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Prepare for a caring career helping others

The Sheridan’s Personal Support Worker Program prepares you to provide physical, psychological and social assistance to the elderly or to medically challenged youth. In just one year, you can gain the skills you need to begin a satisfying career helping in a long-term care facility, classroom, supportive housing or home care environment. A full 100% of our graduates find employment and employers are 100% satisfied with the Sheridan personal support workers hired.

The curriculum includes extensive hands-on experience working first with mannequins and then with actual patients through a practicum learning to:

  • Perform demanding physical techniques of intimate personal care
  • Understand and empathize with the client and their challenging situation
  • Learn to lift and transfer clients
  • Increase your client's comfort, safety and mobility
  • Communicate clearly and compassionately with clients and report accurately

In addition to quickly preparing you to enter a growing career field, your personal support worker training is also a path toward starting a nursing education, if this is your long-term goal. Two of your courses transfer as credit to the nursing program, including one that is a joint course completed with the nursing students.

Field Practica Give Real-World Experience

Your personal support worker training includes 350 hours — four full weeks — in two separate practicum settings. Your first practicum is in a long-term care facility. The second can be in your choice of a classroom, supportive housing or long-term care facility.

Unlike other programs that require you to find your own practicum, Sheridan’s Personal Support Worker Program arranges placement for you. A faculty member always accompanies you on your first day of the placement to help you get acquainted with the personnel and the facility. Field experiences often lead directly to employment after graduation.

Professors Who Are Engaged in the Field

All professors teaching in the Personal Support Worker Program hold a bachelor’s or master’s degree in nursing and all are heavily engaged in the personal care field. They bring their own experience working in elder care to the classroom.

Additional Costs

In addition to tuition, you should expect to spend approximately $380 on uniforms, shoes and textbooks.

The Personal Support Worker Program is located at the Davis Campus in Brampton, Ontario.

By the end of this program a successful student will:

  • Be able to plan and implement physical and psychosocial activities to promote holistic, healthy daily living in a safe environment.
  • Demonstrate their understanding of the safe, effective and ethical role and function of the Personal Support Worker in client-centred and client-directed care.
  • Identify and report specific changes in chronic conditions and implement the prescribed care.
  • Be able to provide compassionate, respectful and holistic care for individuals with cognitive impairment, mental illnesses and development disabilities.
  • Understand the structure and function of the human body.
  • Apply holistic and compassionate care to the dying client and their family.
  • Demonstrate supportive care skills for clients with post- partum, developmental, chronic or disabling conditions.
  • Recognize and maintain environments that promote health and safety, and report with recommendations, solutions to health and safety issues arising in the workplace.
  • Will be able to apply Personal Support Worker program theory and skills in a directly supervised long-term care setting demonstrating responsibility and accountability.
  • Be able to apply Personal Support Worker program theory and skills under supervision in a community setting demonstrating responsibility and accountability.
  • Be able to apply Personal Support Worker theory and skills under the guidance of a preceptor within a long-term care facility or community setting demonstrating responsibility and accountability.

Essential Employability Skills Communication Skills:
  • Communicate clearly, concisely and correctly in the written, spoken and visual form that fulfills the purpose and meets the needs of the audience.
  • Respond to written, spoken or visual messages in a manner that ensures effective communication.

Numeracy Skills:
  • Execute mathematical operations accurately.

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills:
  • Apply a systematic approach to solve problems.
  • Use a variety of thinking skills to anticipate and solve problems.

Information Management Skills:
  • Locate, select, organize and document information using appropriate technology and information systems.
  • Analyze, evaluate and apply relevant information from a variety of sources.

Interpersonal Skills:
  • Show respect for the diverse opinions, values, belief systems and contributions of others.
  • Interact with others in groups or teams in ways that contribute to effective working relationships and the achievement of goals.

Personal Skills:
  • Manage the use of time and other resources to complete projects.
  • Take responsibility for one’s own actions, decisions and consequences.

CODE TITLE CREDITS
 
TERM 1
COMM 19999 Essential Communication Skills 3
HEAL 18263 Introduction to Personal Support 4
HEAL 15738 Supporting Safe and Healthy Environments 3
BIOL 19207 Structure and Function of the Human Body 3
HEAL 13431 Mental Health Issues and Cognitive Impairment 3
HEAL 13672 Lab 1 3
GNED General Education Elective 3
 
Total: 22
 
TERM 2
HEAL 14857 Palliative Care for the Allied Health Worker 2
HEAL 14579 Supporting Families 2
FLPL 19402 PSW Long-term Care Practicum 6
FLPL 10606 PSW Community Practicum 6
FLPL 10102 PSW Consolidation 6
HEAL 13551 Caring for Clients with Ongoing Conditions 3
 
Total: 25

Note: Courses subject to change.

Employers are 100% satisfied with Sheridan’s Personal Support Worker graduates . When you graduate from the Personal Support Worker Program you can expect to quickly find a position helping the elderly or medically challenged youth in one of the following settings:
  • Long-term care facility
  • Home care
  • Supportive housing for seniors or youth adults
  • Classroom assistance
  • Nursing homes

PROGRAM ELIGIBILITY

Ontario Secondary School Diploma or equivalent, including these required courses:

  • One English, Grade 12 (ENG4C or ENG4U)

or

Mature student status. (See "Admissions" section for details.)

APPLICANT SELECTION

Eligible applicants will be selected on the basis of their previous academic achievement (the average of their six highest senior-level credits, including required courses).

Applicants who do not meet the admission requirements for this program will be assessed and advised individually and may be considered for other, related programs. 

CRIMINAL RECORD CHECK AND IMMUNIZATION REQUIREMENTS

Sheridan field placement agencies require a police record check for vulnerable sector persons and a current  record of immunization. Students will be required to provide this documentation directly to their field placement prior to the start of the placement and at their own expense. Students who cannot meet these requirements may have limited field placement opportunities.  Please refer to the Sheridan Health Services website at immunization.sheridancollege.ca for complete information, or come in to one of the campus health centres.

PREPARATION FOR APPLICATION

It takes a special kind of person to succeed as a personal support worker. We strongly recommend that applicants research the demands of this career and consider undertaking related volunteer experiences or working part-time with older adults prior to the selection process.

Prior to commencing the practicum, and at individual expense, students must obtain a certification in CPR Level C and St. John Standard First Aid for adults, children and infants.

Program Offerings

Program Details

Faculty:
Faculty of Applied Health and Community Studies
Program Code:
PPSWK
Duration:
1 Year (PPSWK)
Designation:
Ontario College Certificate
Campus:
Davis Campus
Start:
September, January