CNA skills evaluation checklist
Before a nurse aide competency evaluation, confirm four things: which blood-pressure skill your state tests, whether you want the oral examination instead of the written one and have requested it at registration, whether your employer is required to pay for you, and what your state handbook sets as the time limit and number of retakes. Three of those four come from your own state, not from a national rule.
- Download your own state candidate handbookIt governs your fees, time limits, retake rules and which skills are tested. Nothing on this site overrides it.
- Confirm whether your state tests electronic or manual blood pressureSkills 12 and 23 are both marked state specific, and the handbook instructs evaluators not to substitute one for the other.
- Decide between the written and the oral examinationFEDERAL: 483.154(b)(1)(i) requires the evaluation to let you choose. The oral version is 60 multiple-choice plus 10 reading comprehension items. Request it when you register, not on the day.
- Check whether you may be charged at allFEDERAL: if a facility employs you or has offered you a job, it may not charge you for any part of the evaluation. If you paid and are employed within 12 months, the state must reimburse you pro rata.
- Find your state cap on attemptsFEDERAL: you get at least three attempts, and a state cap may be no lower than three. The actual number is in your handbook.
- Find your deadline for passing both partsYou must pass the written or oral examination AND the skills evaluation. Colorado allows 24 months from application; yours may differ.
- Learn the Critical Element Steps for every skill in the poolBold steps in the handbook. Miss one and you fail that skill — but performing only the Critical Element Step does not pass it either; you must also meet the per-skill cut score.
- Prepare to act as the client for another candidateFlat slip-on non-skid shoes, a loose short-sleeved top that rolls to the shoulder, loose trousers that roll up. You put a gown on over your clothing and never undress to undergarments.
- Drill the closing steps until they are automaticSignalling device within reach, bed in the low position, hands washed. Scored on nearly every skill and the cheapest points on the evaluation.
- Know that the skills evaluation is conducted in EnglishYou must speak to the client in English so the evaluator can score it. If reading English is the barrier, the oral examination is the federal remedy for the written part.
How this works
Items marked federal are quoted from 42 CFR part 483 subpart D and apply in every state. Items marked state come from your own candidate handbook; Colorado is used where an example helps, and its figures are not national. This is a preparation checklist, not a substitute for reading your handbook, which is the only document that governs your test.
Study the topic
- Basic Nursing Skills (35% of the CNA exam) · practice questions
- Member of the Health Care Team (6% of the CNA exam) · practice questions
22 original questions, weighted like the real blueprint. No signup. Results in minutes.
Primary references
- 42 CFR Part 483 Subpart D — Requirements That Must Be Met by States and State Agencies, Nurse Aide Training and Competency Evaluation — Office of the Federal Register (eCFR) · government · retrieved 2026-09-22, verified 2026-09-22
- Colorado Nurse Aide Written (or Oral) Examination and Skills Evaluation Candidate Handbook — Credentia Services LLC, in partnership with the Colorado Board of Nursing · primary · retrieved 2026-09-22, verified 2026-09-22
- The 2024 National Nurse Aide Assessment Program (NNAAP) Written (Oral) Examination Content Outline — Credentia Nurse Aide LLC · primary · retrieved 2026-09-22, verified 2026-09-22