The Illinois Health Care Worker Registry is maintained by the Department of Public Health and shows training information for certified nursing assistants (CNA) and other health care workers. To check your status on the Health Care Worker Registry you may call the registry’s help desk at 217-785-5133 or access the registry’s web site here. To see information about a specific person on the registry’s web site you have to type in the last name, first name, and middle name then click on the “Search” button.
CNA training programs are not required to issue certificates and the state does not issue credentials, certificates or license to CNAs. Any certificate received may be issued by the training program or the testing center as a recognition of work accomplished, however, being an Illinois Certified Nurse Assistant is a condition that the CNA must keep through their work efforts not through an issued document.
A CNA will lose their status of certification if he or she goes for a continuous period of 24 consecutive months after his or her last competency evaluation during none of which the individual provided nursing or nursing-related services for monetary compensation. If the CNA continuously works providing nursing-related services for money, the individual continues to retain their Illinois CNA certification no matter how many years the individual works.
Before allowing an individual to serve as a nurse aide, a health care employer must receive verification that the individual:
- has met competency evaluation requirements,
- has no disqualifying convictions that have not been granted a waiver, and
- has no administrative findings of abuse, neglect or misappropriation of property.
The information on the registry is the only means a health care employer may use to obtain this verification.