Lynden Healthcare Education offers a no-cost nursing assistant certificate training program that can help you become a CNA in just five weeks. You enroll, we train you, and we help with job placement if needed. In addition to that free job training, our neighbors at Christian Health Care Center offer a tuition reimbursement program for students who recently completed a certified nursing assistant training program at local community colleges. Through their program, you’ll get paid for your nursing assistant certificate fees — reimbursing the cost of your tuition, books and state exams!
How does it work?
- First, you must graduate from a state-approved training course for nursing assistants, such as those offered in Bellingham by Whatcom Community College and Bellingham Technical College.
- Second, begin work at Christian Health Care Center as your first job after graduating from the nursing assistant program. Your start date at CHCC must be within a year of graduation.
- Third, submit receipts for tuition, books (or other required items) and certification exams.
- Fourth, Christian Health Care Center will reimburse you that amount. Over the next year, you will receive one-fourth of the total amount every three months. Work at CHCC for a year, and you’ll get back the money you spent on tuition, books and exams.
If you are a home care aide, CHCC also will reimburse you for the cost of a “bridge program” that helps individuals acquire – through 24 total hours of specialized training – the knowledge and skills they need to take the state competency test to become CNAs.
Why are we doing this?
CHCC is part of the federal Nurse Aide Training and Competency Evaluation Program, under which nursing homes reimburse CNAs for the costs of training and testing. The federal program then reimburses CHCC for the money they give to nursing assistants. For more information on the reimbursement program in Washington, visit the state Department of Health website.
Nursing assistants are in demand, and they provide critical care to long-term care patients and residents. We are grateful that the federal government values this workforce and that they provide funding for tuition reimbursement.
For more information on the nursing assistant tuition reimbursement program, contact CHCC’s human resources department at 360-354-4434.
