Are you a passionate person who wants to make a difference in people’s lives? If so, then working as a healthcare professional might be the perfect fit for you. Moreover, you can pursue your career as a Personal Support Worker (PSW), to help people live a better life. Being a PSW is not a cakewalk, you need to have a lot of patience and empathy, to deal with the clients. As a PSW worker, you are entitled to a huge responsibility of providing care and assistance to the clients.

With the rise in the aging population, the demand for PSW in Canada is arising day by day. Becoming a PSW is a rewarding as well as challenging profession.

As a PSW, you will be responsible for providing care, assistance, and emotional support to those who need it, due to their mental and physical impairments. You can be accountable for providing personal care, managing medications, assisting with mobility, preparing meals, and doing some household chores. Your success as a PSW depends on your ability to acknowledge your role as a personal support worker and the difference you can make in other’s life.

Steps for academic success as a personal support worker:

1. Register for a PSW course: To become a personal support worker the initial step is finding a PSW school that offers a PSW program, which provides the necessary knowledge and skills for a successful career. When you find a suitable PSW school, enroll in a PSW program. Many times, PSW college programs are funded by the government, to help passionate students financially and promote health care professionals.

The Academy of Learning Mississauga East campus, a leading private college, offers an outstanding PSW program that prepares you for the demands of the profession.

2. Practical Training and Experience:  Personal support worker program has both theoretical as well as practical portions of learning. Learners can choose an online PSW course that offers flexibility for a theoretical learning schedule and afterward provide paid placements as a personal support worker. This PSW placement helps you to gain practical, real-life training to handle clients. PSW course is designed in such a way that it has theoretical as well as practical knowledge of becoming a successful personal support worker. And there are some institutions or private colleges that provide personal support worker courses online.

3. Examination:  PSW exam is the final step for becoming a personal support worker. In Ontario personal support worker course has a PSW final exam called NACC, you need to qualify for it with at least 65%, to be a certified personal support worker. It is a standardized and highly recognized test for PSW Canada, you might find some PSW practice test online, to get an idea of the variety of questions that the NACC examination has.

4. Certification: After clearing the NACC exam, you will receive your PSW personal support worker certification and here you go, this is the final step of your personal support worker education and after this, you will be certified PSW.

Tips to be successful as a PSW:

1. Stay optimistic:  In Canada, personal support worker is a challenging task. You may encounter clients that do not cooperate with you due to their mental or physical illness, in that situation you need to have a positive influence on them by calmly reacting to a particular situation. Positive thinking will allow you to provide the best service and it is important for your own mental and overall well-being.

2. Be respectful:  Always give respect to your clients, despite of who they are. Respect is a mutual thing, if you give respect to them, they will eventually respect you and it shows your client-centered care.

3. Build connections:   To be a successful PSW, you need to have a strong emotional connection with your clients. To have effective communication with clients, be vigilant to their actions, body language, and other gestures. In this way, you can empathize with them and will be able to create a good companionship.

4. Me-time: Despite your busy schedule, spare some time for yourself. Working as PSW drains you mentally as well as physically, so it is important to have regular breaks, to recharge your mental and physical stamina. By practicing this, you will be able to give your best at work.

This is all you need to have a successful career as a personal support worker in Canada.

For those seeking a trusted institution to kickstart their PSW career, the Academy of Learning Mississauga East Campus is an excellent choice. To learn more about the college’s PSW Diploma program, contact them at 905-273-6788 or visit their website www.aolmississauga.com.