The Rhode Island Nursing Assistant Credential & NNAAP Exam Structure

The Rhode Island Nursing Assistant Credential & NNAAP Exam Structure

Most states call the credential "CNA." Rhode Island's statute and regulations call it a Nursing Assistant license, issued by the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) under R.I. Gen. Laws Chapter 23-17.9 and regulation 216-RICR-40-05-22. The distinction is not cosmetic: Rhode Island licenses nursing assistants individually rather than merely listing them on a registry, and § 22.5(B) of the regulation states that the only abbreviation a Rhode Island nursing assistant may use is "N.A." Using "CNA" after your name on a chart or name tag is technically outside what the regulation authorizes, even though nearly every job posting and training school in the state uses the term informally.

The competency exam itself is the National Nurse Aide Assessment Program (NNAAP®), originally developed by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) and now developed and managed by Credentia Nurse Aide LLC. Credentia is the only authorized testing vendor for Rhode Island. Study materials aimed at Prometric or Pearson VUE states describe different skill lists, different time limits, and different scoring rules — do not use them.

Who Does What

Notice the third row. In Rhode Island the training program, not the candidate, carries the regulatory duty to file the license application and schedule the exam (§ 22.7(D)(3)). If you finish a course and hear nothing for three weeks, call the program — they are the party legally on the hook.

The Two Parts of the NNAAP

You must pass both parts. Passing one does not carry the other, and both are taken as part of a single candidacy.

Part 1 — Written (or Oral) Examination

• 70 multiple-choice items, of which 10 are unscored pretest items used to gather statistics. Only 60 items count toward your score.
• 2 hours. In Rhode Island the written portion is now delivered as an online proctored exam.
• An Oral Examination may be substituted if reading English is difficult, but you must request it when you submit your application — you cannot switch on test day. The Oral consists of 60 multiple-choice items read aloud twice each, plus 10 reading-comprehension (word-recognition) items in which a common long-term-care word is read three times and you match it to the written word. Both sections of the Oral must be passed. A Spanish Oral Examination is available; in it the 10 word-recognition items are read in Spanish and matched to the English word.

Part 2 — Skills Evaluation

• Five skills, performed live for a Nurse Aide Evaluator at a regional Rhode Island testing site.
• 30 minutes total for all five, with a verbal five-minute warning at the 25-minute mark.
• You must pass 5 out of 5. There is no partial credit at the skill level.
• Hand Hygiene is always one of the five, and one of the five is always a measurement skill (blood pressure, radial pulse, respirations, urinary output, or weight). The remaining three are drawn randomly from the rest of the RI skill list.

Timing, Attempts & Money

That last row is money most candidates leave on the table. If you are employed by a nursing home when you test, the facility — not you — is responsible for the fee, and that obligation extends to retests.

⚠️ The trap that ends candidacies. The three-attempt limit and the one-year window run in parallel, and both are measured from the start of training, not from your first test date. A candidate who begins a 10-week course in January, finishes in March, and then postpones testing while "getting more experience" can reach January of the following year with attempts remaining but no eligibility left. Schedule early and use the calendar, not your confidence, as the trigger.