Spc. Jennifer Trenkelbach, a volunteer in the certified nursing assistant training program offered by the American Red Cross and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, takes Spc. James Casey’s temperature at the hospital. Trenkelbach was among the first dozen people to graduate from the program at Lanstuhl on Friday. (Mark Abramson / Stars and Stripes)
LANDSTUHL, Germany — A dozen sets of helping hands are on the way, thanks to a new program that trains volunteers to be certified nursing assistants.
Landstuhl Regional Medical Center officials have teamed with the American Red Cross to train the volunteers and place them at medical facilities close to where they live in Europe. They compressed the training into four weeks by having it five days a week.
Last week’s nursing assistant graduates are the first to complete the Red Cross program at a military base, although other military installations have expressed an interest in the program, said Susanne Harlandt, the Red Cross’s station chief at Landstuhl. Harlandt said officials at Fort Carson, Colo., want her to start a similar program when she transfers there next month.
"It’s like a nurse having a second set of hands," said Army nurse 1st Lt. Melanie Silva.
The nursing assistants are trained to take vital signs, handle patients who are in physical therapy, work with patients on dietary needs, feed and move patients around a hospital and perform other tasks that would allow nurses to focus on duties that require more extensive training, such as administering medicine and IVs.
"A CNA is really an integral person at the bedside taking care of a patient," said Army Col. Roy Harris, chief of clinical nursing at Landstuhl.
Training people to be nursing assistants is also is a good way to get them interested in becoming nurses, Harris said.
CNAs and nurses are in demand in the United States. According to the California Association for Nurse Practitioners, the CNA field is expected to grow by 393,000 people, or 14-20 percent between 2006 and 2016.
"There is a real concern throughout the health-care industry that the shortage of nurses and nursing assistants is becoming a national epidemic," Jill Olmstead, the association’s president, said in an e-mail.
Army Medical Command officials said they do not have an equivalent to a CNA. The closest thing would be a medic, which requires more training.
The first batch of volunteers in Landstuhl’s CNA program said they are excited about being trailblazers and helping out.
"I felt like this was a good opportunity to expand my horizons," volunteer Chris Steed said. "It was easy, the way it was presented."
Steed said she wants to volunteer in a fast-paced emergency room.
Katherine Bega, who was a CNA in California, said she signed up to renew her expired license. She plans on volunteering in a medical surgical ward.
Spc. Jennifer Trenkelbach volunteered for the CNA training after she broke her foot while running. She is in limbo in the Warrior Transition Unit while the Army decides if she should be discharged.
"It gives me a chance to volunteer. I want to go into nursing, but you got to work your way up," Trenkelbach said. "It was very good training."
The Red Cross and the Army have added something extra to the CNA program so that people who complete it are qualified to work in any state. Those additions include the dietary, working with patients who are in physical therapy, infection control and CPR components.
With a little more training, the volunteers could become medics, said Army Lt. Col. Patricia Born, one of the nurses who teaches the program.
