Divine CNA Training

Cheapest place to get your CNA with very friendly and helpful instructors. The building could use a remodel but other than that, I completely recommend going there! 3 weeks total, and I got a job with a great company right away!

Extremely unorganized. Instructors are all over the place. They modules and tests are inconsistent. I would not recommend this place. It might be cheap and close to the area but save your money and go else where. This place will is not ideal to prepare for you the state testing.

I would advise anyone wanting to become a CNA, to LOOK ELSEWHERE. Head to your local Community College and get it that way. Totally worth the wait to get better instruction, equipment and be better prepared. This place is a joke.
Repeatedly people would pay for the class and then consequently be «FAILED» because they didn’t know or speak enough English (We know this happened to three students in 2 different classes). IF the inability to speak fluent English is an issue they should let the potential student in advance. Clearly they know the person can not speak English well enough for their purposes at sign up. It seems to me to be a money grab.
The weekend class was released early often because the instructor wanted to go home. This is great but by my calculations we are in fact roughly 13 hours short of the actual time needed to get our certificates. We never completed the HIV training but we all got our certificates. We were told Fala (the admin assistant) was supposed to bring the videos to the clinical site, but she never did. This is the same admin assistant that fails to answer the phone or be onsite at a prearranged time. Is she somebody’s relative? If this were a real job she’d be looking for a new one.
Really disorganized. We called in advance to find out what time we could pick up our certificates. We were told they would be there (in writing) from Noon to 3pm. We arrived and there was not only a note on the door saying they were out until 1:30 but there was another woman from our class waiting and had been waiting more than 30 minutes already. She had also confirmed ahead of time that Fala would be in the office. Where is this woman?
Yet another woman (student) rolled up to pick up her certificate as well and her story was even more disturbing. She had tried to come pick up her certificate on three separate occasions (and had called every time in advance, told when to arrive) and they were never there when they said they would be. They are pretty quick to tke your money but after that. GOOD LUCK.
DISORGANIZED BEYOND COMPREHENSION. The new CNA skills pamphlet came out in March of 2014 we were in a fall class in 2014, we were not only given the old book but then told «Oh there is a new book we will e-​mail it to you.» I won’t hold my breath.
They never answer the damned phone, the message machine is continually full and you’d be lucky to get a return call anyway. E-​mail seems to be the best way to get in touch with them. Just the information you are given is never correct.
Unprofessional. Our instructor Noreena badmouthed the director of nursing to all the students. Totally inappropriate.
Our instructor constantly belittled, yelled at and was rude to students, then excused her obnoxious, inappropriate behavior by saying she is a diabetic. What utter BS, she has a bad temper and should not be working with the public. INEXCUSABLE. Perhaps she should be stuffing band aids into boxes someplace. This same instructor apologized to the students that were partnered with the only male student in our class. Wow. Not only humiliating the student but a jackass move on her part. What was she apologizing for exactly?
The evening class was told that they really didn’t warrant a clinical site because it isn’t worth the instructors time to come out and keep track of the students all day if there are only five of them. WHAT? What did these people just pay $ 600 bucks for? I will say after hearing about the evening class I think they hit the lotto as far as instructors, apparently they actually did their job and were not nasty to the students while doing it. SCORE!
All skills were only gone over one time. How are we supposed to know the material well enough to pass with only doing each of the 22 skills one time? I know someone who went to another school in Tacoma and they had a really high first time pass rate with the state. However our Divine CNA instructor made mention that it is not uncommon for students to fail the first time. WHAT?
Apparently our instructor was supposed to be teaching to some new plan but decided the old plan was what she wanted to do. Of course! Then the instructor made mention that Divine had been on the verge of being shut down because of all the problems they’ve had, the new director and the new plan were the only reason they were allowed to continue as a business. Obviously this business is hemorrhaging.

I took the CNA course at the federal way location last summer. Pretty unorganized. I think we went through three different instructors and they didn’t even have enough of the books until the second week. Not cool. Also, they never answer their freaking phone and they don’t return voicemails. I’ve been trying to get ahold of the lady who does the billing because I need a student verification form filled out, and she’s only there between 12 and 4 and when I call ahead to make sure she’s there (it’s a 45 minute drive) she always seems to be out and they aren’t sure if she’s returning. Ridiculous. Get your crap together.

Going to this «school» was such an awful experience, I don’t even know where to begin. I went to the Seattle location, and it was terrible from start to finish. First of all, the facility is an old, run-​down house on the scummiest street (Aurora/​Highway 99) in all of Seattle. I had the added bonus of attending during the hottest two weeks of the year, with 30 of us crammed into a tiny room with no air conditioning and one small fan in the very back of the room. We couldn’t open the windows because of the noise from Highway 99. We all sat, pouring sweat, desperately fanning ourselves with our notebooks. Both of our instructors were hard of hearing, and that’s putting it mildly. One is practically deaf and does not wear hearing aids so she couldn’t understand any of the questions asked by the students. This repeatedly caused confusion, both for the students and the teacher. Round and round they would go with the «Who’s on first» routine as a student would say «bed» and the teacher would say «head?!» and this would go one day after day in a stifling, sweltering room. We had several students in our class from other countries where they apparently don’t wear deodorant. You can imagine what the classroom smelled like with 30 sweating bodies crammed into a closed space with no circulating air. I would think the professional thing would be for one of the instructors to speak one-​on-​one with those particular (stinky) students but this never happened. For the two weeks of classroom instruction, these students stank up the whole house while the rest of us suffered. SO unprofessional. I calculated that in one month of classes this place rakes in: $ 600 per student x (30 day students + 20 night students + 20 students) = $ 42,000. PER MONTH. And they can’t afford a second fan? Or a hospital bed newer than 30 years old? Or a practice mannequin that doesn’t have all of its limbs falling off every time we move it? The CPR part of this program is a joke. They had almost no equipment for us to practice on and we didn’t even practice many of the steps. I feel totally unprepared in this aspect. And I haven’t even touched on the total lack of organization. They lost an entire batch of students’ background check approvals so several students couldn’t do their clinicals when they were supposed to. When Divine incorrectly filled out forms for one of the students, they never returned her repeated phone calls and e-​mails. When she finally reached them, they had no explanation and no apology for ignoring her calls and e-​mails. One front-​desk person in particular is consistently rude and inappropriate and we all complained about her attitude. The consensus among the students in my group was that all in all, this experience could not have been worse. Whatever you do, don’t go to this place. There are several wonderful programs through the community colleges and several other legitimate smaller operations in Seattle. Yes, they take a little longer and may cost slightly more but you will get a much better education and you won’t have to deal with the mess that is Divine.

I am writing this review 4 months after my experience with Divine because my experience was so awful I feel that others should know. I took the three week course offered at the Northgate location in April and was very disappointed. The place was completely unprofessional and disorganized. The main issue was clinicals. Online the class was advertised April 1^st-​19^th with specific classroom times and clinical times. Naturally I rearranged my job so that I could attend. The first day of class our instructor said that she had no arranged clinicals yet but she was not worried. Clinicals for everyone were on the understanding that our 2-​step TB test’s were completed and we had cleared our background checks and that they would be on a first come first serve basis. Well by the beginning of the second week (one week till clinicals) our instructor said she had left a note with the clinical place and had no heard back. She also told our class that no one’s background check’s had passed. Well the following day she pulled a group of student’s out of the class to let them sign up– these student’s had not passed background check’s but had both of their TB test’s read. When I learned that they signed up from another student I immediately joined the room and told her I had both of my test’s done as well (I had for over a week) so she made me show her my documents then let me sign up. I was 9^th. So Thursday the last day of class comes and our instructor finally breaks that bad news: no one has passed background checks and the place we normally go for clinicals could not take us, so she found another place to do clinicals but the hours had changed and only 10 people could go (14 in our class). This alone affected my work schedule but I could handle that. So her solution was that she would call everyone Friday and let us know if we had passed our background check or not.
So Friday I receive a phone call from Jacque our instructor and she tells me she is «so sorry but I did not pass my background check and can not attend clinicals.» So immediately I called the office and they told me that Jacque was wrong! She had been out of the office when a stack got mailed in and I had passed and could go on Monday. Well Saturday I get off work to a message from Jacque to call her for «bad news regarding clinicals.» When I called her back she informed me that she had made another mistake and this other place could only take 6 students so I could not go to clinicals since I was 9^th on the list. She told me maybe they could arrange something for another week or so but I needed to be on standby. This did not work for me. Not only had I already arranged my work schedule and cannot just get time off whenever I want, I had already arranged surgery to get my wisdom teeth out the following week and was leaving to Alaska for the summer the next week. I had no wiggle room. I signed up for the three week course because it fit with my schedule and those were the times and dates that worked. I called Jacque back and she continuously ignored my phone calls. So next I got the company owners phone number and she also refused to answer (she had lots of angry student since now over ½ of the class did not have a clinical date.) Finally Jacque called me back and refused to help, she argued on the phone and was very rude, I told her that it was unfair and that the list was never on a first come first serve basis to begin with as I was skipped and had my shots done! I was livid.
By Sunday I had calmed down and realized that this was not going to work out for me so the next week I went in for a refund. The place was so unprofessional she asked me to write it out on a piece of blank paper and she would send it out. The Northgate office told me that I would hear back within two days. Two days passed and no word, so I called the following Monday. There the lady told me that it could take a month before a decision was made. I was done, I knew this place was going to cheat me out of my money or getting a refund would be hell since I was leaving. So instead I was very thankful that I am a broke student and had charged the class to my credit card. I called Capital One and claimed fraudulent charges on the company and explained what had happened. The refunded my $ 600 for the class within days and sent a letter to Divine. Divine never responded I got my money back case closed.
I am glad I did get my money back but bummed that I wasted over two weeks on this class had a rotten experience and took time off my paying job. I would never recommend Divine CNA to anyone. The classroom was not worth $ 600 anyway and after that I do not trust the company.

Take your money somewhere else! I took a 3 week class at the Northgate location. It was completely disorganized and all they cared about was getting my money. I took off a week for clinicals from my paying job and rearranged my whole schedule for this class. By the time the 2^nd week of class is over, they don’t have our background checks processed and clinicals are on hold. I then get a missed phone call Sunday night prior to clinicals starting Monday with just a city and no information. So I missed clinicals Monday and have to reschedule. They can not return a phone call promptly. Maureena was rude at times over the phone when I told her I was frustrated with her lack of follow through. She was supposed to sign me up for clinicals and I rearranged my work schedule again only to call back and have her tell me she didn’t sign me up and now it was full so I had to wait again! Finally she got me in at Seattle Medical 2 nights and on a weekend at Auburn Rehab. Penny was the instructor from the Federal Way location at the Auburn clinicals. She was over an hour late BOTH days and just spent her time studying for her nursing class exam in the break room. Thank goodness for the awesome CNA’s at Auburn Rehab taking us on because Penny couldn’t be bothered to show up on time much less teach you the skills you need to know. For a program that puts such an emphasis on being on time, they sure lack the ability to set the example. I signed up for a class in April in order to have the class done to put on my nursing school applications for May. Now in August, I finally have my certification and the application for the state exam in the mail. If it wasn’t for me hounding them on the phone and in person, I would have never gotten my certificate. Spare yourself the hassle and look into other options for obtaining your certification.

I finished my CNA training last month and this school is just the best. My teacher Sandy made everything easy to understand and was always willing to take extra time to show us things we weren’t clear on or if somebody missed a class. I also got to finance my classes in-​house so that made it affordable from the beginning right on through.
Can’t speak for how the competition does but they can’t beat Divine. I can tell you I loved this school, my classmates and my teacher. Simply the best.