Northeastern PA CNA programs - anyone?

I am in Northeastern PA also and I was wondering about CNA programs as well (to kind of get the gist of nursing). I looked for them, but I couldn't find any. Two girls I went to high school with are currently CNA's so I will try to contact them and see where they received their certification and I will post back here once I hear from them.

TelHai Retirement has CNA positions open and they have a class and help you become a CNA, you must work for them. THey are located in HoneyBrook Chester County. It is a nice place to work. I worked there as a CNA for 3 years they helped me with school and now I am a RN I work there as a Pool Nurse and I also work full time as a RN at Lancaster General.

If you have any questions please feel free to PM me.

Good Luck

Oh my, that place is 117 miles away from me, between Harrisburg and Philly. I could never go down there, that's too far. I'd need something in the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton area, but there seems to be no place. Thank you for the suggestion though!:)

& I just saw the post above me now, I'm going to check that out!

Okay, I just checked out the link. And I found what I was looking for... wouldn't you know it, my school is on it... I love how my school advertises these things, this is the SECOND time they have something available that I've wanted and I didn't know about it. NRSKaren, thank you so much for posting that, I can't believe I didn't see that before!

Try looking at nursing homes. They will usually provide the CNA class for free as long as you agree to work there. I know a friend that did that at Manorcare in Pottsville, which there is a Manorcare in Kingston. Also, I believe John Heinz/Allied Services hires w/o a CNA license, but that may work out to begin a job and they work for your CNA. They are a good company to work for, I worked there as a CNA. Hope this helps!!

I think I'm going to try Wesley Village (in Pittston) I just read on their website that they train you for 16 days (for free) and THEY pay for you to take the exam at the red cross and if you pass, they offer you a position, but I'm assuming that you DON'T have to work for them, but you can be trained by them. You'd recommend John Heinz? I will look into them, thank you. What is John Heinz? My boyfriend's mother works there now as an Occupational Therapist, but I really don't know what it is?

Would you suggest working at a hospital, hospice, LTC .. anywhere else?

I'm not really sure what types of place CNA's can work in and I'm interested in figuring out my options.

John Heinz is a rehab hospital, so people go there after surgery, accidents, etc. if they are not well enough to go home straight from the hospital. So they get a lot of physical therapy, occupational therapy, etc. They also have outpatient therapy. I think Wesley Village is a good place to work, they seem like a nice facility. With your CNA, you can work a ton of places. Mainly nursing homes (and they will pay the most usually). You can do home health or hospice, but they do pay less and with them you have to watch b/c they do not always reimburse good mileage (and if gas goes up again that would suck, if you end up driving all over the place). You can also work as a home health aide, which doesn't require you to get a license, but I'm not really sure if the home health agencies train you or how that works, and they probably pay less for that position that a CNA. Some hospitals also employee CNAs (I know Wilkes-Barre General does) and Geisinger also has aides. But they probably won't train you, but you never know. Another option is First Hospital has mental health techs, which basically are CNAs without a license (but probably could get your license). I will say that nursing home is the hardest to work at, b/c they are always short staff and you have a larger number of people to take care of. I enjoyed doing home health b/c you can focus on one patient at a time, but you do have to drive and go into people's home (some of which may not be the nicest). I don't know if you ever plan on going for your nursing degree, but I think you would get a lot of experience working in a hospital that would help out with nursing. I currently work at Lehigh Valley Hospital and they even have a program for nursing students that you can work as a PSNA (student nursing assistant) which you are basically a CNA but you can do some extra things since your a nursing student and they try to bring them in on things they can learn from. Lehigh Valley also offers a good scholarship (something I found out late in nursing school) but it is a big help, and you just have to agree to work form them for a year. So hope this helps and good luck!

Thank you very much for your reply. I was checking it out last night & Allied/John Heinz MIGHT offer Nurses aide training. I pulled this from their website when looking up job opportunities.

"Certified Nurse Aides must successfully complete an Allied Services/JHIRM Nurse Aide training program or state certification program."

I think I will call them tomorrow morning to find out what the deal is on this program. Because to me, that statement says that THEY will train you (if you're not already trained).

Yeah I don't think Geisinger or WB Gen will train, I'm reading on their website right now and they do mention about being certified, but no mention of training. I think I may look into First hospital. But I'd really like to work at Nesbitt Women & Childrens but I don't think they're hiring I know the Scranton hospitals hire CNA's but I don't know how much experience they would want someone to have before working at the hospital.

And yes, I hope to start nursing school in Fall 2009. By then I will be done with all my "non-nursing" classes. I know that once I completely my 1st semester of the nursing clinical I can work as a CNA, but I really will not wait that long lol. I'm actually going to try Highland Manor because I called Wesley today (and gave my application in anyway) because Wesley's Dec. class is already full and on the go and they don't have another class until February .. and of course the class is M-F from like.. 7:30 to 4PM. .. Well.. my classes @ school start in January (at the end) and I will have ONE class anatomy and physio between that time 3 days a week, so I just can't do it. And Highland has a class starting in January, so I'm going to see what I can do, because I don't know if I want to work there.

Thank you for all of your information :]

Luzerne County Community College used to offer a program, I do not know if they still do. Birchwood nursing home in Nanticoke, Guardian Elder Care in Nanticoke, Davis Manor in Mountain Top, and several other nursing homes offer free classes. They PAY YOU to take the class, PAY YOU to do the training, PAY FOR the certification, then offer you a job.

LCCC still does, several class and nursing home locations as well. Birchwood does not do free classes, I'm assuming they USED to bc a woman in my CPR class told me that they train you on the job and I went over there the very next day after class and they told me that I needed to be certified but davis manor MIGHT. I don't know if Guardian does anymore either, they DO offer class but THROUGH LCCC.

LCCC still does, several class and nursing home locations as well. Birchwood does not do free classes, I'm assuming they USED to bc a woman in my CPR class told me that they train you on the job and I went over there the very next day after class and they told me that I needed to be certified but davis manor MIGHT. I don't know if Guardian does anymore either, they DO offer class but THROUGH LCCC.

My friend was trained through birchwood, but that was 11 years ago. I was going to do the class through Davis, but again, that was 10 years ago. 10 years ago It was Mercy Healthy care center instead of Guardian so a lot has changed in that time.

Oh definitely. I wonder why. The woman I talked to only became certified 5 years ago, so I don't know how recently they've all changed, definitely within the last 5 years, but no idea when. It really stinks because there's only 2 nursing homes in Luzerne County (as given in the gov. website) that train now and if your schedule doesn't work with theirs, then you're out of luck =\ And to go to the school you need to pay, a nursing home won't even hire you if you're not certified and then pay for you to complete the classes at a school. So it's getting ridiculous, but maybe that's a good thing?