The 5-Skill Evaluation Format

Evaluation Format: 3 to 5 Randomly Selected Skills

The Indiana Clinical Skills Evaluation assigns each candidate between 3 and 5 skills drawn at random from the published ISDH Resident Care Procedures (RCPs). The RCPs are standardized competency checklists — each lists every step of a procedure and marks the critical steps in bold. You will not know which skills you will perform until the evaluator hands you the assignment on test day. Commonly tested skills include hand hygiene, vital signs (blood pressure and pulse), transfers with a gait belt, bed bath, catheter care, oral care, positioning, and feeding.

The evaluator uses a resident actor (another candidate or a mannequin) and reads your performance against the RCP step-by-step. You are expected to perform as you would on the floor — knock, identify the resident, explain the procedure, provide privacy, wash hands before and after, and document — unless the skill's RCP specifically excludes a step.

The Critical-Steps Rule: One Missed Bolded Step = Fail That Skill

The most important rule of the skills evaluation is the 100% critical-steps rule. Each RCP divides its steps into two tiers:

Critical steps are the safety-critical actions — locking wheelchair wheels before a transfer, identifying the resident, washing hands, keeping the drainage bag below bladder level, cleaning 4 inches from the meatus outward. You can perform every other step perfectly and still fail the skill if a single critical step is omitted or done incorrectly. Conversely, you cannot pass by nailing only the critical steps and botching the routine steps — the non-critical steps still accumulate toward the passing threshold.

Test-Day Protocol

Ivy Tech administers the skills evaluation at regional testing sites. Arrive prepared and early.

• Photo ID required. Bring a government-issued photo ID (driver's license, state ID, or passport). The name must match your registration. Without ID, you will not be admitted and the attempt may be forfeited.
• Attire. Wear clean, professional scrub-style clothing, flat closed-toe shoes with nonslip soles, and a watch with a second hand (required for pulse and respiration counts). No dangling jewelry, no long or polished nails (infection control), hair tied back.
• Arrival. Arrive at least 15 minutes before the scheduled start. Late candidates may be denied entry.
• Supplies. Bring pens and a stethoscope if the site requires it; most sites provide the equipment, gait belt, and mannequin.
• Demeanor. Treat the evaluator and the resident actor as if they were a real resident in a real facility — knock, greet, identify, explain, ask permission, provide privacy.

On-Site, Same-Day Scoring

Unlike the written exam, which is scored electronically and returned later, the skills evaluation is scored on-site and the same day. The evaluator marks the RCP checklist in real time as you perform. Immediately after you finish the assigned skills, the evaluator tallies the result and informs you whether you passed or failed. A failed skill is recorded with the specific critical step missed, so you know what to remediate before a retake.

The 3-Attempt Limit and Retake Rules

Indiana allows each candidate three attempts at the skills evaluation within the 2-year testing window that begins when the training program ends. The attempts combine the written and skills evaluations — that is, you have three total attempts at each component. Key rules:

• After a failed attempt, you may retake the failed component (written or skills) without re-taking the component you passed.
• You must wait the interval set by Ivy Tech (commonly a few weeks) before retaking.
• The written and skills components must both be passed within the 2-year window from program completion.
• If the 2-year window closes before you pass, you must complete a new 105-hour training program before testing again.

Three Failed Attempts = New Training Program

If you fail the skills evaluation three times, Indiana rule requires you to complete an entirely new 105-hour CNA training program (75 clinical hours + 30 classroom hours) at an ISDH-approved program before you may test again. The three failed attempts do not roll over; they are erased only by retraining. This is why each attempt is precious — treat the first attempt as the real one and remediate aggressively after a fail.

Practical Test-Day Strategy

1. Perform hand hygiene before and after every skill even if the RCP does not bold it — evaluators watch for it.
2. Narrate critical steps silently to yourself before executing — lock wheels, identify resident, drainage bag below bladder — so you do not skip a bolded step under pressure.
3. Knock, identify, explain, provide privacy, and ask permission on every resident-encounter skill; these are common critical steps across RCPs.
4. If you realize you missed a step mid-skill, do not freeze — complete the remaining steps correctly so only one critical miss is recorded, not a cascade.
5. Know the 3-attempt limit going in — it raises the stakes without panicking you. Retakes cost time and money (the exam fee is around $100 per attempt), and three fails trigger retraining.