USA Learns - Skills for the Nursing Assistant Course

Skills for the Nursing Assistant is a free course that teaches contextualized English and on-the-job communication skills for entry-level healthcare workers. It is located within the USA Learns website.

Author(s) Organizational Affiliation
Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) Internet and Media Services Department
Project IDEAL Support Center at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research
U.S. Department of Education - Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education
California Dept. of Education Adult Education Dept.
Publication Year
2008
Resource Type
Instructional Material
Target Audience
Abstract

The Skills for the Nursing Assistant course teaches contextualized English and targeted academic skills for students aiming to work in a hospital setting. Learners simultaneously study contextualized English vocabulary and grammar, while preparing for their academic studies for careers in allied health programs. Students also practice job-related skills, such as how to safely complete all the steps involved in ambulating (walking) a patient.

Benefits and Uses

The Skills for the Nursing Assistant course teaches contextualized English and targeted academic skills for students aiming to work in a hospital setting. Learners simultaneously study contextualized English vocabulary and grammar, while preparing for their academic studies for careers in allied health programs. Students also practice job-related skills, such as how to safely complete all the steps involved in ambulating (walking) a patient.

The courses offer various topics (e.g., effective communication, nonverbal communication, and communication barriers) that are further broken into learning units.  Each unit offers an introduction, a video that is central to the learning unit, listening, comprehension, vocabulary, speaking, and self-check exercises.  Emphasis is also given to lecture and note taking, “in the lab” activities, language skills, and CNA core skills.  

The final unit, English Vocabulary Practice for CNAs, was designed to help learners understand the common English words needed to pass the state exam to become a Certified Nursing Assistant.

The Lessons and units are uniformly structured so that once a learner understands the process s/he can move with ease through the different lessons. 

The website provides a Teacher’s Guide to assist with creating and managing a USA Learns course.

Teachers can register on the USA Learns for Teachers website (https://www.usalearns.org/teacher), create classes based on USA Learns’ content, and easily monitor students’ progress and time spent.  Tips and directions for doing so are included.  Teachers can also register as a student using a unique email address (https://www.usalearns.org/) to preview the course content as a learner would see it.

There are technological requirements to be able to access the site:  The site has been optimized for use on computers, tablets, and smartphones. It requires a reasonably fast broadband Internet connection, Web browser, and the equipment needed to play audio, watch videos, and record one’s voice.

The following links are useful to teachers:

USA Learns homepage: https://www.usalearns.org/

Teacher homepage / registration: https://www.usalearns.org/teacher 

Resources for teachers: https://www.usalearns.org/resources-for-teachers
Instructions for teachers: https://www.usalearns.org/teacher-instructions/home

 

Required Training

Teacher instructions are available on the teacher site.

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