The State of Texas maintains a registry of all nurse aides who are certified to provide services in nursing facilities and skilled nursing facilities licensed by the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS).

Nurse aide registration (certification) activities are conducted by the NFA (Nursing Facility Administrator) Licensing Branch (512-438-2050) and include:

approval and monitoring of nurse aide training and competency evaluation programs (NATCEPs); and
issuance and continuance of nurse aide registrations, including oversight of nurse aide testing development and administration.

DADS also reviews and investigates allegations of abuse, neglect, or misappropriation of resident property by nurse aides. If there's a finding of an alleged act of abuse, neglect, or misappropriation, the nurse aide may request both an informal reconsideration and a formal hearing before the finding is placed on the registry.

All DADS-regulated facilities and agencies are required to check both the Nurse Aide Registry and the Employee Misconduct Registry before hiring an individual to determine if the person is listed in either registry as having committed an act of abuse, neglect, exploitation, misappropriation, or misconduct against a resident or consumer and is, therefore, unemployable. Currently, there are three methods available to perform these required searches:

calling DADS’ toll-free number at 1-800-452-3934;
searching DADS' Sanctions Database at http://www.dads.state.tx.us/providers/NF/credentialing/sanctions/
using DADS' Employability Status Search at https://emr.dads.state.tx.us/DadsEMRWeb/

Nurse aide enforcement activities are conducted by the Professional Credentialing Enforcement Unit (512-438-5495) and include:

coordinating due process related to referrals of misconduct by a nurse aide that occur in nursing facilities; and
entering findings of abuse, neglect, and misappropriation of resident property as appropriate.

Updated: September 8, 2011