Personal Support Worker

For an older adult living alone, the personal support worker who arrives each morning can decide whether the day starts safely. Personal Support Worker at Cambrian College is a one-year Ontario College Certificate of two semesters, 28 weeks of instruction over about eight months, delivered at the Barrydowne campus in Sudbury.

Semester one covers Foundations of PSW, Relational Communications, Empowering Health Practice I, Human Body and Disease I, Clinical Readiness & Preparedness and Speaking/Writing Comm. Services I. In semester two you move into Lifespan Health and Wellness, PSW Practice Theory to Care, Empowering Health Practice II and Human Body and Disease II. Across both terms you learn safe transfers and positioning, personal hygiene and dressing support, meal assistance, observation and reporting, infection control and respectful communication with clients living with dementia, disability or chronic illness.

Cambrian teaches hands-on care in a 1,200-square-foot apartment simulation lab and a nursing skills lab, where you rehearse home visits and bedside routines before meeting real clients. Semester two includes a clinical placement in a working care setting, supervised by college faculty. Before placement you need Basic Cardiac Life Support at HCP level, Standard First Aid, an N95 mask fit test, a vulnerable sector check, WHMIS, AODA and Bill 18 training and a full immunization record. Graduates can continue into Cambrian’s PSW to Practical Nursing Pathway toward a nursing diploma.

Graduates of Cambrian’s PSW certificate work as personal support worker, home care worker, long-term care aide, hospital patient care assistant, community support worker and clinic health care aide. It suits compassionate, physically capable people who stay calm under pressure, enjoy caring for elderly and vulnerable clients and want a fast route into Ontario health care.