On-site learning for future personal support workers (PSW) is coming to long-term care homes in two Northern Ontario municipalities.
Extendicare has partnered with Medix College to provide on-site classes, simulations, and hands-on training in long-term care homes in Timmins and Kirkland Lake. The new program will see students studying and learning hands-on in long term care homes.
“I wish they’d had something like this when I was in school,” said Brenda McAdam, a full-time PSW with Extendicare.
While you can learn a lot in a classroom or from a book, there are some things that those types of education can’t really help you understand, McAdam said.
“They’ll get to see what it’s like with dementia and people with behaviors and that they’re just people,” said McAdam. “That’s not something you really get until you’re there. You need that hands-on experience.”
Melanie Abrenica, also a PSW for Extendicare, said the program will offer students a chance to build their comfort level before taking on their new roles.
“It means they’ll come into the job with confidence. They’ll know how things work,” she said.
Extendicare is hoping to start the program in September, said Johanna Home, Extendicare’s long-term care operations regional director Ontario North.
“This program will give PSWs a clearer look at what their future can look like,” she said.
“And it gives them a chance to see all aspects of what long-term care involves, whether it’s programming or nutrition, which is a big part of it. They’ll get to see it all.”
The program will involve 300 hours of theory and classroom work as well as an eight-week placement, totalling 300 hours in the long-term care facility with patients.
After 18 years as a PSW, McAdam said this experience will be vital to her future colleagues.
“Those first days on the job, you’re just so nervous,” she said. “I think this is a really good idea and that they’ll know what to expect, and they’ll know they can ask for help.”
The Living Classroom program is funded by the Government of Ontario and led by the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging (RIA) through the Ontario Centres for Learning, Research and Innovation in Long-Term Care (Ontario CLRI), in partnership with the Ontario Association of Adult and Continuing Education School Board Administrators (CESBA).
