F941: Develop, implement, and/or maintain an effective training program that includes effective communications for direct care staff members
F941 is one of the federal requirements every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home must meet. CMS describes it as: Develop, implement, and/or maintain an effective training program that includes effective communications for direct care staff members.
It sits in CMS's administration category.
CMS Health Deficiencies file, data as of September 1, 2026. The files hold each home's last three standard inspections and three years of complaint visits.
How seriously inspectors rate it
Every citation gets a letter for how much harm inspectors found and how many residents it touched (how to read the letters). 26.3% of F941 citations came from a complaint visit rather than a routine inspection.
By letter: B 15, C 8, D 60, E 67, F 48.
What inspectors wrote
Three recent F941 citations from different states, quoted from the inspectors' statements of deficiencies (CMS form 2567). Names are removed by CMS.
Inspectors wrote, July 18, 2026, scope and severity DBased on review of facility documents, and staff interview, it was determined that the facility failed to provide training on Effective Communication for one of eight staff members (nurse aide (NA) Employee E27).
John J Kane Regional Center-Ro, Pittsburgh, PA
Inspectors wrote, June 29, 2026, scope and severity DBased on interview, personnel record review, and document review, the facility failed to ensure initial and annual communication training was completed timely per facility policy for 8 of 20 sampled employees (Employee #4, #10, #11, #12, #13, #15, #16 and #17). This deficient practice had the potential to prevent residents with communication needs from attaining or maintaining their highest practicable physical, mental and psychosocial well-being.
Gardnerville Health & Rehabilitation Center, Gardnerville, NV
Inspectors wrote, May 20, 2026, scope and severity DBased on interview and record review, the facility failed to provide mandatory effective communications training for 4 (CNA J, CNA K, Activity Director, Operations Manager) of 28 employees reviewed for training, in that: The facility failed to ensure effective communication training was provided to Operations Manager within within 21 days of hire, per facility's training policy. The facility failed to ensure effective communication training was provided to CNA J, CNA K or Activity Director annually. This failure could affect residents and place them at risk of being uninformed due to lack of staff training.
Northeast Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center, San Antonio, TX
Most recent F941 citations
F941 citations by state
Counts depend on how many homes a state has and how often its inspectors visit, so a larger number is not by itself a worse record.
By inspection year: 2022 2, 2023 19, 2024 75, 2025 70, 2026 32.
Common questions
- What is F941 in a nursing home inspection?
- F941 is the federal requirement to "develop, implement, and/or maintain an effective training program that includes effective communications for direct care staff members". CMS files it under administration. A home cited under F941 did not meet that requirement at the inspection.
- How often is F941 cited?
- The CMS files as of September 1, 2026 list 198 F941 citations at 178 nursing homes, 53 of them in the 12 months to that date. 0.0% were rated as actual harm or immediate jeopardy.
- Is a F941 citation serious?
- It depends on the letter. Most F941 citations (88.4%) were rated as potential for more than minimal harm, D to F. None in the current files is at the immediate jeopardy level.
The interpretive guidance inspectors use for each F-tag is CMS's State Operations Manual, Appendix PP. NursingHomeClear reports the citations as CMS records them and is not affiliated with CMS. All F-tags · Methodology