Comprehensive Health Care Aide

Helping an older resident wash, dress and eat with dignity is skilled, respected work. Assiniboine’s Comprehensive Health Care Aide certificate runs as a nine-month international cohort at the Victoria Avenue East campus in Brandon, extending the six-month domestic programme with additional coursework to reach 55.5 credits.

Course work starts with how people change across life, through Growth and Development and Gerontology, then moves to the core of personal care in Daily Living Theory and the hands-on Daily Living Laboratory. Mental Health, Nutrition and Health Issues/Community Health widen your view to the whole person, while Health, Environment & Safety focuses on safe care environments and Human Relations/Communication builds the way you speak with clients, families and nursing teams. College Foundations helps you settle into study at Assiniboine.

Brandon’s labs simulate the health care setting with current equipment, so you practise personal care skills before meeting clients. Two clinical placements follow: Practicum 1 - CHCA (120 hours) and the Senior Practicum CHCA (120 hours), in settings such as personal care homes, long-term care, acute care, community care and psychogeriatric or mental health units, which may include days, evenings, nights and weekends. Before placement you need CPR-HCP or BLS certification, current immunisations and vulnerable sector, child abuse and adult abuse registry checks. You also complete Provincial Violence Prevention, WHMIS, PHIA, N95 mask fit testing, Fire Safety, Abuse and Neglect, Electronic Patient Record training and Safe Patient Handling, and the certificate is a recognised pathway toward Assiniboine’s Practical Nursing programme.

Graduates work as health care aides, personal support workers, home support workers, long-term care aides, mental health care aides or community care assistants, in personal care homes, hospitals, home care and private care agencies. It suits calm, caring people who are comfortable with shift work and physical care.