The Skill Evaluation

Details the skills evaluation component for Alaska nursing assistant certification

What to Expect Settings

The Skills Evaluation is set up to look like an actual caregiving situation. The Skills Evaluation area will look like your work setting. It will have all the equipment needed to perform the assigned skills. The Skills Evaluation will be given by a Nurse Aide Evaluator. Before your Skills Evaluation begins, the evaluator will show you where equipment is and answer questions about using the equipment. Please arrive 30 minutes early. Please plan to spend the day. See complete skills listing in the Skills section of this handbook.

Who will act as a client

The part of the “client” will be played by a candidate who will act like an elderly person. While you perform the skills, speak to the client as you would speak to an actual client in a Nurse Aide work setting. It’s good to speak to the client not only because it is part of quality care, but also because it will help you to relax as you perform the skills.

Note: You cannot get help from anyone during the Skills Evaluation, and you must speak to the client in English so that the evaluator can understand and correctly score the evaluation. If either one of you gives help or receives help during the test or you and the client are talking in a language other than English, the test will be stopped.

Candidate Volunteer Requirements

You will need to act as a candidate volunteer for another nurse aide’s Skills Evaluation and play the role of a nursing home patient (client). You will get instructions on how you should act in your role as the client. You must wear flat, slip-on, non-skid shoes; a loose-fitting top with short sleeves that can be rolled up to the shoulder or tank top; and loose-fitting pants that can be rolled up. You will need to put on a gown over your clothing. In no case should anyone remove clothing down to undergarments.

Before starting the test, you should tell the evaluator about any food or latex allergy or sensitivity to skin soaps or lotion. If you have trouble with any range of motion, you should tell the evaluator before you start. You should not come to the test site with open sores on the skin. Candidates with any open sores on their skin should reschedule their skills test to a later date after their skin fully heals.

The Tasks

The NNAAP® Skills List shows all the skills that you may be asked to do during the Skills Evaluation. Each skill represents a task that you will be asked to perform in your job and has been broken down into a series of steps.

A step that is highlighted in bold type is called a Critical Element Step. Critical Element Steps are important steps that must be performed correctly for you to pass the skill. If you leave out a Critical Element Step or do not perform a Critical Element Step correctly, you will not pass the skill. However, if you perform only the Critical Element Step correctly, you do not automatically pass that skill. You must also correctly perform enough steps to meet the passing standard (or cut score) for each skill.

Before your Skills Evaluation begins, the Nurse Aide Evaluator will give you an instruction card that will list the five (5) skills selected for you to perform. Handwashing will always be one of the skills to be performed. The remaining four (4) skills are randomly chosen from the skills listings. You should perform the skills in the order they are listed on the instruction card.

If you make a mistake, say so, and you will be instructed to tell the evaluator which step(s) is to be corrected and then to perform the step(s). You don’t want do the entire skill, just the steps you want to correct. There are some exceptions to this rule. If you don’t put on gloves or take them off when required, and the evaluator reminds you to do that, then you will not get credit for trying to correct this step.
If you want to correct a step that must be done in order — a step that must be performed before or after another step — and you forget to say when the corrected step should be performed, you will not get credit for the correction.
Once you begin a new skill, you cannot go back to correct the skill that came before it.
The Nurse Aide Evaluator will not answer questions during the Skills Evaluation and will not tell you whether you performed a skill correctly. You may not receive help from anyone during the Skills Evaluation. If you do have any questions, please ask them before the Skills Evaluation begins.
One (1) of the four (4) randomly selected skills will include a measurement skill.
You must successfully complete five (5) out of the five (5) skills in the skill form to pass the Skills Evaluation. You will have 30 minutes to demonstrate all 5 skills. When 25 minutes have elapsed the Nurse Aide Evaluator will tell you that you have 5 minutes left.
When you have finished your Skills Evaluation, the evaluator will tell you to wash your hands. This will not affect your score, but you must wash your hands as a hygiene measure.

Recording a Measurement

The NNAAP Skills Evaluation requires every candidate to perform one measurement skill, such as blood pressure, radial pulse, respirations, urine output, or weight. You will be required to record, the measurement on a digital device. For example, if performing the Measures and Records Blood Pressure skill, you will record the complete systolic and diastolic pressures of your blood pressure reading in a field labeled Candidate Results. Once candidate completed their result recording it can not be changed by the candidate or the evaluator.

The candidate must record his/ her results in the Candidate Results box during the skill. This process will be used to record the results of the following measurement skills:

Measures and Records Blood Pressure
Measures and Records Weight of Ambulatory Client
Measures and Records Urinary Output
Counts and Records Radial Pulse
Counts and Records Respirations

Tips for the Skills Evaluation

You will be expected to perform the skills as you would in a nursing home setting. When water is required, you must use running water. All candidates will be required to perform the Hand Hygiene skill. The evaluator will inform you after you have washed your hands for the first time that you should just tell him or her when you would wash your hands during your performance of the rest of the skills, rather than actually washing them for each skill. For all steps other than hand washing, you must actually perform the skill in order to receive credit. You may not simply tell the evaluator what you would do for simulating a step. For example, you may not simply tell the evaluator that you would wash the client. You must actually demonstrate washing the client. You may not simply tell the evaluator that you would feed the client. You must actually demonstrate feeding the client.
After you have introduced yourself to the client for the first time, it is not necessary for you to introduce yourself each time you begin a new skill.
To receive full credit for a measurement skill, you must accurately make the required measurement and then record that measurement on the electronic device.
You must know how to operate both a standing and a nondigital bathroom scale and must know how to set both types of scales to zero.
You may not bring any of your own equipment to the test site (i.e. transfer/gait belt).
It is important for you to place the call signal within the client’s reach whenever you leave the client.
Where the word “client” appears, it refers to the person receiving care.