The CNA schedule template your units can use

• CMS PBJ job title code 10 is Certified Nurse Aide, while job title code 11 is Nurse Aide in Training.Source: CMS PBJ Policy Manual v2.7
• CMS says a 12-hour shift paid to work 12 hours is reported as 11.5 hours after the required 30-minute meal-break deduction.Source: CMS PBJ Policy Manual v2.7
• PBJ hours are recorded by calendar day, so a night shift that crosses midnight must be split between two reporting days.Source: CMS PBJ Policy Manual v2.7
• CMS requires a staffing submission by the 45th calendar day after each federal fiscal quarter ends.Source: CMS staffing data submission guidance

The grid is the visible part of a CNA schedule. The useful part is the record underneath it. A scheduler needs to see the assigned aide by unit and shift, then retain the change when that person calls out and someone else covers. If the same sheet also distinguishes scheduled hours from hours actually paid to work, it can support the PBJ file instead of forcing a second round of reconstruction.

Keep the staffing view and the reporting view connected, but do not treat them as the same number. A scheduled 12-hour shift is not automatically 12 PBJ hours. CMS deducts a 30-minute meal break from a full shift, whether the employee took the break or not.

Start with one row for one person on one shift. A facility-wide list of names is quick to print and hard to operate. The unit column is what tells you whether a call-out leaves Cedar short while Maple still has spare coverage.

Use the same columns for 8-hour shifts and 12-hour shifts. The schedule should describe the shift people planned to work, while the PBJ fields describe the hours they actually worked. That distinction matters most on nights and during backfill.

The open row is intentional. A blank cell is easy to miss; a status that says 'Needs coverage' gives the scheduler something to resolve before publication.

Suppose four CNAs each work a full 12-hour shift on Cedar. The schedule view shows 48 scheduled hours. The PBJ view shows 11.5 hours per person after the meal-break deduction, for 46.0 reportable hours in total.

The 40-resident figure is an example for planning, not a federal minimum. Use the resident-day measure your facility has chosen for its internal HPRD report. Do not copy the schedule total into a PBJ file without applying the reporting rules.

For a 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM shift, keep the assignment in one staffing record but split the worked hours at midnight for the two calendar dates. Record actual paid-to-work time and apply the meal-break deduction before rounding the daily value as CMS requires. This is where a handwritten template tends to drift.

A replacement should not erase the original assignment. Keep both rows and link them with a change ID or note. That gives the scheduler a quick answer to two practical questions: who was scheduled, and who accepted the replacement?

Do not count the planned row and the replacement row as two completed shifts. The original row explains the schedule change. The person who worked supplies the actual hours.

These fields answer different questions. Combining them in one free-text note is how an overnight shift becomes eight hours on one date and disappears from the next.

CMS also has a daily cap of 22.5 hours per employee ID across job titles in the current PBJ data specification. That is another reason to reconcile duplicate rows before submission.

A CNA template can show that a shift is uncovered. It cannot decide whether your facility may require a person to stay late. Mandatory-overtime rules are state rules, and the facility coverage is not the same in every state.

For example, Pennsylvania Act 102 names long-term care nursing facilities among covered health care facilities and applies to certain hourly or nonsupervisory employees in direct patient care. Several provisions in the research are hospital-only. Check the statute's facility definition against your license. Record any applicable collective bargaining agreement before calling a last-minute gap an emergency. Keep the decision and the coverage search in the change record.

The practical template field is simple: add an 'overtime review' status beside the replacement row.

• A facility-wide total can look full while one wing has an uncovered shift.
• Replacing a call-out by overwriting the original name destroys the coverage history.
• A 12-hour scheduled shift becomes 11.5 PBJ hours after CMS's meal-break deduction.
• Putting an overnight shift on one date creates a second-day reporting error.
• Mixing CNA code 10 with Nurse Aide in Training code 11 makes the role file harder to reconcile.
• Using scheduled hours for PBJ ignores the hours actually paid to work.