News Article

Golden years for some, a silver lining for others


6/7/2007 9:09:07 AM


Vanessa Lavers (left) plays the patient while fellow student Nadine Patey takes her blood pressure. They are two of 18 graduating from the St. Anthony campus of College of the North Atlantic’s new Personal Care Attendant program.

(reprinted with permission from the Northern Pen)

The Northern Peninsula’s aging population is creating a large market for Personal Care Attendants (PCA). College of the North Atlantic’s St. Anthony campus is about to graduate 18 PCAs from a program that’s the first of its kind in the province.

“Our major role is to assist people to live the highest quality of life possible,” said Maddie Ollerhead, who teaches the 20-week course with Heather Richards. “I see this as a great need – to have Personal Care Attendants.”

Students spend 14 weeks in the classroom and six weeks in on-the-job training. They learn nursing care, long-term care and home support. In the classroom they learn about Alzheimer’s, dementia, caring for the body’s many parts and other diseases.

“There are many employment opportunities,” said Ms. Ollerhead of possible employers for graduates like Shirley’s Haven, the John M. Gray Centre and Northern Home Care.

While jobs are plentiful, the course comes at a steep cost – $9,500. Chad Simms, administrator for the St. Anthony campus, explained that the program is run on a cost-recovery basis. That means students bear the full brunt of the program’s cost, as opposed to other college courses, subsidized by government, with tuition of around $750 a semester.

The new course, along with two others being offered at the campus, meant the college actually had to rent space from the St. Anthony and Area Lions Club.
Mr. Simms called the shortage of space a welcome problem that resulted from the campus’s growing enrollment – 130 students in 2006-07.

“It’s been 15 years since we’ve done medical training,” said Mr. Simms. “It’s fantastic for the campus and the region to have a wider range of offerings. It provides more options for people in the region.”