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| Byron Ford, Educational Planner |
Hi Byron. Thanks for joining us on the blog. To start, can you provide readers with an overview of the Nurse Assistant program at GRCC?
Byron: A nurse assistant is one who completes an educational program and can be eligible to take an exam. Once the exam is passed the nurse assistant becomes a Certified Nurse Assistant. Certified Nurse Assistants will provide services to healthcare clients around daily living needs such as teeth and mouth care, eating, bathing, dressing, walking, and assisting out of bed and into a chair. They will also assist the healthcare client with memory / physical exercises to maintain their level of ability. They may seek and receive employment in assisted living facilities, long term care facilities, home care, and adult care centers. Applications for the Nurse Assistant program will be accepted on a first-come-first-serve basis. Once the program is full, there will be a waitlist for that quarter. Students on the waitlist that are not admitted into the program will need to re-apply for the following quarter. The program cost follows regular GRCC tuition and fees for a 12 credit load.
What type of person is a good fit for the Nurse Assistant program?
Byron: The Nurse Assistant Certification (NAC) program is ideal for students who would like short-term training that will get them started into healthcare. Although credits earned in the NAC program usually cannot transfer into most academic programs, many nursing programs in Washington State require students to have experience in healthcare and / or be a Certified Nurse Assistant. If the student wishes to do this program along with taking pre-requisites to a nursing program, (s)he should not take pre-requisites during the same quarter they are in the NAC program.
What is the first step an interested student can take to apply for the Nurse Assistant program?
Byron: The application can be found by clicking here. If there are still questions after reading through the application, the student will want to attend an information session. Information sign-ups can be found by clicking here.
$$$ FUNDING TIP! All four Workforce Education funding programs - Worker Retraining, Opportunity Grant, BFET, and WorkFirst - support the Nurse Assistant program at GRCC.
