Nursing home helps people become certified nursing assistants

JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) - What if you could go to school for free, would you do it?

The Craighead Nursing Center gave that option to people who wanted to become certified nursing assistants.

A Jonesboro long-term care facility is changing the way to put people on the payroll.

They had to get creative with the growing number of openings in the health care industry.

The industry lacks thousands of medical professionals including Certified Nursing Assistants or CNA’s.

The Craighead Nursing Center collaborated with Price Premier Living and Health to teach students for free.

“We were hoping for two, three, or four in a class and we ended up with 16. We’ll be able to turn around next month and do the same thing,” said Penny McDaniel, Administrator at Craighead Nursing Center.

The center wrote a post on Facebook, in minutes hundreds of people started to call for more information like Guadalupe Muniz.

She always wanted to be in the healthcare field, but always faced obstacles.

“Mountains that stop you from it. Like I said, it is really hard with children and someone with low income,” she said.

For her, the free class took away all those obstacles.

“You’re grabbing and you’re getting stuff, information,” she said. “And it’s like you’re really paying attention because you are so focused because it is something you really like.”

Registered nurse Darin Price is one of the instructors and the owner of Price Premier Living and Health.

For him, it is exciting to have more people enter the field.

“It’s very crucial that we get a lot of people and introduce them into the medical field and see if it’s made for them,” said Price.

The state requires 91 hours to get a CNA license, but Price said the students will leave with a total of 113 hours. This helps get more hands-on learning.

For more information about the CNA class call the Center at 870-933-4535.

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