ISDH Approves AHCA’s Temporary Nurse Aide Program
On April 18, 2020, the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) issued a Sixth Emergency Order for Comprehensive Care Facilities that adds the AHCA Temporary Nurse Aide program as an option for training individuals to assist with patient care during the public health emergency. This is additive to the currently approved Personal Care Attendant program. IHCA/INCAL has engaged with the ISDH over the weekend and expect a clarification from ISDH on a few matters early in the week of April 20th. Based on IHCA/INCALs engagement with ISDH, please read the below.
The AHCA program is an 8-hour fully online program and resources for this program are:
- AHCA Temporary Nurse Aide Program website
- AHCA Temporary Nurse Aide competency checklist
- Note – while ISDH has waived certain part of state regulation for CNA training, state and federal regulations still requires facilities to ensure nurse aides can demonstrate competency (42 CFR 483.35(c). This checklist must be used and in the TNA’s employee file. This checklist does not have to be performed by an ISDH-certified Nurse Aide Program Instructor and can be performed by any qualified person (such as an RN or LPN)
This approval is additive to the Personal Care Attendant program previously approved, but contains some key differences. Please refer to Comparison Chart: PCA Program vs AHCA Termporary Nurse Aide Program for the two programs. Both programs are active and both can be used.