Rhode Island CNA Registry

How to Look Up a Rhode Island CNA License

This section is the mechanics: where the search is, what to type into it, and how to read what comes back.

Rhode Island keeps its nursing assistant records at healthri.mylicense.com. The search is public, so you can check your own record or a candidate's record without an account and without paying.

1. Open the Rhode Island registry search

   Go to healthri.mylicense.com and use the Search for a Professional License panel. The search takes three dropdowns, Profession, License Type and License Status, each starting on All, and three boxes, First Name, Last Name and License Number. Setting Profession to Nursing Assistant keeps other professions out, and any one box is enough to run a search. No login, no account, no fee.

2. Enter your details as the registry recorded them

   Use the name from the time of testing, and fill in what the panel asks for. If it offers a license number box, the number is unique to one person and a name is not, but some panels take the number or a name, not both.

3. Match the record to the person

   Check every identifying detail the result shows, not just the name, before you treat a row as a match. Common surnames return several records, and the wrong one can look right at a glance.

4. Read what the record says, not just that a name came back

   Appearing on the registry is not the same as being current, so read what the record says about standing, whether that is a status, an expiry date, or both, then check it against the status table below. If a result links through to a fuller record, open it, because some registries keep the status there. The results table shows Full Name, License Number, Profession, License Type, License Status, City and State Prov, 40 rows to a page, with each name opening a details page that shows the license status, issue date, expiration date and training school.

5. Save a dated copy of the result

   Print to PDF or screenshot the page showing the name, license number, what the record says about standing, and the date you checked. Employers and agencies usually want that record on file.

How to find your license number

Where a search takes the number, it narrows the result to one person in a way a name may not. If you have lost it, it is on any of these.

• Your certificate or wallet card, if your state issued one after the skills test
• The result page of the registry search itself, once you have found your record
• Your employer's personnel file, because facilities record it when they verify you at hire
• The registry, on 401-222-5888, if none of the above works

What Each Rhode Island CNA Registry Status Means

The status field is the part that decides whether someone can work. Wording varies by state, so read the exact term on the record rather than assuming what it means.

Why Your Rhode Island CNA License Is Not Showing on the Registry

How to Verify a CNA License in Rhode Island

This section is what the result proves: what a record is evidence of, what to save as your copy of it, and what it means for you specifically. The search itself is the same for everyone.

Verifying your own license after finishing training

Look yourself up at healthri.mylicense.com once your application has been processed and your results have reached the registry. Save a dated copy of the record, because most employers ask for proof at offer stage rather than checking themselves.

Verifying your license after transferring from another state

A certification held in another state does not appear in Rhode Island until reciprocity is processed. Until a Rhode Island record exists, employers here cannot verify you, and your out-of-state record is the only proof you have. See transferring a license to Rhode Island for the application route, then verify the new record the same way.

Verifying someone else's license (for employers)

Federal rules require a facility to check the registry before it lets someone work as a nursing assistant. The record shows the certification status. It is not the whole check, because Rhode Island records findings of abuse, neglect or misappropriation of property on a separate list, so a current certification does not on its own mean there is nothing against someone. The record only covers Rhode Island, so if a candidate has worked elsewhere, search that state's registry too.

That separate list is the Disciplinary Actions and Orders list. Check both before you rely on a result.

How to Renew Your Rhode Island CNA License

Renewal in Rhode Island is yours to file. You report your own qualifying work to the registry, and the record does not update until you do, however long you have been working.

1. Work at least 8 hours in a qualifying role

   The hours must be paid nursing or nursing-related duties inside the 24 months before your record lapses. Unpaid placements and volunteer shifts do not count. Which paid work counts? Work as a nursing assistant for a Rhode Island-licensed health care facility, assisted living residence or adult day services program, or for a licensed nursing service agency. Private duty work does not count. Does work in another state count? No. Renewal counts only work in Rhode Island-licensed settings. If your license has lapsed while you worked as a nursing assistant in another state, RIDOH has a separate reinstatement route that accepts that work.

2. File the report yourself

   You submit it, not your employer, through the state's system, RIDOH's online renewal on its Online Services Page. The record does not update until you do, so file before it lapses. You attest on the online renewal form that you worked in the previous 24 months. Renewals can be audited, so keep proof of your in-service training hours for three years.

   Do it while you still work there. Whatever the registry asks for, it is harder to get from a former employer.

3. Check the record, and read the expiry date if it has one

   Look yourself up at healthri.mylicense.com once the report has been filed. Where the record carries an expiry date, a status of active on its own is not enough, because the previous period may still be running, and the expiry date is what tells you the new period has actually started.

4. Fix a missing report before it lapses

   If the hours were worked but never reported, that is correctable, and it is far easier to correct while the record is still active. Contact the registry on 401-222-5888 or doh.elicense@health.ri.gov and ask what they will accept as evidence of the work.

5. Keep your own dated copy

   Save a copy of the record showing your current status, and the new expiry date where the record has one. If a report is ever missed, that copy is what you give a new employer while the registry corrects it.

How to Reinstate a Lapsed Rhode Island CNA License

If your active period runs out without the qualifying work reported, the record stops being active. What it takes to come back depends on which of these you are.

How to Get on the Rhode Island CNA Registry

In Rhode Island you file the registry application yourself, and no record exists until it arrives. States differ on when it has to go in, some wanting it when you enroll and others once you have passed, so check the timing with RIDOH rather than assuming it comes last.

1. Meet the basic requirements

   Rhode Island does not publish a minimum age for registry eligibility. Training providers set their own, so check with the provider before you enrol.

2. Complete an approved 120-hour course

   Train with a provider approved in Rhode Island. Our CNA program directory does not cover Rhode Island yet, so start from the state's own approved-provider list.

3. Pass the written and skills tests

   A written test of 70 multiple-choice questions, taken online, and a skills test at a regional test site in Rhode Island, where you perform five nursing assistant skills. You can ask for the written test orally in English or Spanish instead, and both parts have to be passed within one year of the day you started training. Federal rules say you can choose to take the knowledge test orally instead of in writing, but some states offer that only as an approved accommodation, so ask your testing entity how to request it if reading is difficult for you or English is not your first language.

   If a facility has already hired you, there is a deadline for passing both tests. Federal rules cap it at four months from your hire date and some states allow less, so confirm yours with RIDOH before you plan around it. Our free CNA practice tests cover the same knowledge areas as the written test, and the free CNA skills course walks through the skills evaluation itself.

   Check what the exams cost and who collects the fee before you book.

4. File your registry application

   Submit the application yourself, with whatever documents the registry lists. No record exists until it arrives. Your exam results may travel separately, sent straight from the testing entity, and some states also require your training provider to confirm the training, so check whether anything is waiting on someone else.

5. Check that you appear on the registry

   Give the registry time to process the result, then look yourself up at healthri.mylicense.com before you contact the registry.

Rhode Island CNA Registry Contact Information

Rhode Island CNA Requirements at a Glance

Transferring a CNA License To or From Rhode Island (Reciprocity)

Reciprocity is how an active certification held in one state becomes a certification in another. It usually avoids retesting, but only while your current certification is in good standing. A lapsed or flagged record cannot transfer.

Rhode Island CNA Training Programs

The steps above are the whole route onto the registry. The one thing that usually comes before them is an approved 120-hour program.

If you want to prepare before you enrol, our free CNA skills course covers the material the program and the skills test are built on.

Rhode Island CNA Registry FAQ

Look Up a CNA License in Another State

Every state runs its own registry, and a certification is only verifiable in the state that issued it. Pick a state to see its portal, its status vocabulary and its renewal rules.