HCA to CNA Bridge Near Pasco, WA: 40-Hour Weekday and Weekend Options

A Home Care Aide in Pasco who holds an active Washington HCA credential and a high school diploma or GED can sit the Nursing Assistant-Certified (NA-C) exam after a 40-clock-hour bridge, not the 108-hour course a first-time student needs. Huduma CNA Programs in Federal Way charges $800 tuition plus about $105 for books and supplies, administers the $100 skills test on site at the end of the course, and runs the bridge either as five consecutive weekdays or across about 2.5 weekends. Pasco is about 232 miles from Seattle by Greyhound's own measure, with two daily departures from the Pasco intermodal station taking about 4 hours 50 minutes, so the weekday week is the pattern built for a Pasco HCA: one bus west on Sunday, one bus home on Friday night or Saturday. The $55 Credentia knowledge test can then be taken online from home, and the Department of Health (DOH) processes the application under route E6.

A Pasco bridge week, day by day

The exact day the clinical block falls on varies by cohort; the schedules page lists dates, and the table shows the shape of the week rather than a fixed timetable. Five nights of lodging along the 1 Line or the RapidRide A Line keeps every class day to one transit ride.

Weekday or weekend from Pasco

The weekend cohort spreads the same 40 hours over Saturdays and Sundays, finishing in the third weekend. From Pasco it requires about three round trips: roughly 1,400 miles of driving, or six Greyhound legs, over three consecutive weekends. It is a legitimate choice for a caregiver who cannot get a week off, but the weekday cohort is cheaper in fares, cheaper in lodging, and avoids three crossings of Snoqualmie Pass, which WSDOT reports can close or require chains between November and March. Pasco HCAs who work weekends in home care are usually better served by asking their agency for one week of leave than by giving up three weekends.

Why not Columbia Basin College?

Columbia Basin College's nursing assistant program, run from its Health Science Center in Richland with the main campus in Pasco, is Washington State Board of Nursing (WABON) approved and offered fall, winter, and spring quarters, per the college's 2026-27 application packet. It is a complete nursing assistant certificate: about 100 lecture hours plus clinical, placement scores at Math 50, Reading 99, and English 101, a current BLS CPR and First Aid card at application, a reference letter, and a national background check after acceptance. Nothing in the packet credits prior HCA training. A Pasco HCA who already completed the 75-hour DSHS curriculum and passed the HCA exam would repeat a quarter of material to gain the facility skills a bridge covers in one week. The bridge exists for exactly that student; the college program exists for someone starting from zero.

Eligibility, checked from Pasco before buying a ticket

• HCA credential must be active on the DOH Provider Credential Search, not pending and not expired. HCA credentials renew on your birthday each year. If yours lapsed recently, renew through the DOH portal first; if it lapsed too long ago to reactivate, the bridge is closed and the full course applies.
• Diploma or GED. A secondary credential earned abroad needs an equivalency evaluation.
• Background check through the DOH's name-based statewide system, cleared before the Thursday clinical. Pasco applicants who lived in Oregon or Idaho in recent years, or who arrived from abroad, may be asked for fingerprints, which adds weeks. Submit consent the day you enroll.
• English instruction. The bridge is taught in English, and the state knowledge test is available in English or an oral format.

The route letters and what each requires are laid out in Washington CNA eligibility routes E1 to E9.

What the 40 hours add to HCA training

The HCA curriculum already covers personal care, infection control, client rights, and communication. The bridge spends its 17 theory, 13 lab, 6 clinical, and 4 mock-testing hours on what the nursing facility and the state examiner demand:

1. Nursing home documentation and reporting chains, which differ from home care logs.
2. Vital signs measured and recorded within examiner tolerances.
3. Gait-belt transfers, ambulation, positioning, and range of motion, each scored step by step.
4. Catheter and perineal care and elimination tasks that home care plans often exclude.
5. The indirect-care steps scored on every skill: explanation, hand hygiene, privacy, call light, safety check.
6. Full mock skills tests in the Part 1 format.

The DOH describes a 24-hour bridge as the minimum; this one runs 40 because the skills test is identical for bridge and traditional candidates. The skills the examiner scores are listed in the Washington CNA skills test skills list.

Cost for a Pasco student

Set against the traditional course, the bridge saves $300 in tuition and three weeks of lodging. Pasco residents on Basic Food may qualify for Basic Food Employment and Training support, and WorkSource Columbia Basin covers Franklin County; see WorkSource, WIOA, and Basic Food Employment and Training.

What the NA-C opens in Pasco

Lourdes Medical Center on North 4th Avenue, Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, and Trios Southridge in Kennewick hire nursing assistants rather than Home Care Aides, as do skilled nursing facilities such as Avalon Health and Rehabilitation Center Pasco. Indeed's Pasco nursing assistant figure is about $19.74 per hour from a small sample (July 2026); Kennewick's larger sample shows about $20.98 (September 2026) and Richland about $22.32 (August 2026). All are approximate, and all sit above the HCA rates that cluster near the $17.13 state minimum. The HCA credential stays active alongside the NA-C, so agency shifts remain available. A setting-by-setting map of those employers is in CNA jobs in Pasco, WA.

Frequently asked questions

Is there an HCA to CNA bridge in Pasco? No. Columbia Basin College offers the full nursing assistant certificate from its Richland Health Science Center. The nearest one-week bridge for credentialed HCAs is in Federal Way.

Can I do the whole trip by bus? Yes. Greyhound from the Pasco intermodal station to Seattle, then the 1 Line to Federal Way Downtown Station, which is a short walk from the school.

Where do I take the knowledge test? Online through Credentia, from Pasco, after the skills pass is recorded. Only the skills test happens in Federal Way.

What if I fail the skills test on Friday? State rule (WAC 246-841A-430) requires programs to allow at least four attempts. A retest requires another trip, which is one more reason the 4 mock-testing hours matter.

Are there clinical hours in the bridge? Yes, 6 hours in a licensed nursing facility during the same week.

Which DOH route do I apply under? E6, the route for graduates of a Washington alternative or bridge program.

Enrollment details are on the HCA to CNA bridge program page; the statewide rules for the route are in understanding the HCA to CNA bridge route.