Twenty members of the Minnesota National Guard pose with nursing assistant and nursing program faculty from Anoka-Ramsey Community College and Professional and Workforce Training Center. Between Anoka Tech and Anoka-Ramsey, 71 members of the National Guard are receiving their nursing assistant certificate through an emergency training to help fill the health care worker shortage in long-term care facilities across the state. (Photo submitted)
National Guard members at Anoka Technical College practice skills in the hands-on lab portion of the emergency Certified Nursing Assistant training. (Photo submitted)
Maj. Dan LaFontaine in the lab at Anoka Technical College. (Photo submitted)
Twenty members of the Minnesota National Guard pose with nursing assistant and nursing program faculty from Anoka-Ramsey Community College and Professional and Workforce Training Center. Between Anoka Tech and Anoka-Ramsey, 71 members of the National Guard are receiving their nursing assistant certificate through an emergency training to help fill the health care worker shortage in long-term care facilities across the state. (Photo submitted)
Anoka Technical College and Anoka-Ramsey Community College were among 16 colleges in Minnesota that recently provided emergency Certified Nursing Assistant training for more than 300 Minnesota National Guard members.
The CNA training prepared guard members to support long-term care facilities to help address the health care worker shortage in facilities across the state.
Between the two colleges, more than 70 National Guard members worked through a 75-hour, hands-on training to become CNAs by early December. The condensed trainings were led by college faculty from the CNA and nursing programs who volunteered to support the efforts.
“The condensed training in a nursing assistant certificate gives them a foundational training and credential for a future in health care if needed or desired,” Laura Cleveland, director of professional and workforce training at Anoka Tech and Anoka-Ramsey, said in a statement.
Cleveland helped mobilize the colleges to support this emergency request in collaboration with the Minnesota State Healthcare Training Network, Minnesota State’s non-credit health care training sector.
“We are proud to be able to help in this way, it’s what we’re here for,” Cleveland said in a statement.
Maj. Dan LaFontaine is one of the National Guard members who volunteered for this service. He has been part of the Minnesota National Guard since late 2008 and joined to continue his service after being on active duty in the Navy and as a Navy Reserve sailor.
“I did volunteer for this opportunity, when there’s a legitimate need to help out fellow Minnesotans I just felt the need to step up,” LaFontaine said in a statement. “The training has been intimate and a lot of the skills we work on are learning to help people out with daily activities like helping people ambulate, get up, move around, assisting with meals, assisting with any and all daily activities.”
National Guard members who complete the training with a passing grade are eligible to sit for the written and skills test. Participants who pass both portions of the testing for nursing assistant will be placed on the Minnesota Nursing Assistant Registry and will be eligible to continue working as nursing assistants in their civilian lives.
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