20 January 2021
Article from January 2021 edition of
INPractice
When it comes to empowering students with the skills and knowledge to pursue a career in nursing or caring, no training organisation even comes close to the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Education Centre.
ANMEC's Certificate Ill Individual Support (Ageing & Disability) courses are no exception.
As part of our Vocational Education Training in Schools (VET) courses, ANMEC has partnered with leading providers in aged care and disability to deliver optimal training to students in Years 11 and 12, providing not only training in evidence-based practice but also the opportunity to gain invaluable work experience within an aged care or disability facility.
The course gives them 90 credit points towards their SACE, whereas other subjects such as English, maths and science are worth about 20 credit points.
This year ANMEC had 83 students enrolling in VET, with 75 completing their Certificate Ill Individual Support (Ageing).
Students came from 30 different schools across South Australia and were placed in 32 aged care facilities to complete their placements during a COVID pandemic.
As part of the course, students attend sessions in our skills labs and teaching facilities for the entire school year and also complete a minimum of 120 hours organisational placement.
The VET courses provide an excellent pathway for people who want a career in health care. Students may start out in a different profession but through the Certificate Ill they can build their knowledge and gain practical skills, helping them to secure their first caring role.
From there, it is possible to work as a personal care worker, or similar, while training to be an Enrolled Nurse and then, if people want to, they can go on to build on their existing studies to become a Registered Nurse.
"The course is promoted as a pathway. A girl who was in here earlier, she is a kitchen hand with a nursing home, they told her, 'this is a great pathway'," said an ANMEC educator.
"She wants to be a nurse, their carer. You can work as a carer while you're training to be a nurse, then you work as an EN while you're training to be an RN. That way it increases your employability scope.
"Everybody wants to be a midwife or a paramedic when they first start. "I want it known that it is a perfect pathway. That the things that you learn in this course are not things you are going to learn anywhere else," the educator says.
"This course at this facility at this Registered Training Organisation (RTO) is by far the best. I was a facilitator for three years in a nursing home and used to look after students from 10 different RTOs and they're not even close - and that's not because I work here. That's why I work here, because I knew the difference.
"There's places where they might have lovely people but they don't have industry people working," Francine Sumaya, a Year 12 student at Thebarton Senior College, did her placement at the Calvary Flora McDonald Retirement Community.
"The career I choose is nursing and that is why I took this course. I wanted to build important skills including person-centred care that is needed in the nursing profession," she says.
"As I finish my Certificate Ill in Individual Support, I can now work as a personal care attendant in an aged care facility, then continue my education by doing a Diploma of Nursing, which will make me an Enrolled Nurse at the end.
"After finishing this course. I will go straight to university to do a Bachelor of Nursing for two years, as a Diploma of Nursing is already credited as one year. After completing my nursing course. I will take the NCLEX-RN Exam to become a Registered Nurse, the career I want."
Studying at ANMEC, 2019's Training Provider of the Year, provides an additional advantage compared to other training centres as all the educators are current practising nurses or midwives and their passion for the profession shines through.
Kuvam Lockyer-Sharrock, a Year 12 student at Roma Mitchell, plans to become an RN in paediatrics. He "100 per cent" recommends the ANMEC course as a great pathway.
The 17-year-old just recently gained employment at Southern Cross Care Bellevue Court Residential Care, which he says is both fulfilling and educational.
He says the ANMEC course provides invaluable real world experience and "helps me build my interpersonal skills and develop my caring abilities which I feel will be very important to be a nurse".
"In my role as a carer,I love the challenge of being creative and adaptable to manage the different situations we face each day," Kuvam says.
''The ANMEC course has helped me to work in a manner that provides residents, with the dignity and respect they deserve whilst addressing issues that arise."
For course enquiries:
Ring 8334 1900 or email
[email protected]
Click
here to read the January 2021 edition of INPractice