In December, the Minnesota National Guard was called on to train for emergency nursing duty. More than 400 soldiers were trained as certified nursing assistants to fill critical staffing shortages at long term care facilities and hospitals around the state. The next step was to train civilian workers to allow the soldiers to return to their normal jobs. The goal: train 1,000 certified nursing assistants in three months. “It was kind of set out like, ‘Hey, we need 1000 CNA’s to help out and do it, figure it out.’ It was kind of like building the plane while you’re flying it you know,” said Laura Cleveland, the director of Professional and Workforce Training at Anoka Ramsey and Anoka Technical Colleges. In the end, nearly 1300 CNA’S were trained across the state, including 53 at Anoka Ramsey Community College in classes that took 3 to 4 weeks each. Cleveland says students came from many walks of life. “Some had been home raising kids or caring for a parent, and then we had others who worked as mechanics or retired from the military, people who had worked in food service or retail who were interested in coming and becoming nursing assistants,” said Cleveland. CNA’s learn how to take vital signs as well as helping patients dress, eat, and perform other personal care. At first there were few takers for the classes, until the state decided to pay for the cost of tuition, books and uniforms. But the hardest part may have been dealing with real life situations in a COVID surge. “So we had people get sick, they had family members get sick. So we have a lot of times they couldn’t come to class. So it was helping track everyone, how can we make up what they missed in class and get them back after they’ve had to stay away for a couple weeks because of illness or a child illness,” said Cleveland. With the next generation of CNA’s trained and ready to hit the ground running, Cleveland says the need isn’t going away. “This is a good number of people that can help, but there are thousands of openings still so we now we need more nursing assistants.” Cleveland adds the pay is better than it used to be at about $20 per hour to start. She says it’s a good way to get into other health care fields. Anoka Ramsey Community College is holding a career night for prospective students who want to explore health care jobs. It’s set for April 26 at the college, from 4 to 7 p.m. More information can be found on the college website: http://www.anokaramsey.edu/careerspotlight
COLLEGES TRAIN HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS TO HELP FILL ‘THOUSANDS’ OF VACANCIES IN THE INDUSTRY
ANOKA – (April 7, 2022) – Anoka-Ramsey Community College was part of a rapid response to train enough certified nursing assistants to fill a shortage caused by the pandemic. The emergency need was answered, but thousands of job openings remain.
