Acquiring a Licensed Nursing Assistant credential requires completing several mandatory milestones defined by state boards of health or nursing. First, you must enroll in a state-approved training program offered by community colleges, technical schools, or designated healthcare facilities, which typically requires a high school diploma or GED equivalent. These training courses combine dozens of hours of classroom instruction on anatomy, medical terminology, and infection control with hands-on clinical practice in a supervised medical environment. Upon successfully graduating from the approved program, you must register for and pass your state competency evaluation, consisting of a written or multiple-choice test and a physical skills evaluation. Finally, you are required to submit a background check, complete fingerprinting, pay the administrative application fees, and register your credentials with the state nursing registry.