Georgia CNA Practice Test — Free NNAAP Prep

Georgia employs roughly 38,500 certified nursing assistants across one of the fastest-growing healthcare markets in the South. The state's 11 million residents are concentrated in metro Atlanta — one of the largest healthcare employment markets in the country — with smaller but rapidly growing populations in Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, Macon, and Athens. Georgia's 65+ population has grown faster than the under-65 population in nearly every county for the last decade, driving steady CNA demand.

Demand is heaviest across Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Gwinnett, and Clayton counties in metro Atlanta, but rural South Georgia and the Black Belt face tighter relative shortages because their populations skew older and their workforces are smaller. Rural Georgia facilities consistently offer sign-on bonuses, shift differentials, and tuition assistance that Atlanta-area academic systems don't need to match. Coastal Georgia (Savannah, Brunswick, St. Marys) supports a strong retiree-driven assisted living and home health pipeline that hires new graduates aggressively.

The average CNA wage in Georgia is approximately $15.59/hour. Georgia taxes earned income on a graduated scale topping out at 5.39%, and cost of living statewide runs well below the national median outside of central Atlanta. Median home prices in Augusta, Columbus, Macon, and most of South Georgia remain among the most affordable of any large US healthcare-job market — purchasing power for a Georgia CNA wage typically buys substantially more housing than the same wage in Florida or North Carolina.

Georgia requires 85 hours of state-approved Nurse Aide Certification Training Program (NACTP) instruction — 10 hours above the federal minimum. The hours split into at least 16 hours of supervised clinical practice in a licensed long-term care facility, with the balance in classroom and skills-lab instruction. Programs run through the Technical College System of Georgia, high school health-career programs, and many Georgia nursing facilities that train candidates in exchange for an employment commitment.

The exam is administered by Prometric on behalf of the Georgia Department of Community Health, Healthcare Facility Regulation Division. The written portion covers the six NNAAP content domains, and the clinical skills portion requires demonstrating five randomly selected hands-on skills (always including handwashing) in front of a Prometric evaluator. Once you pass both portions, your name is added to the Georgia Nurse Aide Registry maintained by HFRD.

You have up to 3 attempts within 24 months of completing your training program. If you exhaust all three or let the 24-month window lapse, Georgia requires you to complete a new approved NACTP before retesting. Schedule directly at prometricncs.com once your training program submits your eligibility. Georgia also requires criminal background and abuse-registry clearances before certification can be issued.

The largest CNA employers in Georgia include Emory Healthcare, Wellstar Health System, Piedmont Healthcare, Northside Hospital, Grady Health System (the public safety-net hospital in Atlanta), the Augusta University Health System, Memorial Health (Savannah), Phoebe Putney Health System (Albany), and the Veterans Affairs medical centers in Atlanta and Augusta. Emory and Wellstar set the wage ceiling for the state and offer some of the strongest LPN/RN pipeline benefits, but most prefer 6–12 months of facility experience before hiring CNAs into acute care.

Long-term care operators are the most common entry point for new Georgia CNAs. PruittHealth (Georgia-headquartered, one of the largest LTC operators in the Southeast), Pinnacle Senior Care, NHC HealthCare, Gentiva, and dozens of independent SNFs hire new graduates aggressively. PruittHealth in particular runs an active CNA-to-LPN scholarship pipeline that many new graduates use to advance their careers.

Home health is the fastest-growing CNA segment in Georgia, particularly across rural South Georgia and the Atlanta metro's growing assisted living and memory care sector. BAYADA, Encompass Health, Aveanna (Atlanta-headquartered), Addus HomeCare, and dozens of regional agencies recruit CNAs statewide. Home health roles in Georgia typically require a reliable vehicle and willingness to drive between client homes, but offer scheduling flexibility and per-visit pay structures that often beat facility hourly rates.