{"id":79017,"date":"2020-09-30T21:58:41","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T18:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/personal-care-workers-describe-what-led-them-to-their-jobs\/"},"modified":"2020-09-30T21:58:41","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T18:58:41","slug":"personal-care-workers-describe-what-led-them-to-their-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/personal-care-workers-describe-what-led-them-to-their-jobs\/","title":{"rendered":"#Personal care workers describe what led them to their jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Personal care workers describe what led them to their jobs<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n Many of these workers train in colleges, work in long-term care and in hospitals and are at the very front line of the Canadian health-care system\n <\/div>\n
\n
\"Wanda<\/p>\n

Wanda Roberts (Pat Kane)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant crisis in Canada\u2019s nursing homes exposed the critical role of personal care workers across the country. Known by different names in different provinces (and even within provinces), many of these workers train in colleges in a combination of in-class learning and hands-on app<\/a>renticeships. They work in long-term care, in the community and in hospitals, assisting seniors, people with disabilities and people recovering from illness or injury. They are at the very front line of the Canadian health-care system.<\/p>\n

Wanda Roberts<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the late 1990s, Roberts moved to Yellowknife to work as a licensed practical nurse. She hoped for an exciting role in the operating room. Instead, she landed in long-term care\u2014and loved it. \u201cI really fell in love with caring for elders,\u201d she says. \u201cNorthern elders, in particular, are very hardy and a very special group of people.\u201d After 15 years in the field, Roberts became an instructor for personal support workers (PSWs) at the city\u2019s Aurora College. She trains about a dozen students a year, many of whom are women, often single parents, in their 30s and 40s. Personal support workers in the Northwest Territories are often government employees who receive up to $30 an hour and a pension. \u201cI quickly learned, by educating women in particular, what a huge difference they make in the lives of elders in their communities,\u201d she says. This spring, as students were a few weeks away from certification, the college went into lockdown. Many students didn\u2019t have the internet or a computer at home. \u201cWe actually found ourselves printing things and delivering them to their doorstep so they could finish,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Ashley MacLean (Courtesy of Ashley MacLean)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Ashley Maclean<\/strong><\/p>\n

MacLean was midway through her training in the PSW program at the G. A. Wheable Centre for Adult and Continuing Education in London when COVID-19 hit Ontario. She finished the classroom theory portion of her coursework and began work at a long-term care home, receiving a student wage. She\u2019s now accrued the necessary hours for on-the-job training and is awaiting certification. The training taught her the tasks integral to elder care, such as moving people safely and finding ways to reduce the risk of falls. MacLean, a single parent, works the night shift. \u201cIt\u2019s hard work,\u201d she says, \u201cbut it\u2019s rewarding.\u201d For her, one of the draws is the long list of job opportunities: \u201cIt\u2019s endless.\u201d Having studied police foundations prior to becoming a PSW, she hopes that her combined training will earn her a spot in a hospital one day, preferably working with people struggling with mental health. \u201cI like being busy. That\u2019s my drive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laura Rolph<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Rolph and her husband moved from Alberta to Newfoundland for his job, she decided she was ready for a new career. At age 50, she signed up to train as a health-care aide at the College of the North Atlantic. \u201cI came to school with my life\u2019s worth of experience,\u201d she says. She knew she wanted to take care of older adults, having watched her grandfather die following a long struggle with dementia. After getting her certification last spring, Rolph began working at a long-term care facility in St. John\u2019s. She never knows what to expect in a day, but it is often a mix of joy and sorrow. Her favourite part of the job is listening to her patients tell stories. But there are days, too, when patients die. \u201cIt takes a little piece of you,\u201d she says. Even in her short career, COVID-19 dramatically changed her responsibilities. With family caregivers and volunteers restricted from visiting, \u201cyou\u2019re responsible for taking care of people\u2019s physical, emotional, spiritual needs,\u201d she says. \u201cYou become their family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PSW<\/p>\n

Victoria Wedzin (Pat Kane)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Victoria Wedzin<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Wedzin sees it, her journey to becoming a PSW began when, as an infant, she was adopted by a woman who was nearly 50. \u201cShe was the best mother I could have asked for,\u201d she says. \u201cBut as I got older, so did she.\u201d Wedzin, who grew up in Behchoko\u0328<\/em>, a First Nations community about 110 km northwest of Yellowknife, lived with her mother and cared for her during the last years of her life. When she died in 2019, Wedzin felt lost. But she realized that she had years of experience in caregiving and moved to Yellowknife for the nearest training program. She worried that she wouldn\u2019t make it through the program: a close friend died early in Wedzin\u2019s studies. \u201cI asked for guidance when I was struggling and asked for my mom\u2019s help,\u201d she says. She graduated this spring. She enjoys the little tasks that improve a person\u2019s quality of life. \u201cIt\u2019s things like helping them out of bed, or even when they want you to change the channel,\u201d she says. \u201cThey thank you over and over again\u2026And they ask, \u2018When will you be back? When will you be working next?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Bipasha Mondol (Courtesy of Bipasha Mondol)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Bipasha Mondol<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2005, Mondol came to Calgary from Bangladesh with her husband. They had three children over the next eight years. Her father, on a visit after Mondol\u2019s youngest was born, encouraged her to seek employment outside the home. In 2019, she completed a six-month health-care aide program at Alberta Business and Education Services College. Today, she works as a caregiver for a local tech start-up, Vytality at Home, a web-based and app service that pairs caregivers with seniors living at home. Clients can select a specific caregiver at a scheduled time for a number of services. \u201cI really love my job. I love working with our seniors,\u201d says Mondol, having just finished a shift making a meal for a client. \u201cWhen [I walk in] and they see me, I enjoy that. They\u2019re waiting for me.\u201d Sometimes, she helps clients shower or makes them lunch. But many people are looking for human interaction. \u201cWe talk. We play cognitive game<\/a>s,\u201d she says. \u201cMostly it\u2019s company.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

This article appears in print in the Maclean\u2019s 2020 Canadian Colleges Guidebook with the headline, \u201c\u2018You become their family.\u2019\u201d Order a copy of the issue here. Subscribe to the monthly print magazine here<\/a>.<\/em>
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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Personal care workers describe what led them to their jobs” Many of these workers train in colleges, work in long-term care and in hospitals and are at the very front line of the Canadian health-care system Wanda Roberts (Pat Kane) The COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant crisis in Canada\u2019s nursing homes exposed the critical role…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":79018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/PERSONAL-SUPPORT-WORKER-PROGRAM-FRANGOU-AUGUST12-04-766x431.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1545,1356,67806,73014,73730,47020],"class_list":["post-79017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-editors-picks","tag-health-care","tag-personal-support-worker","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}