The Sanford Health Nursing Assistant Training Program provides a approved course that delivers the training necessary to become a certified nursing assistant (CNA). The program contains on-line training courses, access to an electronic textbook, in-person skills lab and clinical practicum hours within a long-term care facility. The students are provided with guidance and support from our approved CNA program instructors throughout the process. The instructors will assist with scheduling and in some locations facilitating the state exam for nursing assistant certification once the program has been successfully completed by the student.

The Sanford CNA program is currently available at numerous locations within the states of Florida, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Tennessee.

Sanford Health and the Good Samaritan Society have a footprint spanning 24 different states so the CNA program will expand to many additional states as approvals are given. If you are not within one of the states listed above, please check back here in the future to see the updated list as states are added.

Currently there are no fees for the training program as long as an individual is hired into a qualifying job role with Sanford Health or the Good Samaritan Society. A qualifying role would include being a nursing assistant who must achieve certification within 120 days from hire.

In the future, the program will be offered to employees not needing certification for their role as well as being offered externally to non-employees for a fee.

The on-line portion of the program can be done at any participating Sanford Health or Good Samaritan Society location. The on-line content also has the ability to be done from home remotely if an employee has been approved by a supervisor to complete it outside of the work location.

The in-person skills and clinical training hours will be completed at an approved location with a CNA instructor.

The CNA program is available 365 days a year.

The program has flexible enrollment so that a new student can start as soon as they have met all of the requirements.

The in-person training hours are arranged with the CNA instructors and vary by location. They are typically offered 1-2 times per month and may vary depending on instructor capacity and location needs.

If you are hired into a qualifying job role with Sanford Health or the Good Samaritan Society within the approved locations, you are eligible to take the program. If you are working in another department and want to start working as a nursing assistant you may apply for a nursing assistant job opening and receive the training as well.

In the future, the program will be offered to employees not needing certification for their role if they wish to further their education to become a CNA.

Each state has slightly different regulations for CNA programs but the average times required for a training program range from 75-120 hours. The minimum training hours provided with the Sanford Health Nursing Assistant Training Program is 80 hours. There is approximately 56 hours of on-line content with a minimum of 24 hours of in-person training with an approved CNA instructor. The program can be completed in as little as 2 weeks with the ability to extend to up to 120 days to achieve certification.

Those students that are required to have CNA certification for their job role with Sanford Health or the Good Samaritan Society will receive their hourly wage throughout the training program. Those that elect to complete the program outside of a qualifying job role would not receive their hourly wage while completing the additional program content.

Enrollment into the program is only available within the approved locations listed above. To enroll in the program you can apply for an open nursing assistant role that requires certification within 120 days. Once hired into an NA role, you will be automatically enrolled into the CNA program. To find qualifying job roles, please see the available jobs linked below or speak with an HR representative.

Voluntary enrollment into the CNA program without being hired into a qualifying job role is not currently open. Please check back here for updates as this will be an option in the future

Non-employees:

If you have questions about how to find and apply for a qualifying job role to get enrolled into the CNA program, please contact our human resources department at

Email: hrhelp@sanfordhealth.org

Phone: (877) 243-1372

Current Sanford Health or Good Samaritan Society employees:

Please feel free to speak with your current supervisor, your LEAD center team, location educator or an HR representative to see how you can participate in the program

If you have additional questions regarding the Sanford Health Nursing Assistant Training Program, you can email the program directly at NAprogram@sanfordhealth.org