AUBURN - When Brenda Davis saw a notice posted by the time clock at Mercy Health & Rehabilitation Center about classes to become a certified nursing assistant, the housekeeper couldn't wait to sign up.

"I liked working with the residents and I was tired of just cleaning rooms," said the Cato resident, who had worked at the St. Anthony Street center for three years. "We could sit and visit, but we couldn't feed them, or help them go to the bathroom, things like that."

Davis was one of 10 Mercy employees who attended a five-week intensive training program at BOCES in Auburn. They learned how to bathe, transfer and dress bedridden patients, otherwise physically take care of them and help them with meals.

The training was offered as an immediate response to a state report in June that cited Mercy for 17 violations and resulted in Loretto, a Syracuse health care firm, being hired to improve the facility.

The biggest criticism was that patient care was suffering, so it was the first area that Loretto addressed. Paul Scarpanato. acting director of the facility, found the best way to solve the problem was to take workers who were already in the facility doing less skilled jobs and offer them the opportunity to learn nursing assistant skills.

"This was hands-on patient care," said Anne Bishop, coordinator of health occupations for BOCES. "It was full-time, 40 hours a week. It was physically intensive. It's hard work."

Those in the class finished Aug. 23. While they are awaiting the results of their state certification exam, they are delivering patient care at Mercy under the supervision of a mentor.

Mercy not only paid for the training - at $1,500 a student - but also continued to pay their employees wages. For Davis, that meant she got $9.15 an hour to attend school 40 hours a week. Once she becomes a CNA, she will get $10.05 an hour.

It also showed her that Mercy cared enough to offer existing employees a chance at a better career while improving the quality of care for its residents. And instead of changing the faces of caregivers, Mercy decided instead to leave the familiar ones in place and educate them.

BOCES will continue to work with Mercy and has already started another training session for a second group of workers who want to be CNAs. That program will go seven weeks because of scheduling issues and be a little less intensive, Bishop said.

Davis said she's been impressed with the level of interest, under Loretto's guidance, that has been placed on training and the willingness to correct deficiencies at Mercy.

Bishop said it would be beneficial if other health care providers would adopt a similar partnership with BOCES to assure a qualified, well-trained staff, and would defray the cost of the program.

"That's a big issue," she said. "Most of these people don't have $1,500. Training is expensive."

Staff writer Louise Hoffman Broach can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or louise.hoffman@lee.net