Strand Description

In the Nursing Assisting program students learn effective communication skills like how to provide quality bed-side manner, how to take patient information, and how to engage patients in meaningful conversation. They also learn how to take vital signs, give CPR, make beds, and take the patients’ height and weight. Nursing assistants assist nurses with providing loving quality care to those who are injured, ill, and coping with health issues that require medical attention. In class students’ practice transporting, moving, bathing, and lifting patients as part of their daily activities. They also learn how to and practice helping patients use crutches, wheelchairs, and even bedpans. In the fourth year of the program, students are required to go to the nursing home where all of the knowledge, processes, and skills they learned in class must be applied in the real world. Students have the unique opportunity of taking care of real patients, while working with a team of licensed health care professionals as part of their program.