CNA Requirements in Nebraska — Training, Exam & Registry

How to become a CNA in Nebraska: a 75-hour state training minimum — verified from Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

Source-verified

Requirements below are drawn from Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health, Licensure Unit — Office of Nursing Support (Nurse Aide Registry). No board of nursing issues this status: the registry itself is a Medicaid-side creation, and 471 Nebraska Administrative Code 12 provides that 'A registry of nurse aides is established and maintained by the State for the purpose of providing a central data bank of individuals who are eligible to function as nurse aides in certified facilities. The State Medicaid agency contracts with the State Survey and Certification agency to operate and maintain the registry.' (official site) and last verified August 16, 2026. Boards change fees and rules often — confirm before acting.

Requirements at a glance

What the credential is: Nebraska does not license or certify nursing assistants — it LISTS them on the Nurse Aide Registry, and being listed as Active is the whole of the status. The Department of Health and Human Services describes the registry as 'a list of those who meet the requirements to be a nurse aide' and answers the paperwork question in two flat lines: 'Application – there is none for nurse aides' and 'Fees – there are none for nurse aides.' It repeats the point about documents twice more: 'We do not issue physical certificates or licensure cards for nurse aides' and 'Licensure cards for nurse aides are not issued in Nebraska. You can print one from the registry.' WHO OPERATES IT: the registry's legal parentage is the Medicaid nursing facility rule, which provides that 'A registry of nurse aides is established and maintained by the State for the purpose of providing a central data bank of individuals who are eligible to function as nurse aides in certified facilities. The State Medicaid agency contracts with the State Survey and Certification agency to operate and maintain the registry' (471 NAC 12-013.04(A), 06-26-2021 edition). Day-to-day contact runs through the Department's own Office of Nursing Support in the Division of Public Health's Licensure Unit. There is no outside registry contractor of the kind several states use. THE STATUTORY WORD IS 'REGISTRATION': a person is 'registered as a nurse aide', and if that person becomes a licensed nurse 'his or her registration as a nurse aide becomes null and void as of the date of licensure' (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-6039(2)(b)).
The Department's own qualification list: Six items, in the Department's own words: 'At least 16 years of age'; 'Not been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude that is rationally related to the position of a nurse aide'; 'Able to speak and understand the English language or a language understood by a substantial portion of the nursing home residents'; 'Successfully complete a minimum of 75 hours of training approved by the State of Nebraska or a 21-hour basic resident care course for intermediate care facilities for the developmentally disabled'; 'Successfully complete one hour of Nebraska-specific abuse/neglect/misappropriation training'; and 'Successfully pass a State of Nebraska approved written/oral exam and clinical/skills competency exam.' The first three come straight from statute — Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-6039(1) bars anyone from acting as a nurse aide unless the person '(a) Is at least sixteen years of age and has not been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude; (b) Is able to speak and understand the English language or a language understood by a substantial portion of the facility residents; and (c) Has successfully completed a basic course of training approved by the department for nurse aides within one hundred twenty days of initial employment in the capacity of a nurse aide.'
Moral turpitude — Nebraska publishes its own gloss: Unusually, the Department does not leave the statutory phrase undefined. Its Nurse Aide page adds, in parentheses: 'Moral turpitude has been defined as an act or behavior that violates accepted moral standards and in legal terms means anything done contrary to justice, honesty, modesty, good morals and with the intent to defraud.' The consequence of a qualifying conviction is a registry annotation rather than a refusal to process an application: 'The Department will document convictions of crimes involving moral turpitude rationally related to the practice of a nurse aide by placing a finding of conviction on the Nurse Aide Registry', and 'Nurse aides will be notified in writing of a finding of conviction' (172 NAC 108-003.02). The statute gives a way back: 'A person listed on the Nurse Aide Registry with respect to whom a finding of conviction has been placed on the registry may petition the department to have such finding removed at any time after one year has elapsed since the date such finding was placed on the registry' (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-6039(2)(c)). Nebraska also sells an advance answer to anyone who wants one before spending money on training: a 'Preliminary Application Conviction Review' — 'If you have a criminal conviction, you may submit an application to determine if your conviction(s) would disqualify you from obtaining a license. The fee is $100 for each license type for which you are requesting a review.' That $100 is optional and is the only dollar figure the Department attaches to this pathway.
You may start work before you finish training — 120 days: Nebraska's training requirement is written as a deadline after hire, not a gate before it. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-6039(1)(c) requires that the person 'Has successfully completed a basic course of training approved by the department for nurse aides within one hundred twenty days of initial employment in the capacity of a nurse aide.' The Medicaid facility rule adds the employer's side of the same allowance: a facility must verify the registry before letting someone serve as a nurse aide 'unless: (i) The individual is a full-time employee currently participating in a training and competency evaluation program approved by the State; or (ii) The individual can prove that he or she has recently successfully completed a training and competency evaluation program or competency evaluation program approved by the State and has not yet been included in the registry. Facilities must follow up to ensure that the individual actually becomes registered' (471 NAC 12-013.02(A), 06-26-2021 edition).
Who may teach the course, and who may not test you: 'Courses must be administered by registered nurses who hold a current license to practice as such in Nebraska or have the authority to practice as such in Nebraska under the provisions of the Nurse Licensure Compact' (172 NAC 108-004.03), which the statute states as 'The prescribed training shall be administered by a licensed registered nurse' (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-6039(3)). Nursing homes may teach the course but may not give the test: the statute provides that 'Nursing homes may carry out approved courses of training within the nursing home, except that nursing homes may not conduct the competency evaluation part of the program', and the regulation puts a second wall between teaching and testing — 'Skilled nursing facilities that participate in Medicare and nursing facilities that participate in Medicaid are not eligible to administer and evaluate competency evaluations. A nurse aide course instructor cannot teach a student in the nurse aide course and administer the competency evaluation to the same student' (172 NAC 108-006). A program must give the Department 'at least 5 working days' written notice of the date when a course will be held and the location of the course' (172 NAC 108-005.07), and the Department publishes the approved list — 'All Training Entities Approved to Teach Nebraska's 75-Hour Nurse Aide Course by City', revised 7-21-26, running to three pages of high schools, community colleges, veterans homes, hospitals and nursing facilities.
Who pays for training: The state sets no tuition and collects none, but it does police who bears the cost. The Department's Medicaid Provider Bulletin 07-07 quotes the federal prohibition — 'No nurse aide who is employed by, or who has received an offer of employment from, a facility on the date on which the aide begins a nurse aide training and competency evaluation program may be charged for any portion of the program (including any fees for textbooks or other required course materials)' — and then states Nebraska's own guidance: 'If an individual is employed by a nursing facility at the time the individual begins the nurse aide training course or the facility has hired the individual or made an offer of employment which is accepted by the individual prior to course completion, the provider is required to pay the full cost of the training program. The facility's obligation exists regardless of the length of time the aide remains employed with the facility.' IF YOU PAID YOUR OWN WAY, the reimbursement is prorated by ELAPSED TIME rather than by hours worked: 'if a nurse aide becomes employed by a facility six months after completing the nurse aide training course, the facility reimburses the aide 50% of the documented course expense. If a nurse aide becomes employed by a facility nine months after completing the course, the facility reimburses the aide for 25% of the course expense.' The obligation falls on the first certified facility to hire you inside the one-year window, and 'It is the nurse aide's responsibility to provide the facility with adequate documentation of the course expense.' The Bulletin also warns that the reimbursement duty does 'not extend to equivalent training an individual may receive in a different curriculum, such as nurses training.'
What happens to your registration if you become a nurse — and if you lose a nurse licence: Both directions are in statute. Going up: 'If a person registered as a nurse aide becomes licensed as a registered nurse or licensed practical nurse, his or her registration as a nurse aide becomes null and void as of the date of licensure' (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-6039(2)(b)). Coming down, there is a hard bar: 'A registered nurse or licensed practical nurse whose license has been revoked, suspended, or voluntarily surrendered in lieu of discipline may not act as a nurse aide for a service provider or in a facility described in subsection (1) of this section' (§ 71-6039(2)(a)). A nurse whose licence merely lapsed or went inactive is in a different position and has a published route back onto the registry.
Medication Aide — a boundary, not a step: Nebraska runs a separate Medication Aide Registry under its own rules chapter — the state's rules index lists '95: ADMINISTRATION OF MEDICATIONS BY MEDICATION AIDES AND MEDICATION STAFF' and '96: MEDICATION AIDE REGISTRY', both effective 9/24/2022, alongside the nurse aide chapter at 108. That is a different credential on a different registry and is not covered here. Nothing in the Department's nurse aide pages, in 172 NAC 108 or in Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 71-6038 to 71-6042 makes medication aide status a stage of the nurse aide pathway.

Legal basis

Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health, Licensure Unit — Office of Nursing Support (Nurse Aide Registry). No board of nursing issues this status: the registry itself is a Medicaid-side creation, and 471 Nebraska Administrative Code 12 provides that ‘A registry of nurse aides is established and maintained by the State for the purpose of providing a central data bank of individuals who are eligible to function as nurse aides in certified facilities. The State Medicaid agency contracts with the State Survey and Certification agency to operate and maintain the registry.’ administers certified nursing assistant licensing in Nebraska. 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

Nebraska’s statutory noun is NURSE AIDE, defined at Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-6038(3) as ‘any person employed by a service provider or facility described in subsection (1) of section 71-6039 for the purpose of aiding a licensed registered or practical nurse through the performance of nonspecialized tasks related to the personal care and comfort of residents other than a paid dining assistant or a licensed registered or practical nurse.’ What Nebraska grants is a REGISTRATION and a listing — the statute speaks of a person ‘registered as a nurse aide’ whose ‘registration… becomes null and void’ on becoming a licensed nurse, and the Department issues ‘your registration (license) number’ with no card behind it. ‘CNA’, ‘certified nursing assistant’ and ‘CNA license in Nebraska’ are the public’s words; Nebraska issues no certificate and no licence under any of them, and states plainly that ‘Licensure cards for nurse aides are not issued in Nebraska.’ EVEN THE STATE’S OWN LABELS DISAGREE ON ONE POINT: the Department’s Nurse Aide page lists its governing regulation under the link text ‘Approval of Training Programs and Qualifications for Nursing Assistants in Nursing Homes 172 NAC 108’, while the chapter as published is titled ‘APPROVAL OF TRAINING PROGRAMS AND QUALIFICATIONS FOR NURSE AIDES IN NURSING HOMES’ — ’nursing assistants’ on the link, ’nurse aides’ in the rule. Three neighbouring Nebraska terms are NOT synonyms for this credential: PAID DINING ASSISTANT (a separate eight-hour credential on a separate registry, §§ 71-6039.01 to 71-6039.05); MEDICATION AIDE (a separate registry under 172 NAC 96); and NURSING ASSISTANT used loosely by employers. The Department’s course is branded by its length — ‘Nebraska’s 75-Hour Nurse Aide Course’ — and the retraining option offered by several approved providers is called a ‘Refresher Course for Nurse Aides.’ ‘NATCEP’, the federal acronym for a Nurse Aide Training and Competency Evaluation Program, appears in Nebraska’s Medicaid provider bulletin but not on the Department’s public nurse aide pages.

License types & fees

Type	Notes	Who Its For
Active listing on the Nebraska Nurse Aide Registry (the state's own words: 'a list of those who meet the requirements to be a nurse aide')	THIS IS NOT A LICENCE AND NOT A CERTIFICATE. The Department of Health and Human Services states it three separate ways on its own pages: 'Application – there is none for nurse aides'; 'Fees – there are none for nurse aides'; and 'We do not issue physical certificates or licensure cards for nurse aides.' The statute uses the language of registration rather than licensure — a person is 'registered as a nurse aide', and if that person later becomes a licensed nurse, 'his or her registration as a nurse aide becomes null and void as of the date of licensure' (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-6039(2)(b)). What you do receive is a registration number: the Department's interstate endorsement form says 'we will issue your registration (license) number and place you on the website where employers can find you.' There is no expiry date attached — the Department's status table records 'Expiration dates - none noted unless lapsed or ineligible.'	A person who wants to work as a nurse aide in a Nebraska nursing home or one of the other facility types named in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-6039, and — since 2025 — for a developmental disabilities service provider under the medicaid comprehensive developmental disabilities waiver.
Registry listing based on the shorter course for intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities	A separate, much shorter training track — and the three Nebraska sources state its length three different ways, so all three are given here rather than one being chosen. The statute sets the floor at twenty hours: courses 'shall be no less than twenty hours in duration and shall include at least fifteen hours of basic personal care training and five hours of basic therapeutic and emergency procedure training' (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-6039(4)). The regulation requires those same 15 and 5 hours and then adds that 'In addition, the course must include at least 1 hour of instruction on the responsibility of each nurse aide to report suspected abuse or neglect' (172 NAC 108-004.02). The Department's Nurse Aide page describes the option as 'a 21-hour basic resident care course for intermediate care facilities for the developmentally disabled.' The 21 appears to be the 15 + 5 + 1 of the regulation, but no Nebraska source read states that arithmetic, so this record does not assert it as the state's own explanation.	A person working as a nurse aide in an intermediate care facility for individuals with intellectual disabilities (ICF/IID), rather than in a nursing home.
Registry listing by interstate endorsement (the Department's term)	'If you are a nurse aide in another state and want to work in Nebraska, you must be active on the Nebraska Nurse Aide Registry before you are eligible to work in a certified nursing facility. If you have ever been active on the Nebraska Nurse Aide Registry, you are not eligible to apply by Interstate Endorsement. You will need to either retest in Nebraska or provide Employment Verification' (Application for Nebraska Nurse Aide Registry by Interstate Endorsement). No fee. See the reciprocity field for the four conditions.	A nurse aide currently active on another state's registry who wants to work in Nebraska and has never been active on the Nebraska registry.
Registry listing without the nurse aide course — nursing students, foreign-trained nurses, and inactive or lapsed RNs and LPNs	Each of the three routes is opened by a cover letter to the registry rather than by a form. A NURSING STUDENT sends a 'Cover letter asking to be placed on registry based on nursing school courses' plus 'A certified copy of your transcript or a letter signed by your instructor identifying the courses you have completed', and if 'course grades in any of the required courses are less than 70 percent, documentation of successful completion of state approved written/oral and skills exams is required.' A FOREIGN-TRAINED NURSE sends a cover letter plus 'The "Credentials Evaluation Service Professional Report" from the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools exam (CGFNS) for review of your nursing program in relation to nursing programs in the United States', and must pass the state-approved written/oral and skills exams. An INACTIVE OR LAPSED RN OR LPN sends a cover letter 'indicating the last time you worked as a nurse', a copy of the inactive or lapsed licence if it came from a state other than Nebraska, and — 'If it has been longer than 24 months since having an active nurse license' — documentation of passing the state-approved exams. All three routes require the one-hour Nebraska abuse/neglect/misappropriation training, except that it is 'not required if previously on Nebraska Nurse Aide Registry' for a lapsed nurse.	People whose nursing education or former nurse licence substitutes for the 75-hour course.
Paid dining assistant — a SEPARATE Nebraska credential on a separate registry, named here only to keep it apart	Nebraska statute defines a paid dining assistant as a person employed by a nursing home 'for the purpose of aiding a licensed registered or practical nurse through the feeding of residents other than a nurse aide' (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-6038(5)), requires at least eight hours of training (§ 71-6039.03(1)) and directs that 'The department shall maintain a paid dining assistant registry' (§ 71-6039.04). Different registry, different training, different rules chapter (172 NAC 105). This record covers the nurse aide registry only.	Not covered by this record.

Who does NOT need this license — exemptions

Nebraska draws the boundary by WORKPLACE, not by task. The prohibition in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-6039(1) bites only on a person acting as a nurse aide ‘for a service provider under the medicaid comprehensive developmental disabilities waiver for services as defined in section 71-6501, or in a facility or a distinct part of a facility that provides care as defined in section 71-405, 71-406, 71-409, 71-412, 71-416, 71-417, 71-418, 71-419, 71-420, 71-421, 71-422, 71-424, 71-426, 71-427, or 71-429’ — a list of licensed health care facility categories. Outside those settings the statute is silent, and this record therefore claims nothing about caregiving work elsewhere. THE ONE TIME-LIMITED CARVE-OUT is the 120-day training window: the approved course must be completed ‘within one hundred twenty days of initial employment in the capacity of a nurse aide’ (§ 71-6039(1)(c)), so a newly hired person may work while training. The facility-side counterpart lets a facility use someone not yet on the registry if that person is ‘a full-time employee currently participating in a training and competency evaluation program approved by the State’ or can prove recent successful completion ‘and has not yet been included in the registry’ (471 NAC 12-013.02(A), 06-26-2021 edition). WHO IS EXCLUDED RATHER THAN EXEMPT: a paid dining assistant and a licensed registered or practical nurse are carved out of the statutory definition of ’nurse aide’ itself (§ 71-6038(3)), and a nurse whose licence ‘has been revoked, suspended, or voluntarily surrendered in lieu of discipline may not act as a nurse aide’ at all (§ 71-6039(2)(a)). AN AGE LIMIT THAT IS NOT A LICENSING RULE: the Department publishes that ’there is an age restriction on the use of lifts by nurse aides. The nurse aide must be at least 18 years of age to use a lift on their own. A nurse aide who is 16 to 17 years of age may assist in the use of a lift. This restriction was established by the Department of Labor’, citing U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2011-3. FACILITIES CAN LOSE THE RIGHT TO TRAIN, and can ask for it back: ‘A nursing home may apply for a waiver of the prohibition’ — the Department publishes the waiver request form. Nothing in the Department’s pages, in 172 NAC 108, in the nurse aide sections of 471 NAC 12 or in §§ 71-6038 to 71-6042 exempts a nursing student, a home care worker outside a licensed setting, or a family caregiver, and all four tiers were searched on 2026-08-16; the silence is recorded as silence.

Fees

NEBRASKA CHARGES NOTHING TO GET ON OR STAY ON THE NURSE AIDE REGISTRY, and says so twice. The Department’s Nurse Aide page states ‘Fees – there are none for nurse aides’ and, on the name-change form line, ‘There is no charge for nurse aides changing their name.’ The Medicaid rule that created the registry makes it a standing prohibition rather than a current price: ‘No monetary charges related to registration of individuals on the registry are imposed’ (471 NAC 12-013.04(B)(iv), 06-26-2021 edition). Interstate endorsement is free as well, and out-of-state verification is free in the other direction too: ‘Nebraska does not charge a fee to complete this form.’ THE ONE STATE FEE ANYWHERE ON THIS PATHWAY IS OPTIONAL AND COMES BEFORE IT: the ‘Preliminary Application Conviction Review’ lets someone with a criminal conviction ask in advance whether it would be disqualifying, and ‘The fee is $100 for each license type for which you are requesting a review.’ NOT SET OR COLLECTED BY THE STATE: tuition for the 75-hour course, which each approved training entity sets for itself — the Department publishes the list of approved entities and their phone numbers but no prices — and the fee, if any, charged by an approved provider for the competency evaluation or for re-competency testing. Neither the Department’s nurse aide pages, 172 NAC 108, 471 NAC 12 nor Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 71-6038 to 71-6042 publishes an examination fee or a re-test fee, and all four were searched on 2026-08-16. Remember that in most cases the training cost is not yours to carry at all: a facility that employs you or has offered you a job when training starts ‘is required to pay the full cost of the training program’, and one that hires you within twelve months of completion owes you a prorated refund.

Exam

Two parts, both required, both given by an approved testing entity rather than a national vendor. THE NUMBERS COME FROM THE DEPARTMENT’S OWN PAGE: ‘Written/oral exam – consists of 50 multiple-choice questions’, ‘Passing grade is 70 percent or greater’, ‘Takes approximately three weeks to be made active on registry’, and ‘An individual has a total of three opportunities to pass each exam. If an individual does not pass the exam after three tries, he/she must retake the 75-hour nurse aide course.’ SKILLS: ‘Skills exam – consists of a demonstration of six skills. Passing score is 70 percent or greater on each skill. Skills may have one or more mandatory steps. These steps must be performed correctly in order to pass that skill. If any of the six skills are failed, the individual fails the skills exam. The individual has a total of three opportunities to pass the skills exam. If the skills exam is not passed after three tries, he or she must retake the 75-hour nurse aide training course.’ HOW THE EXAM MUST BE BUILT, from 172 NAC 108-006.01: the written or oral portion must ‘Address each course requirement listed in section 004’, ‘Be developed from a pool of questions, only a portion of which is used in any one examination’, ‘Use a system that prevents disclosure of both the question pool and the individual competency evaluations’, and — if oral — ‘be read from a prepared text in a neutral manner’, and must be ’tested for reliability and validity using nationally recognized standards.’ The skills portion must address each personal care skill in the curriculum and ‘Consist of demonstration of randomly selected items drawn from a pool of tasks generally performed by nurse aides.’ RESULTS AND TIMING: ‘A score of PASS must be achieved for both the written, oral, and skills demonstration parts of the test. The competency testing entity will inform the nurse aide of the test score within 5 calendar days of the completion of the test and will inform the nurse aide registry of the nurse aide’s scores within 14 calendar days after the test is completed’ (172 NAC 108-006.03). On a failure, ‘Any person who does not complete the evaluation satisfactorily will be advised in writing within 5 calendar days after the test is scored of the areas which the person did not pass and that the person has 3 opportunities to take the evaluation’ (172 NAC 108-006.04). Candidates are told in advance ’that a record of the successful completion of the examination will be included in the state’s nurse aide registry’ (172 NAC 108-006.02). NO STATE EXAM FEE IS PUBLISHED — see the fees field.

Renewal & continuing education

There is no renewal application, no renewal fee and no expiry date — there is only a rolling 24-month work test. The Department’s status table says ‘Expiration dates - none noted unless lapsed or ineligible’, and defines Active status as ‘passed exams and/or has worked as nurse aide in the past 2 years.’ The rule it states for keeping that status is one sentence: ‘Staying Active on the Registry – Must work as a nurse aide in a paid position within 24 months of last date of previous employment.’ It repeats the point in its FAQ: ‘To stay active on the registry, you must have worked as a nurse aide in a paid position within the past two years in an approved employer setting.’ WHERE THE WORK COUNTS is a published, closed list — the Department’s ‘Approved Employer Settings for Nurse Aide to stay active’ names ambulatory surgical center, assisted-living facility, critical access hospital, general acute hospital, health clinic, licensed home health agency, hospice, hospital, intermediate care facility, intermediate care facility for developmental disabilities, long term care hospital, nursing facility, psychiatric or mental hospital, rehabilitation hospital, skilled nursing facility, and — the newest addition — ‘Community-Based Developmental Disabilities Service providers’, with the footnote ‘This does not include the Home and Community Based Services Waiver.’ The same document dates both changes: ‘Effective August 24, 2017, Nebraska law states that the work setting is to be a health care setting licensed by the State of Nebraska’ and ‘Effective September 3, 2025, certified DD Community-Based Developmental Disabilities service providers were added to approved employer settings.’ There is no notice mailed before a lapse. The employer, not the aide, files the paperwork that keeps the record straight: the facility submits a Registry Form ‘upon hire of a nurse aide’ and an End of Employment/Termination Form ‘when nurse aide no longer works for them’, and the Department publishes a weekly roster of nurse aides by employer, ‘updated weekly on Friday’, which is ‘over 1,100 pages’. NONE is published as a condition of Nebraska registry status. The Department’s Nurse Aide and Nurse Aide Requirements pages describe staying active purely in terms of paid work in an approved setting, and neither names a continuing-education, refresher or annual in-service requirement running to the aide. Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 71-6038 to 71-6042 impose none, and 172 NAC 108 imposes none — the chapter’s only recurring obligations run to training programmes (five working days’ notice of each course, attendance records kept ‘for a minimum of 2 years’, periodic on-site review) and to testing entities (quality assurance and data reporting), not to individual aides. Tiers searched on 2026-08-16: the Department’s Nurse Aide page, its Nurse Aide Requirements page, its Nebraska Abuse/Neglect/Misappropriation Training instruction sheet, its Approved Employer Settings list, 172 NAC 108 in full, the nurse aide sections of 471 NAC 12, and Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 71-6038 through 71-6042. THE ONE EDUCATION ITEM THAT IS NOT OPTIONAL IS A ONE-TIME ONE, not an annual one: ‘All applicants for the Nebraska Nurse Aide Registry are required to complete a one (1) time, one (1) hour training on Nebraska’s abuse, neglect, and misappropriation.’ If you take a Nebraska nurse aide course it is built in — ’the one (1) hour training on abuse, neglect, and misappropriation is included as part of your training.’ Everyone else — nursing students, foreign-trained nurses, inactive or lapsed nurses, and every aide arriving from another state — must obtain it separately, by employer orientation, online, or in person at a named college, and ‘The Nebraska Nurse Aide Registry must receive proof of your completion of the training before your nurse aide registration number is issued.’ Separate federal rules oblige nursing facilities to provide in-service training to their staff; that is a facility duty and no Nebraska source read makes it a condition of an aide’s registry listing.

How to apply

Applications are handled by Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health, Licensure Unit — Office of Nursing Support (Nurse Aide Registry). No board of nursing issues this status: the registry itself is a Medicaid-side creation, and 471 Nebraska Administrative Code 12 provides that ‘A registry of nurse aides is established and maintained by the State for the purpose of providing a central data bank of individuals who are eligible to function as nurse aides in certified facilities. The State Medicaid agency contracts with the State Survey and Certification agency to operate and maintain the registry.’. Start at the official application page .

Verify a license in Nebraska

Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (the License Information System search on the Nebraska.gov state portal, built and maintained by Nebraska Interactive) publishes a public license search , searchable by Individual Search, Business/Service Search or Facility/Service Search. It covers Every credential the Department’s Licensure Unit holds, nurse aide registry listings among them — the Department links it from its Nurse Aide page as ’the Nurse Aide Registry’ and as ‘a list of those who meet the requirements to be a nurse aide.’ It is the only proof of status Nebraska offers, because no card is issued: ‘On the Registry page, once your name comes up in the search results, click it. You can then click the green “Generate Wallet Card” button to print your own card.’ You can find yourself ‘by entering just your first and last names’, and the Department says the underlying data ‘is updated every day about 8:00 am’ — the page itself displays a last-updated date and time in Central Time. THREE THINGS TO EXPECT BEFORE CLICKING. First, the search will not work with JavaScript switched off; the page says so itself, and the three search forms are assembled in your browser rather than delivered with the page. Second, the site puts an automated challenge between the form and the results to confirm you are a person. Third, a result has no web address of its own, so it cannot be bookmarked, emailed or cited — you have to run the search each time, and an automated watch on this address can only ever see the empty form. The three search modes above are the ones the page offers as radio buttons; the individual fields inside each mode are loaded after the page and were not readable from the delivered page as of August 16, 2026.

Records come from Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (the License Information System search on the Nebraska.gov state portal, built and maintained by Nebraska Interactive)’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.

Frequently asked questions

Is a Nebraska CNA a licence or a certification?

Neither. Nebraska lists you on the Nurse Aide Registry and that listing is the credential. The Department of Health and Human Services says so in the plainest terms available: ‘Application – there is none for nurse aides’, ‘Fees – there are none for nurse aides’, and ‘Licensure cards for nurse aides are not issued in Nebraska.’ The statute speaks of a person being ‘registered as a nurse aide’, and provides that if that person becomes a licensed nurse the nurse aide registration ‘becomes null and void as of the date of licensure.’ You do get a registration number — the Department’s endorsement form says ‘we will issue your registration (license) number and place you on the website where employers can find you’ — but there is no card, no certificate and no expiry date.

How many training hours does Nebraska require for a nurse aide?

75 clock hours for nursing home work. The regulation is specific about what has to be inside them: courses must ‘include, at a minimum, 75 clock hours of instruction, including at least 16 hours of supervised practical training’, and separately ‘At least 16 hours of training’ in communication, infection control, safety and emergency procedures, promoting residents’ independence and respecting residents’ rights must come ‘prior to any direct contact with residents.’ The statute sets the same 75-hour floor. On top of that sits Nebraska’s own one-hour training on abuse, neglect and misappropriation — the regulation introduces it with the words ‘In addition’, and the Department lists the 75 hours and the one hour as two separate qualification bullets. A shorter track exists for intermediate care facilities for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities: the statute sets 20 hours (15 basic personal care plus 5 basic therapeutic and emergency procedures), the regulation adds the abuse-reporting hour, and the Department’s page calls it ‘a 21-hour basic resident care course.’

Who gives the Nebraska nurse aide exam?

Not a national testing company. Nebraska’s rule lets the Department ‘administer and evaluate competency evaluations; contract for the administration and evaluation of competency evaluations; or request applications for approval to administer and evaluate competency evaluations’, and in practice the tests are given by approved training entities and community colleges around the state. Two firewalls apply: Medicare- and Medicaid-participating skilled nursing and nursing facilities may not administer the evaluation at all, and ‘A nurse aide course instructor cannot teach a student in the nurse aide course and administer the competency evaluation to the same student.’ The skills portion has to be graded by a registered nurse ‘with at least one year’s experience in providing care for the elderly or the chronically ill of any age.’

What is on the Nebraska nurse aide exam and how many tries do you get?

Two parts and three attempts at each. The Department states that the ‘Written/oral exam – consists of 50 multiple-choice questions’, with a ‘Passing grade is 70 percent or greater’, and that the ‘Skills exam – consists of a demonstration of six skills’, also at 70 percent or greater on each skill, where ‘Skills may have one or more mandatory steps. These steps must be performed correctly in order to pass that skill. If any of the six skills are failed, the individual fails the skills exam.’ You get ‘a total of three opportunities to pass each exam’, and if you use them all up ‘he/she must retake the 75-hour nurse aide course.’ Results reach you within five calendar days and the registry within fourteen, and it ’takes approximately three weeks to be made active on registry.’

What does it cost to become a nurse aide in Nebraska?

Nothing to the state. ‘Fees – there are none for nurse aides’, and the rule behind the registry states it as a standing prohibition: ‘No monetary charges related to registration of individuals on the registry are imposed.’ Interstate endorsement is free, name changes are free, and outbound verifications are free. The only state fee anywhere near this pathway is optional and comes beforehand — a $100 Preliminary Application Conviction Review for someone who wants to know in advance whether a conviction would disqualify them. Course tuition is set by each approved training entity, not by the state, and in most cases it is not yours to pay: a facility that employed you or offered you a job when training began ‘is required to pay the full cost of the training program’, and one that hires you within twelve months of finishing owes you a prorated refund — 50% if you are hired six months after completing, 25% at nine months.

Do you have to renew a Nebraska nurse aide registration?

There is nothing to renew and nothing to pay — but there is a rolling test you can fail by doing nothing. Your listing stays Active only if you ‘work as a nurse aide in a paid position within 24 months of last date of previous employment’, and the work has to be in one of the sixteen settings on the Department’s approved-employer list, which runs from hospitals and hospices to assisted-living facilities and, since September 3, 2025, certified community-based developmental disabilities service providers. There is no continuing education requirement. There is also no reminder: the Department does not publish any notice sent before a listing lapses, and the paperwork that records your employment is filed by the employer, not by you.

What happens if a Nebraska nurse aide registration lapses?

You re-test — there is no paperwork route back. ‘A nurse aide whose status is lapsed may reactivate his or her registration by retaking the written/oral and clinical exams’, at one of the post-secondary education providers the Department approves for re-competency testing. Both exams may be taken the same day, and it ‘may take three weeks to update your records after successful completion of exams.’ One group cannot use this route at all: ‘Nurse aides who took a 30-hour nurse aide course prior to 1989 and were “grandfathered” onto the registry are not eligible to retest’ and must take the full 75-hour course. Lapsed is not the worst status — Ineligible means a ‘finding of conviction, abuse, neglect, or misappropriation on record’, and that is not fixed by testing.

I am a CNA in another state — how do I transfer to Nebraska?

By Interstate Endorsement, on a free one-page form, and there are five conditions rather than the usual one. Nebraska requires that you ‘be active in the State you are seeking reciprocity from, completed a minimum 75-hour nurse aide training program, have passing scores on written and clinical exams, and have nurse aide employment in the last 24 months (if you have not tested in the last 24 months)’ — and then adds that ‘All nurse aides coming into Nebraska from another state must also have Nebraska’s one-hour in-service on reporting abuse and neglect… You will not be made active on the Nebraska Nurse Aide Registry until you have completed this in-service.’ The disqualifier that stops most applications: ‘If you have ever been active on the Nebraska Nurse Aide Registry, you are not eligible to apply by Interstate Endorsement.’ Processing takes up to 30 days, and Nebraska will contact the registry in the state where you trained and every state where you have worked.

How do I check whether someone is on the Nebraska Nurse Aide Registry?

Use the state’s HHS License Search, which the Department links from its Nurse Aide page as the registry itself. You can pull up a record ‘by entering just your first and last names’, and because Nebraska issues no card, that lookup is also how an aide proves their own status: click your name in the results, then the green ‘Generate Wallet Card’ button to print a card yourself. The underlying data ‘is updated every day about 8:00 am.’ Two practical notes: the search will not run with JavaScript turned off, and the site asks you to confirm you are a person before showing results — so a search result has no address of its own and cannot be bookmarked or forwarded.

How old do you have to be to be a nurse aide in Nebraska, and can you start before finishing the course?

Sixteen, and yes. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-6039(1) requires only that the person ‘Is at least sixteen years of age and has not been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude’, can ‘speak and understand the English language or a language understood by a substantial portion of the facility residents’, and ‘Has successfully completed a basic course of training approved by the department for nurse aides within one hundred twenty days of initial employment’ — a deadline after hire, not a gate before it. One age rule bites later and comes from a different agency: the Department publishes that a nurse aide ‘must be at least 18 years of age to use a lift on their own. A nurse aide who is 16 to 17 years of age may assist in the use of a lift’, a restriction it attributes to the U.S. Department of Labor.

See every license and certification LicensingAtlas covers in Nebraska.

Sources & verification

Last verified against these sources: August 16, 2026.

We re-fetch every cited source on a weekly schedule: see what changed at the agencies, or every correction we have ever made.

LicensingAtlas states licensing and certification requirements categorically from official sources. It is a reference, not legal or career advice, and requirements change frequently — confirm details with the issuing board before you act.