The bill amends sections 3721.28, 3721.29, and 3721.30 of the Revised Code to establish the Ohio Dementia Care Training Act for Nurse Aides, which mandates long-term care facilities to provide a competency evaluation program approved by the director of health. This program requires a minimum of seventy-five hours of training, with a focus on dementia care, including at least two hours of dementia-specific training annually. Nurse aides are prohibited from providing direct care to residents with dementia until they have completed this required training. The bill also outlines the approval process for dementia-specific training programs and mandates nursing homes to maintain compliance records for each nurse aide, ensuring alignment with federal standards set by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Additionally, the bill introduces provisions that empower the director to impose fines, request corrective action plans, or revoke licenses for facilities that fail to meet training requirements. It prohibits any charges to nurse aides for participating in approved training programs, ensuring that employers cannot require nurse aides to pay for their training costs. The bill also clarifies the definition of "dementia" in accordance with existing law and repeals certain sections of the Revised Code to streamline the legislative framework surrounding dementia care training.

Statutes affected:
As Introduced: 3721.28, 3721.29, 3721.30