Pacific Lutheran College students got a taste of what it’s really like to work in aged care, completing a work placement with Envigor at Seasons Aged Care Caloundra.
The Year 12 students studied a Certificate III in Basic Health Care, which required hands on work experience as a part of the course.
Michelle Woods, Envigor’s Care Services Manager at Seasons Caloundra, says that they’ve been welcoming students into the community for the last couple of years – teaming them up with experienced care workers to give the students practical and hands on experience in aged care.
“They come here to do their placement and work with our staff as a buddy. They work with our residents in and out of their homes assisting with showering, toileting, meal preparation, assisting our residents with eating and all their personal care,” says Michelle.
“They are always with somebody while they’re in our resident’s homes or around the community, with staff instructing them, showing them what they do and how aged care is to be delivered. Our staff will talk to the student and the resident about what processes are going to take place, so it’s a very hands on learning environment.”
The students who participated in this year’s work placements Claire, Harriet, Piper and Zoe all mentioned that they enjoyed the unique experience of getting hands on experience to complement what they’d learnt in the classroom.
“The Health Certificate III course enabled us to get hands on experience, learn about health and get a first aid qualification so it’s very useful and helpful,” says Claire.
“There were quite a lot of tasks to do, depending on the day and the staff member I worked with. Cleaning people’s rooms, talking to residents, assisting them with things they needed like showering and other little tasks around the house,” says Harriet.
“I learnt quite a lot – it opened my eyes to how an aged care facility works, how the health industry works and has opened some doors for me in areas that I might want to study in the future. All the staff and residents here are so kind.”
“I enjoyed that I could engage physically and assist in aged care. Usually, we work on the theory side so it was good to get the practical experience too. That was a really good part of it,” says Piper. “The staff were very flexible and supportive.”
“It’s been a really rewarding experience to apply everything we’ve been learning in a classroom setting and applying it to a real life practical scenario,” says Zoe.
“It was really good to learn from the staff here – they were connected to the residents here on a personal level and they knew what they needed individually. Everybody had different requirements. Seasons was a really comfortable environment to learn in and the Envigor staff and residents were really nice and understanding they were more than happy to share their knowledge.”
While the students got a lot out of the experience, they weren’t the only ones. Michelle mentions that both the residents and staff enjoyed having the students around the community.
“The residents love having the students around. They often comment that having younger people around reminds them of when they were younger. So, the residents have a lot of things that they wish to share with the students that perhaps they don’t share with their carers. They want to treat them like grandchildren or great-grandchildren,” says Michelle.
“It really lifts the staff’s spirits as well having the students here. Being able to show someone what you do and have pride in what you’re doing has had a positive effect on our staff. So, it not only benefits the residents to have a new fresh face that they can talk to but the staff get a lot from it too.”
While the course gives the students a taste of what working in aged care is really like it can also be a stepping stone to a future career.
“There’s a lot of opportunities for them to see if they want to go further and become registered nurses or they wish to further their career in some kind of medical environment,” says Michelle.
From the experience, Claire says she is looking forward to exploring careers within the health care industry.
“It’s definitely opened my eyes to the possible careers in the health industry and I’m definitely considering working in the industry,” says Claire
Zoe agrees, saying “It’s made me realise working in aged care is something I potentially want to do in the future and it’s a really rewarding job.”