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Your CNA cert is more portable than most CNAs think, and not just for moving. Roughly half the states will transfer it for free. The rest are a mixed bag, and one in particular gets steep. We mapped the whole thing down below.
Plus the class action ads quietly running for missed breaks, a CMS proposal that could land more on your shift, two state reminders for Michigan and California, and the bath one CNA delivered that nobody but the resident noticed.
Let's get into it.
THE PAY CHECK
Money, wages, and what you’re worth.
You might already be owed pay for every missed break
Plaintiff-side law firms are running Facebook and Instagram ads to recruit hourly healthcare workers, CNAs included, into class actions over missed meal breaks and off-the-clock charting. The wave is here.
A Washington state healthcare employer was ordered to pay close to $100 million in 2024 over missed breaks. In California, every shift over five hours without a 30-minute uninterrupted meal break owes the worker an extra hour at regular rate. Several other states have similar rules.
Your move: track missed breaks. Date, shift length, whether you got 30 uninterrupted minutes. If an ad names your employer or chain, a class action is being built and your notes turn into evidence.
SHIFT REPORT
What’s happening in CNA world this week.
More paperwork is heading for your nurses, which means more work lands on you
CMS just proposed expanding the nursing home Quality Reporting Program so that admission and discharge assessments would be required for every resident, not just Medicare residents. A study commissioned by AAPACN, the post-acute nursing association, found the new paperwork would pull nursing staff from direct resident care by more than an hour per resident, per day. That hour doesn't disappear. It shifts onto CNAs covering more transfers, more call lights, and more rounds without a nurse in the room. Public comment is open through June 1.
Skilled Nursing NewsMichigan CNAs: the CE rule is now hitting real renewals
Back in March we covered Michigan's new CE rule: 12 hours per year, 24 over the renewal cycle, with required content on abuse, neglect, and care plan training. Two months in, the first wave of renewals under the rule is actually rolling. If your renewal letter is in your inbox and you weren't tracking CE, your facility's in-service training counts for nursing home CNAs. Hospital and home health workers have to find approved CE on their own. The renewal fee is $40.
Michigan CNA renewal guideCalifornia CNAs: your wage floor moves on July 1
A reminder for California readers, five weeks out. On July 1, the health care minimum wage at the largest hospital systems, dialysis clinics, and LA County facilities goes from $24 to $25 per hour. SNFs operated by those large systems (10,000+ FTEs) are on the same tier. Most other facilities move from $21 to $23, with no path to $25 until 2028. Not sure which tier your employer falls into? The CA DIR FAQ has the list. If you qualify and still earn less than $25 on July 2, that's a conversation with HR.
CA DIR Health Care Worker Minimum Wage FAQ
FROM THE FLOOR
Real talk from the job.
The work nobody saw
A CNA wrote this week about a bath day with a new resident in long-term care. She stripped the bed, picked out a nice outfit, clipped his nails, shaved him. Got him into the bath where he "aaaahhhhsssed" in enjoyment, scrubbed him head to toe, washed his hair twice. Hot blanket on his shoulders coming out, lotion on his legs and back, compression stockings, hair dryer. Sat him at the table with the newspaper spread out for breakfast.
He was relaxed. "Not a bad way to start the day," he said.
Then his daughter walked in.
"Why isn't my dad's bed made?" "He doesn't like baths." "Why is he wearing an undershirt?" Not one word about how settled he looked.
The man got a beautiful morning. He got it from her. The person who'll speak for him never saw what she did.
If you've ever finished a shift wondering whether the care you gave actually counted when the person who'll speak about it didn't see - it did. The resident knows. That's what matters.
YOUR MOVE
Career paths, certifications, and what comes next.
Your CNA cert is more portable than you think
Reciprocity isn't only about moving. The same paperwork unlocks travel contracts in higher-paying markets, seasonal shifts in another state, agency work across state lines, and the option to follow family without restarting your career.
Unlike RNs and LPNs, CNAs have no interstate compact, so each state runs its own process. Roughly half the states won't charge you anything if your cert is active and in good standing. Most of the rest sit between $20 and $80. A few states go higher, with Washington and Alaska at the top. Processing runs a few weeks to a couple of months.
BREAK ROOM
You’ve earned a laugh.
The tradition you only learn ten years in.
A question made the rounds this week. A CNA, ten-plus years on the job, had just learned that some aides open the window in the room after a resident dies. The reason: to let the spirit out of the building.
She'd never heard of it. Neither had a lot of other people. Others have been doing it their whole careers.
Loss is part of this job in a way most jobs don't have to think about. The small rituals that help you move through it usually aren't in any handbook. Same shifts, same moments, same small ritual someone next to you has been quietly doing all along.
Some shifts end quieter than others.
That's your brief for this week. Back in your inbox next Wednesday.
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See you next week
The CNA Brief
A publication of thecnaguide.com.