Illinois CNA Practice Test — Free NNAAP Prep

Illinois employs roughly 50,000 certified nursing assistants across more than 1,200 long-term care facilities, the dense Chicago-area hospital network, and a large downstate footprint of rural and small-city providers. The Illinois Department of Public Health and the state's SNF operators have publicly described the CNA shortage as one of the worst staffing crises in the Midwest, with vacancy rates at many nursing facilities running well into the double digits. That gap drives steady, year-round hiring at virtually every facility type.

Demand is concentrated in the Chicago metro (Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will, and Kane counties), but downstate cities — Rockford, Peoria, Champaign-Urbana, Springfield, and the Metro East across the river from St. Louis — often face the tightest shortages. Rural Illinois facilities frequently offer sign-on bonuses, shift differentials, and tuition assistance that Chicago-area employers don't need to match. Illinois' aging-in-place trend and a significant veterans' population also support strong home health and PACE program demand.

The average CNA wage in Illinois is approximately $17.00/hour, with Chicago-area wages running noticeably higher than downstate. Illinois does tax earned income at a flat 4.95%, and Cook County adds local sales and property tax pressure that downstate metros don't carry. A CNA wage in Peoria or Champaign typically buys substantially more housing than the same wage in Chicago's northern suburbs.

Illinois requires 120 hours of state-approved Basic Nursing Assistant Training Program (BNATP) instruction — well above the federal minimum of 75 and on par with Florida. The hours split into classroom theory and at least 40 hours of supervised clinical practice in a long-term care setting. Programs are offered through community colleges, high school health-career academies, and many Illinois nursing facilities that train candidates in exchange for an employment commitment.

Illinois is one of the few states that does not use Prometric or Credentia. The Illinois Nurse Aide Competency Evaluation is administered by Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) under contract with IDPH. The written exam covers the standard nurse aide content domains, and the manual skills portion requires demonstrating randomly selected hands-on skills in front of an SIUC-approved evaluator. The exam fee is among the lowest in the country.

You have up to 3 attempts within 2 years of completing your training program. If you exhaust all three attempts or let the 2-year window lapse, Illinois requires you to complete a new approved BNATP before retesting. Register through the SIUC Nurse Aide Testing program portal after your training instructor submits your eligibility — most candidates schedule within 1–2 weeks of program completion.

The largest CNA employers in Illinois include Northwestern Medicine, Rush University System for Health, the University of Chicago Medical Center, Advocate Health Care, Endeavor Health, Loyola Medicine, OSF HealthCare, Carle Health, and Memorial Health. Academic medical centers in Chicago set the wage ceiling and offer strong LPN/RN pipeline benefits, but typically require 6–12 months of SNF or assisted living experience before hiring new CNAs into acute care. OSF and Carle dominate the central Illinois hospital market and frequently hire new graduates directly.

Long-term care chains are the most common entry point for new CNAs in Illinois — Symphony Post Acute Network, Petersen Health Care, Lutheran Life Communities, Bria Health Services, and dozens of independent SNFs operate across the state. These facilities hire new graduates aggressively and often pay for the training program in exchange for a 6- to 12-month employment commitment.

Home health is a strong second-job and primary-role market in Illinois. BAYADA, Help at Home (headquartered in Chicago), Addus HomeCare, and Right at Home recruit CNAs and home health aides across the state. Help at Home in particular runs one of the largest Medicaid home-care operations in the country and is a major employer of newly certified Illinois CNAs.