Nursing certifications for Alzheimer's specialists
 

I know very little about the field of Nursing but I am looking for some ideas for training and certification for my Mom. She's very good at what she does and enjoys it, and I've been trying to get her interested in some sort of licensed nursing training to further her career.

So I'm looking to you TFPers who are in the field to maybe recommend some training programs or licenses that would apply to her and be a good idea for her to pursue.

She just recently started a job working at a nursing home specifically for Alzheimer's patients and she loves it! She's much stronger than me in that respect -- I would have a very hard time working in a position like that. I think that because she really enjoys what she's doing and is good at it, some type of nursing certification would really benefit her as she's on a new career track now.

She's got extensive emergency room experience (I'm not sure what position she held though, it might have been in Triage??), and she used to volunteer for the American Cancer Society working with terminally ill cancer patients. But that was several years ago. However she is over 50 and after being laid off from her normal job years ago, her work situation has been difficult to say the least. I think some sort of nursing certification or license would benefit her marketability and her income potential. But the thing is, she cant afford to go to school for 4 years or anything like that, in terms of time and money. She might be able to do evening classes, or an internship or something like that, though. I'm not really sure what the options are.

So I know that there's Registered Nurses (RNs), Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), and Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) but that's about all I know.

Is there some form of training or certification that might be best for her situation? Any recommendations from you folks who are more knowledgable than me would be really appreciated, so I'm looking forward to any suggestions and thanks in advance!!