Earning your CNA certification was the starting line; it qualified you to work and it gave you a foundation of clinical skills that you use every day. But if you’ve been working in long-term care or a similar setting for any amount of time, you’ve probably noticed something: the job demands a lot more than the training covered.
Residents with serious mental illness. Patients on ventilators or supplemental oxygen. Infection outbreaks that put entire units on alert. These are real, daily realities in healthcare and they’re areas where many CNAs feel undertrained, underprepared, or simply curious about how to do better.
Specialty training courses are how you close that gap.
Bryan University offers three online specialty courses designed specifically for working CNAs. Each one is $299, fully self-paced, completable on your phone, and finishes with a verifiable Credly digital badge you can share on LinkedIn and add to your resume.
Here’s a breakdown of all three and a guide to figuring out which one makes the most sense for where you are in your career right now.
The Three Courses at a Glance
| Behavioral Health Level 1 | Respiratory Care | Infection Control | |
| Best setting | Memory care, behavioral health, LTC | Ventilator-capable SNFs, pulmonology, post-acute | Any LTC or SNF setting |
| Core focus | Mental health, trauma-informed care, de-escalation | Oxygen delivery, tracheostomy, ventilator care | PPE, precautions, pathogens, HAI prevention |
| Modules | 8 | 4 | 6 |
| Time to complete | 8–12 hours | 8–12 hours | 8–12 hours |
| Cost | $299 | $299 | $299 |
| Access Window | 6 months | 6 months | 6 months |
| Credential | Certificate of Completion + Credly badge | Certificate of Completion + Credly badge | Certificate of Completion + Credly badge |
All three courses are approved by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) and are available through Bryan University’s online portal. Assessments can be retaken until you achieve the 80% passing score; the path to certification is about mastery, not a single high-stakes test.
Course 1: Behavioral Health Level 1
The behavior health course is best suited for CNAs working in memory care units, behavioral health wings of long-term care facilities, or any setting where a significant portion of residents are managing serious mental illness alongside their physical health needs.
It’s also a strong choice for any CNA who has ever felt underprepared when a resident’s behavior escalated, when someone was clearly in emotional distress and you weren’t sure how to respond, or when you noticed signs of burnout in yourself and didn’t know what to do about it.
What You’ll Learn
The eight-module curriculum covers mental illness and serious mental illness (SMI), stigma reduction, empathic listening as a clinical technique, trauma-informed care, crisis prevention and de-escalation, person-centered care, and CNA self-care and burnout prevention.
The de-escalation module alone contains skills that most CNAs wish they had learned in their original training. Understanding how to recognize escalating behavior early and intervene before a situation becomes dangerous is something you’ll use immediately.
Career Impact
Facilities that specialize in behavioral health populations, or that have dedicated memory care wings, actively seek CNAs with documented mental health training. This certification makes that training visible and verifiable to employers.
Course 2: Respiratory Care
The respiratory care certification is specifically designed for CNAs looking to work in ventilator-capable skilled nursing facilities, post-acute transitional care units, long-term acute care hospitals, or pulmonology and respiratory units within larger hospital systems.
It’s also valuable for CNAs already working in these environments who are performing respiratory-adjacent tasks daily but have never had formal training or credentialing in this area.
What You’ll Learn
The four-module curriculum covers oxygen delivery systems and emergency procedures, artificial airways and ventilator procedures within CNA scope of practice, communication strategies with respiratory-impaired patients, and best practices for safe care in respiratory settings.
Everything in the course falls within the established CNA scope of practice. You won’t be performing clinical assessments or making medical decisions, but you will understand the equipment, the procedures, and your role with a depth and clarity that makes you genuinely more effective and hirable in these settings.
Career Impact
Ventilator-capable facilities and post-acute care settings tend to pay higher wages than standard long-term care, and they specifically need CNAs who can demonstrate competency with respiratory care. This certification opens doors to that tier of employment in a way that a standard CNA credential alone does not.
Course 3: Infection Control
Every CNA working in long-term care, skilled nursing, or post-acute settings can benefit from the infection control course. Infection control violations are among the most commonly cited deficiencies in CMS nursing home inspections. CNAs have more hands-on patient contact than almost anyone else in a facility; they’re either the strongest or weakest link in a facility’s infection prevention chain.
This course is especially valuable if you want to understand the why behind the protocols you follow every day, if your facility has dealt with survey citations or infection outbreaks, or if you’re interested in taking on an informal or formal infection prevention role.
What You’ll Learn
The six-module curriculum covers pathogens and how they cause infection, chains of infection and how to interrupt them, standard and transmission-based precautions, correct PPE donning and doffing technique, environmental cleaning and disinfection, and how to stay current with evolving infection control guidelines.
Career Impact
Facilities that prioritize regulatory compliance and survey readiness actively value CNAs with documented infection control training. This certification signals that you understand this aspect of care at a level that goes beyond basic compliance and that’s something facilities notice.
How to Choose: A Simple Framework
If you’re trying to decide where to start, here are a few questions worth asking yourself:
What setting do you work in now, or want to work in?
If you’re in memory care or behavioral health, start with Behavioral Health Level 1. If you’re in or targeting a respiratory or ventilator-capable unit, start with Respiratory Care. If you’re in a standard SNF or long-term care facility, Infection Control is the most universally applicable starting point.
What situations at work make you feel least prepared?
The most practical choice is often the one that addresses the gap you feel most acutely. If challenging resident behaviors stress you out, Behavioral Health. If you’re around respiratory equipment and patients and feel uncertain, Respiratory Care. If infection control protocols feel like rules you follow without fully understanding, Infection Control.
What do employers in your area emphasize?
Look at job postings for the positions you want. If you see “behavioral health experience preferred,” that’s your answer. If you see “ventilator-capable facility” in the job description, that’s your answer.
What do you want your resume to say about you?
All three certifications signal professional initiative and clinical depth. If you want to eventually pursue all three, starting with the one most relevant to your current setting lets you apply what you learn immediately. It also reinforces retention and gives you real-world context for the other courses when you take them.
Can You Take More Than One?
Yes, and if you’re serious about career development, eventually pursuing all three makes sense. They cover different domains, and together they paint a picture of a CNA who has invested meaningfully in specialty knowledge across behavioral health, complex medical care, and infection prevention.
Each course is $299 individually. At $897 total for all three, you’d be earning three verifiable, NWCCU-approved specialty credentials, which is a significant resume differentiator for less than the cost of a single credit at most community colleges.
What You Walk Away With
Regardless of which course you choose, completing any Bryan University specialty certification earns you:
- A specialty certificate documenting your training and the issuing institution
- A Credly digital badge that is independently verifiable and shareable on LinkedIn, job applications, or anywhere you maintain a professional profile
- Practical, immediately applicable knowledge in a high-demand area of CNA practice
- Six months of course access so you can move through the material at a pace that works around your schedule and your shifts
Standard CNA certification gets you in the door. Specialty certifications show employers that you’re building a career, not just holding a job. Bryan University’s three online specialty courses are designed specifically for working CNAs who want to go deeper, earn more, and be better at what they do every day.