January 11, 2007

Dear Nursing Home Administrator/ Nurse Aide Training Program Coordinator:

We are excited to announce that, effective February 2007, candidates for the certified nurse assistant certification in New York will no longer have to take the clinical skills evaluation prior to the written test. While candidates will still be required to pass both the clinical skills and written exams in order to be certified, they will no longer have to demonstrate mastery of the clinical skills portion in order to take the written exam.

This change will enable the administration of both parts of the Nurse Aide Competency Examination on the same day. First Time candidates will be able to take both examinations on the scheduled administration date, regardless of the passing status for either portion of the examination. Retesting candidates will only need to take the examination in which they failed and will not need to reschedule for both examinations.

How will this change affect your facility scheduling for an administration date?

In order to schedule a candidate for a test you will continue to send in the In-facility request forms as you have in the past. However, for a candidate who has already passed one of the tests, you will only have to request testing for the remaining test. Your request to Prometric should only designate whichever test the candidate must still pass in order to achieve certification.

On the administration date the majority of testing events will begin with the candidates taking the two hour Written portion of the examination. Candidates that are only required to take the Written portion will take the exam at this time. The Clinical Skills Evaluation will take place after the Written examination. As the candidates complete the Skills Evaluation, they will be given their preliminary results and will be able to leave for the day.

Prometric believes this change will result in a number of enhancements to the testing procedure. The elimination of mandating order allows greater flexibility in arranging test day schedules, and may lead to shorter wait times for candidates at the test site. The process will also allow for a more complete assessment of the candidate’s remediation needs since results for both the written and clinical skills exams will be provided concurrently on official score reports.

Should you have any questions please contact our Customer Service Center at 1-800-805-9128.

Thank you,

New York Nurse Aide Operations Team