By Tihut Tamrat, Contributing Writer
“Train to be a Nurse Assistant, advance your employment opportunities, and start earning an income in as few as 22 days, ” states the pamphlet for The Nile Sisters Development Initiative’s LearnMore program. The flyer easily grabs the attention of the newly arrived refugees and immigrants held at the front door of the Nile Sisters’ center.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that National Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) employment projections between the years 2020 and 2030, estimate 8% growth translating to 192,800 jobs.
The San Diego Workforce Partnership also found that in California, 97,970 employed CNA’s make the state the second largest CNA employer in the nation. Furthermore, specifically in San Diego County, CNA employment is an in-demand category whose average annual income is $37,835.
The LearnMore program is a private nonprofit career training school based in Southeastern San Diego that equips participants with skills for employment in high-demand sectors.
This program, created by Elizabeth Lou, Nile Sisters CEO and Founder, was made to ease the minds and hearts of refugees and immigrants who just arrived into the complicated American system that want to build their life here in America.
Keeping up to date with these statistics Lou states that, “Healthcare industry is the best and the fastest growing industry. When we train you to become a health care giver, you can start a job right away.” It is one of the main reasons why she created the LearnMore Program, Lou says.
“[From caregiver] You can expand on that to become CNA, or from CNA you can even go on to become a [Licensed Vocational Nurse] LVN, ” states Lou. It’s a gateway to rapid success, Lou says.
It provides multiple career training options such as accelerated nurse assistant (NATP) training, fast-track home health aide (HHA) training, continuing education unit (CEU) provider, home care aide training, and certificate training in basic life support(BLS), cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and automated external defibrillator (AED).
The most popular education service newcomers enroll in is the accelerated nurse assistant training program (NATP). It provides enhanced theory, lab, and supervised clinical instruction to prepare students for the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) examination and employment in the healthcare sector.
Training topics include patient care procedures, observation and charting of vital signs such as weight and measures, empathy and dignity in patient care, and more. NATP follows California Department of Public Health approved curriculum, modules, lesson plans, and clinical skills to prepare successful graduates to complete the course with a passing grade on the State of California certified nursing assistant examination to meet the health needs of diverse communities to launch them into the workforce.
Program participants must be 16 years or older, have a valid government-issued identification, social security number, negative tuberculosis test, a comprehensive physical examination, background check, and up-to-date covid vaccinations or valid medical exemption.
“Some of our graduates are LVN’s already and others went as far as getting [a master]. Some are currently working with Kaiser and Sharp hospital. You can build yourself up from the Nile Sisters and move on to the next,” states Lou, showing that the Learn More program is working and accomplishing what it set out to do.
“We don’t want people to depend on us. We want to help them become stable and move on with their lives and this is a great way to do that,” emphasizes Lou.
The challenge, however, with creating such an ambitious program is “funding”. The Nile Sisters Development Initiative is a non-profit organization and relies on funds from the city and state, making it hard for Lou.
She recounted that despite working countless hours, day and night, and receives little to no help from her community.
“Mayors attend our graduation, former chair supervisors came to our graduation, senators came to our graduation, the city council districts came to our graduation, all these people come and yet they are not helping,” Lou says insistently.
Lou leaves Voice & Viewpoint with her last statement.
“We believe that the Nile [River] is a blessing. It feeds people from the East and across the world. It brings nutrients and fertilizers all along the way to the ocean. It brings fish and food from across the globe. This is the initiative of the sisters. That’s how our name came about. I am not running away, I am here. This is my home. I fight to stay here.”
For more information about the LearnMore program, visit nilesisterss.org.
