Nurse Aide and Orderly

Course Description

PRN0090C – Nurse Aide and Orderly is a 120-clock-hour postsecondary adult vocational course preparing students for entry-level work as a nursing assistant and for the Florida certification examination. Like all PSAV courses it carries zero college credit — it is occupational training measured in clock hours.

It sits within FLDOE curriculum framework H170602, Nursing Assistant (Long Term Care), as Occupational Completion Point A, and the framework specifies the hour split: 80 hours of classroom and laboratory plus 40 hours of supervised clinical experience.

This is among the shortest routes into health care employment in Florida — a single term, modest cost, and a state credential at the end — and it is the entry point from which a great many nurses, therapists, and other clinicians began. It is also physically demanding, emotionally significant, and frequently underpaid, and an honest course says so.

Content covers the role of the nursing assistant and scope of practice; the health care team and the long-term care setting; legal and ethical responsibilities — residents' rights, abuse and neglect reporting, and HIPAA; communication with residents, families, and staff; infection control and standard precautions; safety — fall prevention, transfers, restraints, and emergency response; body mechanics and safe lifting; personal care — bathing, grooming, dressing, oral care, and toileting; nutrition and feeding assistance; mobility — positioning, ambulation, range of motion, and assistive devices; vital signs and measurement; observation and reporting of changes in condition; skin care and pressure injury prevention; elimination and catheter care; care of residents with dementia; end-of-life care; medical terminology; and supervised clinical practice in a licensed facility.

Offered at approximately 10 Florida institutions and technical centers.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Describe the nursing assistant's role, scope of practice, and place on the health care team.
• Describe residents' rights and apply them in daily care.
• Recognize signs of abuse, neglect, and exploitation and describe reporting obligations.
• Apply HIPAA and confidentiality requirements.
• Communicate effectively and respectfully with residents, families, and staff.
• Apply infection control including hand hygiene, standard precautions, and PPE.
• Apply safety practices including fall prevention and emergency response.
• Use proper body mechanics and safe transfer techniques with and without equipment.
• Provide personal care including bathing, grooming, dressing, and oral care.
• Assist with toileting and provide perineal and catheter care.
• Assist residents with eating and record intake and output.
• Position residents correctly and perform range of motion exercises.
• Assist with ambulation using appropriate assistive devices.
• Measure and record vital signs accurately.
• Measure height and weight and record accurately.
• Observe residents for changes in condition and report them promptly.
• Provide skin care and describe pressure injury prevention.
• Care for residents with dementia using appropriate approaches.
• Describe end-of-life care and support for residents and families.
• Document care accurately within the assistant's scope.
• Demonstrate required skills to the standard of the Florida certification examination.

Optional Outcomes

• Describe restorative and rehabilitative care approaches.
• Describe care of residents with specific conditions including diabetes and stroke.
• Describe cultural considerations in personal care.
• Describe career advancement pathways in nursing and allied health.
• Describe employment expectations, scheduling, and workplace practice.
• Describe self-care and managing the physical and emotional demands of the work.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• The nursing assistant role — scope, supervision, and delegation.
• The long-term care setting — facility types, regulation, and the team.
• Residents' rights — dignity, privacy, choice, and freedom from restraint.
• Legal and ethical practice — abuse reporting, HIPAA, and documentation.
• Communication — verbal, nonverbal, and with sensory or cognitive impairment.
• Infection control — chain of infection, hand hygiene, PPE, and isolation.
• Safety — falls, fire, emergency codes, and incident reporting.
• Body mechanics and transfers — gait belts, mechanical lifts, and back protection.
• Personal care — bathing, grooming, dressing, shaving, and nail and oral care.
• Elimination — toileting, bedpans, incontinence care, and catheter care.
• Nutrition and hydration — diets, feeding assistance, and intake and output.
• Mobility — positioning, turning schedules, range of motion, and ambulation.
• Vital signs — temperature, pulse, respiration, blood pressure, and pulse oximetry.
• Observation and reporting — recognizing and communicating change.
• Skin care — pressure injury risk, prevention, and reporting.
• Dementia care — approaches, behaviors, and validation.
• End-of-life care — comfort, dignity, and family support.
• Medical terminology and abbreviations.
• Clinical experience — 40 supervised hours in a licensed facility.
• Skills examination preparation — the state test format and standards.

Optional Topics

• Restorative care.
• Care for specific conditions.
• Cultural considerations in care.
• Career advancement pathways.
• Employment readiness.
• Caregiver self-care and burnout.

Resources & Tools

• Nursing Assistant: A Nursing Process Approach (Acello & Hegner), Cengage — a common adoption.
• Mosby's Textbook for Nursing Assistants (Sorrentino), Elsevier — the other standard.
• FLDOE Curriculum Framework H170602 — Nursing Assistant (Long Term Care); defines the 120 hours and the required competencies. Free.
• Florida Board of Nursing — CNA certification requirements, renewal, and the CNA registry.
• Prometric — administers the Florida nurse aide examination; the candidate information bulletin lists the exact skills tested and is free.
• Skills laboratory — beds, manikins, lifts, gait belts, and personal care supplies.
• Clinical site — a licensed long-term care facility for the 40-hour rotation.
• Uniform, watch with a second hand, gait belt, and stethoscope — typically student-supplied.

Career Pathways

• Certified Nursing Assistant (SOC 31-1131) — long-term care, hospitals, assisted living, and home health.
• Home Health Aide (SOC 31-1121) — a large Florida sector.
• Patient Care Technician — hospitals; PCT programs build on CNA with phlebotomy and EKG.
• Restorative Aide — rehabilitation-focused roles.
• Pathway to Practical Nurse (SOC 29-2061) and Registered Nurse (SOC 29-1141).
• Pathway to allied health — many respiratory, imaging, and therapy students begin here.

Florida's older population makes this among the most consistently in-demand entry credentials in the state, and CNA experience is genuinely valued by nursing program admissions committees and by employers — it demonstrates that a candidate has done direct patient care and stayed.

Special Information

The Florida certification path, precisely

Completing the course does not certify anyone. Florida certification requires passing the Florida nurse aide examination, administered by Prometric, which has two parts: a written (or oral) knowledge test and a clinical skills test in which the candidate performs randomly selected skills for an evaluator. Certification is issued by the Florida Board of Nursing, which maintains the CNA registry. Candidates must also complete a Level 2 background screening under Chapter 435, F.S.

Two Florida specifics worth knowing. First, the skills test is strictly scored — specific steps must be performed in order, and omitting a step such as hand hygiene or privacy can fail an otherwise competent candidate. Prometric publishes the exact skill checklists free; practicing against them is the single most effective preparation. Second, CNA certification requires renewal with documented employment and continuing education, so a certificate that lapses may require retesting.

Zero credit, 120 clock hours, and what it does count toward

PRN0090C is PSAV: no college credit and no application toward an associate degree. It does build toward other clock-hour credentials — the Patient Care Technician framework incorporates the nursing assistant content as its first occupational completion point, adding phlebotomy, EKG, and advanced skills. Some Florida colleges award limited articulated credit toward a practical nursing or A.S. program for CNA certification under local agreements rather than statewide SCNS equivalency; ask the specific college rather than assuming.

⚠ Be honest with yourself about the work before enrolling

This course leads to a job that is physically hard, involves bodily care that some people find difficult, and requires composure in the presence of dementia, decline, and death. Assignments are heavy, staffing is often short, pay is modest, and back injury is a genuine occupational risk. None of that is a reason not to do it — it is among the most meaningful work available and it opens every subsequent health career — but a student who discovers on day one of clinical that they cannot do personal care has lost less by learning it in a 120-hour program than in a two-year one. The clinical rotation is the real test.

Body mechanics is the content that protects your career

Nursing assistants have among the highest rates of work-related musculoskeletal injury of any occupation. The controls are not optional: use the mechanical lift when the facility's policy requires it, use a gait belt, get help rather than lifting alone, and never let a rushed shift become a reason to manually lift a resident who should be lifted mechanically. Facilities have policies; the pressure to shortcut them is real, and the injuries end careers.

Observation and reporting is where the CNA matters most clinically

A nursing assistant spends more time with a resident than anyone else on the team and notices change first — a new area of redness, reduced intake, confusion that was not there yesterday, a change in gait. The assistant does not assess or diagnose, but reporting an observation promptly and specifically is the mechanism by which problems get caught early. "Mrs. Alvarez ate about a quarter of lunch today and refused breakfast" is useful; "she seems off" is not. This is the professional contribution that distinguishes an excellent CNA.

Mandatory reporting and residents' rights

Florida requires reporting of suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation of vulnerable adults under Chapter 415, F.S., to the Florida Abuse Hotline, and the duty attaches to the individual — it is not satisfied by telling a supervisor and letting them decide. Residents' rights under federal and state law are enforceable, and violations are what surveyors look for. New assistants sometimes assume these are formalities; they are the legal framework of the job.

Course numbering

The course appears as PRN0090 and PRN0090C. Related PSAV numbers include PRN0094 and others within the Patient Care Technician framework. PSAV clock-hour courses do not transfer as college credit in any case — what transfers is the state certification, which is portable across Florida employers.