March 11, 2005 – A new Certified Nursing Assistant/Home Health Aide training course will begin March 15 on St. Croix. The 120-hour program will prepare students for certification examinations to become U.S.V.I.-certified.
The course, the first initiative of the U.S.V.I. Health Care Training Institute, is offered by the University of the Virgin Islands Community Engagement and Lifelong Learning Center.
The St. Croix course will end May 28. A course on St. Tomas will start May 10.
Classes will meet from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. The cost of $875 includes a course manual, medical kit and registration fees.
Applicants must:
— be 18 years or older,
— have a high school diploma or GED,
— have a health certificate from a VI licensed physician or nurse practitioner,
— complete an immunization profile, and TB screen or chest X-ray medical report.
The health care training institute was developed in collaboration with the governor's office; the departments of Education, Health, Human Services and Labor; hospital administrators; the V.I. Medical Institute; UVI; and others.
The group determined that certifying home health aides was the most pressing health care training need in the territory, a release said. Home health aides must be certified for their employers to be reimbursed by Medicare and Medicaid. There has been no home health aide training program in the territory until now.
To register or for more information on this UVI-CELL training program, call 692-4230 on St. Croix or 693-1100 on St. Thomas, send e-mail to agillis@uvi.edu, or visit UVI-CELL's Web site.
Occupational information on home health aides is available at the V.I. Labor Department. UVI is an approved Department of Labor vendor, the release said.
