The purpose of the Washington Nurse Aide Registry is to maintain a database of individuals who meet the federal requirements to provide care giving to residents residing in skilled nursing facilities in Washington State. The registry also informs nursing home staff, through an inquiry process, of persons who are ineligible to work in a skilled nursing home due to findings of abuse, neglect, or misappropriation of property.
For each Nursing Assistant Certified (NAC) the registry contains:
- basic identifying information,
- care giving work history,
- eligibility status for working in a nursing facility
- findings of abuse, neglect or misappropriation of property.
The registry also contains identifying information for persons who are ineligible to work as caregivers. A nursing assistant’s name is added to the registry by:
- completing NAC training and passing both written and skills exams,
- being inter-state endorsed to Washington from another state,
- becoming ineligible to work in a nursing facility due to state disciplinary action or findings of abuse or neglect in Washington or another state.
Once a nursing assistant candidate passes the written and skills exam, Washington’s testing contractor (Pearson Vue) provides the registry with test results. The NAC’s identification information and their nursing assistant exam results are then entered into the Washington Nurse Aide Registry.
The Nurse Aide Registry inquiry process enables skilled nursing facilities to check the registry status of each prospective NAC employee during the hiring process. This check fulfills a federal regulation that says that nursing facilities must inquire of the Nurse Aide Registry before employing any NAC. The second purpose of this process is to provide nursing facility staff an opportunity to update the NAC’s care giving work history on the registry. When care giving work history information is included with the inquiry the individual's registry work status is updated.