Trudy Baker, CNC Health Care Assistant instructor, knows first-hand how rewarding it is to work with the elderly.
“They have lived such experienced lives,” she said. “We can learn so much from them. Everything we have now is because of them and their hard work throughout their lives. They deserve excellent care in the years they need it.”
The College of New Caledonia’s Health Care Assistant Program is a one-year certificate preparing graduates to care for disabled individuals, mainly the elderly, living in long-term care facilities or private homes.
“It’s a great program with very dedicated instructors,” Trudy said. “We work hard to keep things interesting and we celebrate our students’ success. Students get a lot of different clinical experiences. They learn respect and appreciation for the people they are caring for.”
Health Care Assistants are hired at private and public facilities. Many departments in hospitals are continuously looking for help as are group homes and independent living sites.
“There is a huge variety of places that a graduate can find work,” Trudy said. “The hospital’s complex care facilities hire a large portion of CNC’s graduates each year as do the Hospice House and the BC Cancer Agency, just to name a few.”
She remembers one family who had three generations take the CNC program and work in health care – a daughter, mother and grandmother.
“The mother took the program first,” Trudy said. “She liked everything about it so much – what she learned, the job opportunities and the work – that she encouraged her mother and daughter to enrol as well. At one point, two of them – maybe even all three – worked at the same facility.”
The daughter eventually furthered her schooling in health sciences and the grandmother won a student leadership award while at CNC.
“I really enjoyed working with each of them and appreciate that they felt our program was important enough, and enjoyable enough, to endorse it to others.”