April 8, 2002

Baycrest launches province's first on-site program to train personal support workers

Toronto, ON - Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care has launched the province's first on-site training program for personal support workers (PSW).

Classes start today for students enrolled in Baycrest's Personal Support Worker Program. The 20-week program offers classroom and clinical training at Baycrest's hospital and nursing home to prepare students for certification. A PSW, formerly known as a health care aide, assists clients in a hospital, nursing home or community setting with the activities of daily living such as mobility, personal hygiene, homemaking and meal preparation, among others, as well as meeting their psychosocial needs.

Private vocational schools and community colleges also offer PSW certification programs. However, Baycrest is the first hospital/long-term care facility to offer the program on site, offering students the unique advantage of classroom training and practical experience under one roof.

In the first 12 weeks of the program, students will be given classroom instruction and training in a lab. Working on mannequins and other students, they will practice techniques such as bathing a client, turning them in bed and mobilizing them (i.e. moving them from bed to a walker or wheelchair). In the final eight weeks of the program, students will be on the hospital and nursing home units at Baycrest, supervised closely by a Registered Nurse, to begin real-life training with geriatric clients. This time will also include accompanying a nurse on a visit to client homes in the community.

"To be taught the skills in a classroom setting is one thing, but to apply it in a real-life situation is another," says Helen Taylor, Registered Nurse and PSW program co-ordinator at Baycrest. "On the units, students will encounter clients who have had several strokes, are unable to communicate, and their breathing is labored. This is the reality of illness."

Taylor says newly-minted PSWs are often overwhelmed when they begin work on the units. They are working in a highly organized and efficient health care environment, with aging clients who have multiple health challenges. "It's very challenging sometimes, but really rewarding," says Taylor. "The privilege of washing someone's face and hands leaves you with a sense of satisfaction that you are helping someone."

Tuition fees vary for PSW programs across the province. Baycrest's 20-week program costs $4,000 and provides accreditation with the National Association of Certified Personal Support Workers (NACPSW). The association was established to promote a national curriculum and standard of training - something that hasn't existed for this profession until recently. Upon graduation, a PSW will earn between $12 and $15 an hour, depending on whether they work privately for a family, in a long-term care facility, or for a community service.