CNA Certification in Hawaii: 100-Hour Training

Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA) — Professional and Vocational Licensing Division, Nurse Aide Program (certification and registry), with the Department of Human Services Med-QUEST Division responsible for training programs and recertification standards and the Department of Health responsible for discipline in health-department-licensed settings administers certified nursing assistant licensing in Hawaii. Every figure below is verified against the board’s own official pages and dated. Who must personally hold a credential — the contractor, the business, or the individual worker — is set out under Requirements.

What it’s called

Hawaii’s statutory noun is ’nurse aide’ and the credential is a CERTIFICATION, so ‘certified nurse aide’ and its abbreviation ‘C.N.A.’ are the state’s own terms — and unusually, the abbreviation itself is legally protected: HRS 457A-6 bars an uncertified person from using ’the abbreviation “C.N.A.” or any other words, letters, signs, or devices to identify one’s self as a certified nurse aide.’ ‘Certified nursing assistant’ is the national term most job postings use; Hawaii’s statute and rules do not use it. ‘Hawaii CNA license’ is a folk term — what Hawaii issues is a certificate, plus a wallet card, and an entry on the Hawaii Nurse Aide Registry. Hawaii’s own material distinguishes two kinds of certified nurse aide that outsiders routinely merge: a MEDICARE OR MEDICAID NURSE AIDE, statutorily ‘a certified nurse aide who works in a medicare or medicaid certified nursing facility’, and a nurse aide certified for STATE-LICENSED OR STATE-CERTIFIED HEALTH CARE SETTINGS — the state’s recertification form calls them Group 1 and Group 2, and they renew under different rules and different fees. The Med-QUEST Division’s training-program acronyms turn up throughout: NATP (nurse aide training program) and FATP (feeding assistants training program), the latter a separate credential. ‘STNA’ is Ohio’s term and ‘GNA’ is Maryland’s; neither is Hawaii’s.

License types & fees

Who does NOT need this license — exemptions

Hawaii’s exceptions are structural rather than temporal — there is no published grace period for working while uncertified. WHAT THE CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENT REACHES: the two settings-based certifications in HRS 457A-7 and 457A-8 cover medicare or medicaid certified nursing facilities and ‘health care settings, other than medicare or medicaid certified nursing facilities, which are regulated by the department of health’ (457A-1.5, as amended by L 2016, c 21, §2, which deleted the words ‘or the department of human services’ from the definition). A setting regulated by neither the department of health nor the federal programs falls outside both certification sections, and no Hawaii source read for this record addresses such settings, so this record claims nothing about them. The 2016 narrowing matters for exactly this question: settings that only human services regulates were inside the second track before that amendment and are not named in it now. WHAT THE TITLE BAR REACHES: HRS 457A-6 bars anyone from representing themselves as, implying they are, or using the abbreviation ‘C.N.A.’ to identify themselves as a certified nurse aide ‘without having first obtained certification as provided in this chapter’ — and it opens with ‘Except as otherwise provided in this chapter’, a carve-out phrase whose contents are not spelled out anywhere in the chapter text read. DEEMED STATUS RATHER THAN EXEMPTION: the registry includes people ‘deemed to have met the requirements pursuant to 42 C.F.R. 483.150(b)’ — the federal grandfathering provision — and people deemed to meet the requirements by reciprocity (HAR 16-89A-5(a)); both are routes onto the register, not permission to work without being on it. RECERTIFICATION IS NOT ALWAYS MANDATORY IN NON-FEDERAL SETTINGS, and Hawaii says so in the rule that governs them: ‘State-licensed or state-certified health care settings may or may not require recertification of nurse aides in their employ. When recertification is required, the standards as specified in this chapter shall apply’ (HAR 17-1445-1(b)). That is the closest thing to an exemption in Hawaii’s scheme, and it is an employer-side option rather than an individual one. NOTHING IN THE SOURCES READ creates a training-window exception of the kind most states publish — no provision was found in HRS chapter 457A, HAR chapter 16-89A, HAR chapter 17-1445, the Med-QUEST training requirements, the state-approved bulletin or either state form allowing an untrained or untested person to work as a nurse aide for a fixed number of days.

Fees

HAWAII’S EXAM FEES ARE THE HIGHEST IN THIS CLUSTER SO FAR, and there is a separate one-time processing charge on top. From the Hawaii Nurse Aide Testing/Out of State/Reciprocity Application Form and the state-approved bulletin, which agree: ‘Initial Application Processing Fee (one-time fee, nonrefundable) $25’, and ‘All candidates are required to pay the one time Initial Application Processing fee’; Clinical Skills test and Written test $216; Clinical Skills test and Oral Written test $216; Clinical Skills test alone (retest) $162; Written test alone (retest) $54; Oral Written test alone (retest) $54; Reciprocity Fee $27; Recertification Fee $27; Duplicate Score Report $15; Duplicate Certificate $15; Rescheduling Fee $25 where at least five full business days’ notice is given. Inside five business days, or for a no-show or a late arrival, the whole exam fee is payable again: ‘If you reschedule less than 5 business days before your scheduled test date, did not show up for their scheduled exam, or arrived late for a scheduled exam you will be required to pay the entire test fee to reschedule.’ Payment is by money order, certified or cashier’s check, MasterCard or Visa; ‘Personal checks and cash are not accepted’; ‘Fees are not refundable or transferable.’ WHO PAYS NOTHING TO RECERTIFY: an aide whose qualifying work was in a medicare or medicaid approved nursing facility. The recertification form’s instruction is explicit — ‘If your work experience as a nurse aide occurred in a Medicaid/Medicare approved nursing facility and the employer completed section 2, mail completed form to Prometric. No recertification fee is required’ — and it is the statute talking: ‘No charge shall be imposed on medicare or medicaid certified nurse aides for the maintenance of the nurse aide registry’ (HRS 457A-7(f)). An aide whose work was in a state-licensed or state-certified setting pays ‘$27.00’, because 457A-8(c) permits fees on that track. THERE IS NO SEPARATE STATE APPLICATION FEE PAID TO DCCA — the statute lets the director ‘require that fees for services be paid directly to the professional testing service’ (457A-4), and every figure above is paid to the contractor. OPTIONAL PRACTICE MATERIAL, required by nobody: the Nurse Aide Practice Exam ‘contains 50 questions. The fee for each practice exam is $10.’ TRAINING COST is set by the state-certified program and is not published by DCCA or Med-QUEST. ADDRESS AND NAME UPDATES ARE FREE: ‘There is no charge for updating your address with the Hawaii Nurse Aide Registry’ and the same for a name change, though a replacement certificate showing the new name costs $15.

Exam

TWO PARTS AND A PUBLISHED PASSING SCORE — Hawaii is one of the few states that puts the number in its rules. HAR 16-89A-3(a)(2): certification requires ‘The nurse aide examination approved by the director, with a passing score of seventy per cent on the test, along with the successful demonstration of certain skills. The examination shall consist of either a written or oral test, at the election of the applicant, along with a demonstration of skills by means of a skills evaluation. The skills demonstration shall consist of five randomly selected items drawn from a pool consisting of tasks generally performed by a nurse aide; the person must successfully demonstrate all of these skills. The pool of skills shall include all personal care skills listed in 42 Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) 483.152(b)(3).’ Note that the rule treats the written and oral versions as alternatives the CANDIDATE elects, not as an accommodation the state grants. WRITTEN TEST, as delivered: ‘The Written test consists of 60 multiple-choice questions that evaluate your nurse aide knowledge and skills. You will have 90 minutes to take the test’, weighted by a published outline — Role of the Nurse Aide 20%, Promotion of Safety 22%, Promotion of Function and Health of Residents 20%, among other domains. ORAL FORM: candidates ‘will be provided a headset’, hear the questions read, and may replay any question; the choice is made on the application and ‘This request cannot be made on the day of testing.’ CLINICAL SKILLS TEST: computer-assigned and timed, ‘you will be scored on five skills. While performing three assigned skills, you will also be scored on two additional skills - Handwashing and Indirect Care’, where Indirect Care covers residents’ rights and preferences, communication, safety, comfort and needs, and infection control. ‘The time allowed for the Clinical Skills test ranges from 31 minutes to 40 minutes based on the skills you are asked to perform.’ ‘To pass the Clinical Skills test, you must pass all five skills.’ Corrections may be made mid-skill if announced and performed, but not after the skill is finished and not where a safety issue arose. Candidates are asked to act as the resident for another candidate, and the bulletin lists the twelve skills that may be performed on a resident actor. ATTEMPTS AND ELIGIBILITY WINDOW — THREE ATTEMPTS AND TWO YEARS, MEASURED FROM THE FIRST TEST DATE, which is different from how most states measure it: ‘You must pass your Competency Exam within two years of your first testing date and within three attempts. If you do not pass both parts of the exam within two years of your first testing date or within three attempts, you will be required to retrain and retest’, and ‘Candidates testing under Route 1 are eligible to test for two years after their first test date.’ Unused fees do not carry over: ‘If you fail to complete testing during your eligibility period, you will not be refunded any unused test fees, nor will test fees be carried over to a new eligibility period.’ LANGUAGE: ‘The Hawaii Nurse Aide Competency Exam is offered only in English. Translators are not permitted, and translation dictionaries may not be used during the exam administration’ — the oral form is offered as the alternative for candidates for whom English is a second language. RESULTS: ‘Your official score report(s) will be mailed to your address of record within 10 business days of your test date. Results are confidential and are not given out over the phone. If you pass both tests, your Hawaii Nurse Aide Certificate and wallet card will be mailed to you and your name will be added to the Hawaii Nurse Aide Registry.’ Clinical skills results appear online within 48 to 72 hours, with item-level feedback on missed checkpoints; a failed written or oral test produces ‘diagnostic information that provides feedback on your areas of strength and weakness.’ A candidate who fails is told what went wrong: ‘A person who is unsuccessful in attaining certification shall be advised of the areas in which the person is deficient’ (HAR 16-89A-3(e)). ACCOMMODATIONS: documentation submitted with the application, thirty days’ advance notice, ‘There is no additional charge for these accommodations.’ APPEALS: submitted in writing within 60 days of the exam date, with a written response ‘within 20 business days.’

Renewal & continuing education

Every two years, and the requirements split by where the aide works. THE FRAME: ‘A nurse aide’s certification is valid for a limited period up to twenty-four months and shall be renewed biennially. The certification of each nurse aide shall cease upon the expiration of that nurse aide’s current biennial certification period, as determined by the department’ (HAR 16-89A-4(a)). The filing deadline is a month early and the burden is entirely the aide’s: ‘A nurse aide’s recertification application shall be received by the department on or before the end of the business day that is one month before the date the current certification expires… Lack of notification by the department shall not be a valid reason for a nurse aide’s non-renewal.’ A reminder is sent as a courtesy — ‘A renewal reminder notice will be mailed to you approximately 90 days before the expiration of your certificate’ to the address on the registry — which is why the rules make address updates the aide’s job. MEDICARE OR MEDICAID NURSING FACILITY TRACK (the contractor’s Group 1), from HAR 16-89A-4(b): ‘(1) An annual performance review completed by the facility at least once every twelve months; (2) Regular in-service training provided by that facility based upon the outcome of the annual performance reviews; (3) A completed renewal application on a form approved by the department and postmarked or received by the department on or prior to thirty (30) days before the biennial expiration date… signed by the medicare or medicaid certified nursing facility’s director of nurses, registered nurse, director of human services, physician or designee…; and (4) Verification that, for monetary compensation, the nurse aide provided, at a minimum, one full day of nursing or nursing-related services, in a medicare or medicaid certified nursing facility, involving direct patient care within the prior twenty-four months.’ No fee. STATE-LICENSED OR STATE-CERTIFIED SETTING TRACK (Group 2), from HAR 16-89A-4(c): ‘(1) A competency evaluation approved by the department of human services; (2) A completed renewal application, including applicable fees…; and (3) Verification acceptable to the department that, for monetary compensation, the nurse aide provided, at a minimum, one full day of nursing-related services, in a state-licensed or state-certified health care setting, involving direct patient care within the prior twenty-four months.’ Plus the 24 continuing-education hours the human services department sets. Fee $27. THE WORK TEST AS THE CONTRACTOR STATES IT, on the live recertification form: ‘To renew your certification, you must have worked for pay performing nursing, nursing related services and/or direct patient care, under the supervision of a Licensed or registered nurse, for at least 8 hours during the last 24-month certification period’, with the employer confirming on the form whether ’the nurse aide work for your facility/business for a minimum of 8 hours providing nurse aide duties for pay working under the supervision of a licensed, practical, or registered nurse’. Employer verification ‘must be signed by a Hawaii licensed health professional responsible for the development of the plan of care’. Forms ‘should not be submitted more than 30 days before your current certification expiration period’, they ‘must be mailed’ and ‘cannot be processed in person’, and ‘If you qualify for recertification, your new certification period will be for two years from expiration date.’ 24 hours per two-year period — but ONLY on the state-licensed and state-certified settings track, and the number is a statutory CEILING as well as the requirement. THE CAP: the director of human services implements the provisions relating to ‘Training programs for nurse aides and recertification; provided that recertification shall be required not less than every two years and the number of continuing education hours required for recertification shall not exceed twenty-four hours, except as specified by federal law’ (HRS 457A-2(c); the paragraph numbering the ceiling used to sit under was removed when the Legislature flattened the subsection, am L 2016, c 21, §3, and the ceiling itself survives unchanged). THE REQUIREMENT, from the Department of Human Services rules on recertification of nurse aides in state-licensed or state-certified health care settings (HAR 17-1445, effective July 12, 2013): the nurse aide must complete ’twenty-four hours of continuing education in the two year period prior to the expiration of the current nurse aide certification’, on subjects relevant to nurse aide employment in such settings, which the rule says may include communication and interpersonal skills, universal precautions and infection control, safety and emergency procedures including the Heimlich maneuver, understanding and promoting client independence, respecting client rights, basic nursing skills including recognising abnormal changes in body functioning, personal care skills for maintaining elderly, disabled and cognitively impaired clients in home-like settings, mental health and social service needs and resources, basic restorative services, health care delivery systems in Hawaii with emphasis on agencies serving the aged and disabled, and best practices in caring for clients with diabetes, end-stage renal disease and cancer and clients who are terminally ill. On top of the hours, the aide must complete a competency evaluation signed by an approved registered nurse instructor or registered nurse evaluator on a department-approved form. TWO WAYS TO DO IT, which the rule calls Option A and Option B. Option A is a single 24-hour course of study delivered by a state-certified nurse aide training and competency evaluation program under a registered nurse instructor with at least two years of nursing experience, one of it in nursing facility services, who has completed a course in teaching adults or has experience teaching adults or supervising nurse aides; the instructor signs the competency evaluation and the program issues a certificate of completion. Option B is 24 hours of continuing education class instruction from providers such as community colleges, health-related agencies or organisations, or registered nurses working as independent contractors, with a certificate for each class identifying the title, the instructor and the number of instructional hours — and the aide is responsible for arranging an approved registered nurse evaluator to certify both the hours and a demonstrated competency in basic nurse aide skills. Instructors and evaluators report the completions onward: registered nurse instructors and registered nurse evaluators submit the names of aides who have met the requirements to the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs in the format that department prescribes (HAR 17-1445-6). THE OTHER TRACK HAS NO CONTINUING-EDUCATION HOUR COUNT AT ALL: a medicare or medicaid nurse aide renews on the facility’s annual performance review plus ‘Regular in-service training provided by that facility based upon the outcome of the annual performance reviews’ (HAR 16-89A-4(b)(2)) — training that is required but not expressed as a number of hours in any Hawaii source read for this record.

How to apply

Applications are handled by Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA) — Professional and Vocational Licensing Division, Nurse Aide Program (certification and registry), with the Department of Human Services Med-QUEST Division responsible for training programs and recertification standards and the Department of Health responsible for discipline in health-department-licensed settings. Start at the official application page .

Verify a license in Hawaii

Prometric, under contract to the Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, which contracted with it to ‘manage the Nurse Aide (NA) Registry’; the rule permits the department to ‘contract the daily operation and maintenance of the registry to a non-state entity, while the State retains accountability for oversight of the registry’ publishes a public license search , searchable by Certificate number, Name — first name, middle name and last name, with date of birth (MM/DD/YYYY) or Employer Code (optional, and only for registered employers: ‘If you are an employer, you should enter your employer identifier in order to receive credit for the search’). It covers Hawaii nurse aide registry status. The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs links it from its own Nurse Aide Program page as ‘CNA Registry Verify the Status of a CNA’, and the state-approved bulletin points to the same place. WHAT THE REGISTRY IS REQUIRED TO CONTAIN comes from rule rather than from the vendor: the register holds every nurse aide certified by the department for either kind of setting, plus aides deemed to meet the requirements by reciprocity or under the federal grandfathering provision; ‘The registry shall be sufficiently accessible to promptly meet the needs of the public and health care providers’ and ‘The record of successful certification shall be included in the registry within thirty days’ (HAR 16-89A-5(a)). Most of the stored data is confidential, and the rule names exactly what is public: ’the department shall disclose to any person’ the aide’s full name, place of employment, the date the aide became eligible for entry, and any substantiated finding of abuse, neglect or misappropriation (16-89A-5(b) and (c)). The bulletin says the same from the other side: ‘Findings and convictions are public information and are disclosed to anyone who verifies an individual’s standing on the Registry.’ An entry disappears after 24 consecutive months without nurse aide services unless it carries a finding, in which case it stays permanently. PRACTICAL LIMITS: the search page opens with a security check — a code that must be typed and verified before the search boxes unlock — so it cannot be checked automatically and has to be worked by hand in a normal web browser, and results come from submitting the form, so a result cannot be bookmarked or linked to. The field list above was read from the live search form’s own inputs as of August 16, 2026.

Records come from Prometric, under contract to the Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, which contracted with it to ‘manage the Nurse Aide (NA) Registry’; the rule permits the department to ‘contract the daily operation and maintenance of the registry to a non-state entity, while the State retains accountability for oversight of the registry’’s own system. LicensingAtlas does not hold license records and cannot confirm any individual’s status — the date on this page refers to the requirements described above, not to anyone’s credential.