Minnesota State Nurse Aide Curriculum
Revised curriculum available
The revised Minnesota State Nurse Aide Curriculum 2024 Edition (formerly called the Minnesota State Long-Term Care Nurse Aide Curriculum) is available for approved Minnesota Nurse Aide programs at least 75 hours in length. The curriculum materials are less than 500 pages total and available in PDF format, allowing programs to cost-effectively print or use as part of a hybrid program.
The Minnesota State Nurse Aide Curriculum 2024 Edition includes:
- Learning outcomes and 11-unit topic outlines,
- Skill steps and a performance record,
- Unit quizzes, and
- Instructor handouts.
Minnesota Nurse Aide Programs currently using the curriculum will have until June 30, 2024, to transition to the revised curriculum. This grace period allows programs to incorporate curriculum revisions thoughtfully and at a time that works best for their schedule and budget.
New programs using Minnesota State Nurse Aide Curriculum 2024 Edition will need to use the revised curriculum as of January 1, 2024.
After June 30, 2024, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) will validate that the revised curriculum is being used for programs who have declared Minnesota State Nurse Aide Curriculum 2024 Edition as their curriculum.
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FAQs about the Minnesota State Nurse Aide Curriculum 2024 Edition
If you are a public college or university in the Minnesota state system, you can obtain curriculum materials by contacting HealthForce Minnesota directly. Please email healthforcemn@winona.edu from your Minnesota State college or university email.
When emailing include:
- the name of your nurse aide program coordinator,
- name of the instructor,
- the date of your next nurse aide class,
- whether the class is offered for credit or non-credit, and
- include the D2L course name and course link.
Please allow 3-4 weeks for this request.
If you are not a public college or university in the Minnesota state system, you can obtain the curriculum materials on rSchoolToday. To create an account, read rSchoolToday Registration Instructions (pdf).
Access to curriculum will expire on December 31, 2028. Fees will not be adjusted based on the length of time between registration for access and the expiration date.
Instead of purchasing the curriculum per textbook or per student, the Minnesota State Nurse Aide Curriculum is available to Minnesota programs on a per-program basis for a fee of $750 for in-state programs or $2,750 for out-of-state programs.
These fees will be used to fund future curriculum revisions and the creation of supplemental materials that may be needed in between curriculum revisions. Curriculum revisions will be available for purchase approximately every 4 years. Organizations using the Minnesota State Nurse Aide Curriculum should plan to pay the curriculum fee about every 4 years when curriculum revisions are made and rolled out.
Instructors from long-term care facility based or from independent training programs must complete the Train the Trainer certification to use the Minnesota State Nurse Aide Curriculum as an MDH-approved training program. Read more in the next FAQ.
Instructors from long-term care facility based or from independent training programs must complete the Train the Trainer certification to use the Minnesota State Nurse Aide Curriculum as an MDH-approved training program.
Programs utilizing Minnesota State Nurse Aide Curriculum may be asked to submit a copy of the Train the Trainer certificate to the Minnesota Department of Health at any time or during a program survey visit.
Instructors who completed the Train the Trainer certification prior to September 2022 are encouraged to participate in the new Legacy Instructor Train the Trainer certification. This course focuses on teaching best practice, introduction of the latest technical tools to enhance practice and create instructional efficiencies and captures the breadth of changes in both curriculum and nurse aide testing.
Train the Trainer and Legacy Train the Trainer are offered through Minneapolis College. Please visit this website to find upcoming class options.
After reviewing user feedback (from both instructors and students), industry best practices, new research, and statewide testing data, subject matter experts drafted a revised curriculum. The revisions were approved in October 2023 by the Minnesota Department of Health and made available to the public in January 2024.
Revisions made to the curriculum include:
- Skills checklists to align with both best practice and skills tested on the state exam
- Nurse Aide performance record
- Converted curriculum from a strictly "outline" format to include paragraphs that students can read and interpret independently
- Incorporated more graphics and illustrations
- Focused on use of plain language
- Introduced multiple disease processes according to body systems
- Introduced other concepts that students tend to miss on the state knowledge exam
- Updated out-of-date information (e.g. pain as the fifth vital sign, which was removed as such in 2017 by the American Medical Association)
1. A revised revised Train the Trainer course to better meet the diverse needs of organizations, instructors, and nurse aide students/candidates.
Instructors from long-term care facility based or from independent training programs must complete the Train the Trainer certification to use the Minnesota State Nurse Aide Curriculum as an MDH-approved training program. Read more on the FAQ.
2. The discontinuation of the Minnesota State Health Care Core Curriculum/Nursing Assistant program.
Starting in 2024, Minnesota State Health Care Core Curriculum/Nursing Assistant (HCCC) will be discontinued as a Minnesota Department of Health-approved nurse aide curriculum because it does not include direct patient care components and cannot be substituted for a nurse aide curriculum for placement on the nursing assistant registry.
The HCCC, however, still serves as a great introduction to healthcare careers and entry-level healthcare professions. It is still available and is best utilized as a class that students take before completion of an approved nurse aide training program.
Programs currently utilizing the HCCC will have until June 30, 2024, to transition to Minnesota State Nurse Aide Curriculum or another curriculum of their choice.
Read more about the Health Care Core Curriculum.
3. The discontinuation of the Home Health Aide components as part of the Nurse Aide program.
Because the Minnesota Nursing Assistant Registry no longer certifies Home Health Aides through a state registry exam, those components have been removed from the Minnesota State Nurse Aide Curriculum.
Programs that use Home Health Aide units from the previous curriculum versions available before 2024 are still welcome to use those materials. It is highly recommended, however, that programs first update the Home Health Aid materials to reflect current standards of practices and care before utilizing these materials and units.
The revision and release of this curriculum through Minnesota State complies with the Minnesota Statutes 144A.61 NURSING ASSISTANT TRAINING.
“Subd. 3.Curricula. The chancellor of vocational technical education shall develop curricula to be used for nursing assistant training programs for employees of nursing homes and boarding care homes.”
This curriculum also meets the requirements for nurse aide training requirements set forth in Federal requirement 42 CFR 483.152 (a)(2).
Please note that Minnesota training programs who use this curriculum must be at least 75 clock hours including 16 clock hours of supervised practical training in a lab or other setting with a live person. The federal regulations do not dictate clock time spent on the didactic portion of the curriculum, eCFR :: 42 CFR 483.152 -- Requirements for approval of a nurse aide training and competency evaluation program.
The Minnesota Department of Health oversees the approval of nurse aide training programs in Minnesota. You can purchase the Minnesota State Nurse Aide Curriculum at any time during the program application and approval process.
To get started, new nurse aide programs should contact the Minnesota Department of Health Nursing Assistant Registry by email at health.nar.coord@state.mn.us.
Learn more at the Minnesota Department of Health Nursing Assistant Registry website.
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