As part of the Northern Marianas College’s continued efforts to enhance the CNMI’s healthcare workforce capacity, NMC recently graduated 18 trainees from its Nursing Assistant Program.
The college's certificate training has been equipping students to deliver essential nursing care to elderly, ill, and disabled individuals in various healthcare settings, including long-term care, hospitals, clinics, and home health. Upon completion, students become eligible to take the National Nurse Aide Assessment Program Competency Examination with the NMI Board of Nursing, leading to certification as a licensed Certified Nursing Assistant or CNA.
Under the 10-week program, the trainees spent four weeks of lectures with NMC nursing instructors, three weeks in the skills lab, and three weeks in clinicals at the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation.
NMC nursing assistant trainee Vaugh Mallari stated that his decision to enroll in the nursing assistant program stemmed from his drive to be part of NMC’s nursing program and acquire early hands-on experience.
“I believe that becoming a certified nursing assistant will help kickstart my career into the medical field while giving me the necessary experience to better understand what it means to become a nurse and take care of patients in a health care setting,” Mallari stated.
“The most memorable experience for me so far has got to be the hospital clinicals. It allowed me and my peers to apply what we learned in class to the hospital and the patients. I found it most rewarding whenever the patients thanked us for doing a good job. I felt that it made my efforts to become a nursing assistant much more meaningful and worthwhile.”
As part of its continued effort to support the Nursing Assistant Program every year, NMC’s Area Health Education Center (AHEC) provides qualified nursing assistant trainees with essential educational resources through its AHEC Scholars Program. This summer, fourteen (14) AHEC Scholars gained access to the program’s textbooks, workbooks, and the course’s online learning platform, FACETS. Recognizing the importance of technology, the program also offered a laptop loan program to ensure students had the tools they needed to succeed. Each Scholar will be receiving a stipend as part of their commitment to completing program requirements and didactic training hours.
To support their academic pursuits, NMC’s Area Health Education Center (AHEC) provided 14 qualified nursing assistant trainees with essential educational resources through its AHEC Scholars Program. This included textbooks, workbooks, and access to the course’s online learning platform, FACETS. Recognizing the importance of technology, the program also offered a laptop loan program to ensure students had the tools they needed to succeed. Each Scholar will be receiving a stipend as part of their commitment to completing program requirements and didactic training hours.
NMC Nursing Department Chair, Rosa Aldan, extended her congratulatory remarks, “We are so proud of the hard work and dedication these eighteen trainees put into this summer’s rigorous training. Their efforts to complete assignments, learn their skills, and apply them to their clinical experience were well worth it and have led them to the completion of this training. We look forward to hearing them take and pass the NNAAP Exam very soon.”
NMC President Galvin Deleon Guerrero congratulated the cohort on the completion of their training, “It’s always great to see more students contributing to the healthcare workforce by going under NMC’s Nursing Assistant Program. I commend this year’s cohort on their completion of the certification program.”
For more information on the College’s nursing assistant training, email Rosa T. Aldan, Nursing Department Chair, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Andrew Mendiola, Administrative Assistant, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it./.