughly 3 months to complete all the studies

Fees

The training fee in Maryland is nearly $ 1000. Besides this, there is testing fees as well that candidate is needed to pay. For employed candidates, the training and the testing fees is borne by their employer.

The examination is divided into 2 portions- one is a written exam and the other is a Skill test. The Pearson VUE conducts the exam. The handy sample test is also available on the website of Pearson to aid the candidates.  The sample test can be reached on the link- http://www.asisvcs.com/publications/pdf/072100.pdf

The fees for the test differ depending on the way the test is being taken, and fees are as follows-

  • Written and Skill test- $ 95
  • Written test only- $ 40
  • Skills test only- $ 55
  • Oral and Skill test- $ 115
  • Oral exam only- $ 60

Certificate Renewal

The State Board of Nursing delivers the mail to CNAs notifying them about the expiration of license. The license loses its legality in every 24 months that means, in every two years, there ia a requirement of renewal.  The mail is send to the CNAs 2 months before the CNA credentials expiration.

If candidates are not working in any nursing facility or are inactive for over 24 months, then they are required to pay the $ 40 as a license reactivation fee.

Must Know Facts

  • Candidates get 4 attempts and 12 months to pass the competency exam after the completion of training program. If they fail to get the passing grade then they need to redo the Nursing Aide training.
  • If the candidates are enrolled in any of the state approved training programs, they are allowed to work in a ‘healthcare centre’ or ‘nursing home’, for up to 120 days. They must complete the training and qualify the CNA exam in those 120 days in order to continue working as a CNA. If they don’t, then they can carry on working as a professional nursing assistant.
  • All aspiring CNA need to undergo the background checks at the Federal and State levels. The fee charged for the checks is $ 57.25 and is directly paid to the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS).