PCI
HEALTH TRAINING CENTER
RICHARDSON & DALLAS, TEXAS

National Nursing Assistants Week

Nursing Assistants Week is June 15th to 22nd, 2006 and focuses on ways nursing assistants make a difference in the lives of the people in their care. It showcases innovative approaches nursing assistants create to foster comfort, alleviate stress, encourage friendships, and provide for the wellbeing for our elder or disabled citizens.

Each day of National Nursing Assistants Week addresses a different aspect of the “Caring is My Career” theme and provides ideas, discussion guides and other resources that can be used for Nursing Assistants Week and throughout the year for skill development and decision making in the clinical setting, and for professional advancement.

National Career Nursing Assistants Day

National Career Nursing Assistants Day is June 15th, 2006. The first day of Nursing Assistants Week is Career Nursing Assistants Day which is set aside each year to recognize longevity of service, special contributions to care practices and accomplishments of the nursing assistants who have made caring their life career including members of the National Twenty Year Club.

About Career Nursing Assistants

Nursing assistants are key players in the lives of the people in their care. Each day, more than 2,500,000 caregivers provide hands-on care to our nation’s elderly, or chronically health challenged citizens in nursing homes and other long term care settings. These important workers have various titles including: Nursing Assistant, Nurse Aide, Care Assistant, Caregiver, In-Home Care Aide, Resident Assistant, Hospice Assistant, Geriatric Aide, Restorative Aide, Health Care Assistant, and others.

Because they "stay" in caregiving positions, Career Nursing Assistants provide predictability and stability to care, which in turn enhances the feeling of security for our aging, frail, or chronically challenged citizens. They bring wisdom, patience, humor, and a general attitude of caring to the daily lives of these people. The Career Nursing Assistant also provides a role model for new nursing assistants and many are recognized in their own families as the “health care expert.”

The annual observance of Career Nursing Assistants’ Day and Nursing Assistants’ Week was founded by Career Nurse Assistants Programs in 1977. Since this time, the group has expanded and has members in every state and other countries as well. This popular nursing assistant recognition program has grown to include thousands of facilities and organizations joining together each year to recognize and honor nursing assistants in long-term care services. A primary purpose of the group is to involve people in positive change and each year, members of the CNAP and NNCNA come together by phone, email, mail and in groups to develop plans for the annual theme, slogan and special projects that you have come to know as National Nursing Assistants Week.

Career Nurse Assistants’ Programs, Inc. is a non-profit, educational organization promoting recognition, education, research, advocacy and peer support development for nursing assistants in nursing homes and other long term care settings. The membership of CNAP is the National Network of Career Nursing Assistants.