What were you doing before coming to Sprott Shaw College?
Before Sprott Shaw I had a completely different career, I was in the financial industry in various capacities. I used to Associate Produce investment conferences for a large company called Cambridge House and at one point I was selling mutual funds, I’ve done promotions for financial companies, small emerging cap growth companies in the Toronto, Vancouver Stock Exchange and I was looking for a complete change and was searching for some sort of purpose in my life and I decided even though I was honing in on 50 I took some time off work to help my mother who’s very chronically ill and I had an epiphany that I wanted to do something different and I wanted to help other people and find some purpose so I looked at getting trained and the best option I could come up with was Sprott Shaw College. I looked at other colleges, public and even private colleges with waiting lists and Sprott Shaw had a continuing intake into their nursing programs and I decided to go that route I decided to start right away and the sooner I get trained the sooner I’m working the sooner I’m helping people and I didn’t want to wait for 2 years. In fact, they don’t even guarantee you it’s 2 years, it’s 2 maybe 3 years. So I did a full program at Sprott Shaw and got my care aid certificate and decided I wanted more so I kept getting trained and I took my Community Support Worker Diploma and still decided I wanted to do more for the public/client and continued on and got more training and decided to do the Licensed Practical Nurse Program and in the LPN program that’s where I found my niche and what I wanted to do.
Why did you choose Sprott Shaw College?
I chose Sprott Shaw because I’ve heard good things about the school. I checked out the college and found out they had a good percentage of students being hired it was in the 90’s or something so I was very impressed with the teachers, most of them if not all of them have been out in the field and working and had actual experience. So I liked the idea, even smaller classrooms, good teachers, good atmosphere and after doing the first program with Sprott Shaw I realized that they will bend over backwards to help you if you need that help, so it’s kinda like a family so I did a second diploma and a third diploma and very happy that I did.
Where do you work? And can you explain your duties?
I graduated at the end of 2016. I wrote my licensing exam as an LPN in 2017 in the spring and now I have been hired by one of the big health authorities and my duties there when I was hired started out as casual which is the way most LPNs get their foot in the door but right away the health authority is encouraging you to when you are ready to apply to a part-time or apply to a full-time so my goal was to be full-time within hopefully a few months. I know there is lots of opportunity as an LPN with the growing population there’s a lot of need so my duties there include general nursing duties like giving medication is a big part of what I do and assessing the clients and making sure that they are safe and comfortable. Safety is one of the things they will teach you in college as one of the big things that you will always need to be aware of. Some clients have special feeding needs, nutritional needs, they have mobility issues so just working around all of those issues on the job.
If you could give advice to someone coming to Sprott Shaw what would you say?
Well, my advice would be not to let it seem overwhelming. If it’s a student who perhaps has just graduated from high school it’s a way to avoid having to wait to continue your education right away to move forward but if your like myself and doing a career change it can seem how do I do this, do I have to save up the money and go through a wait but everything is in place, student loans are there and you could literally move from a current job and be in school 30 days later with a student loan covering your costs and entering school don’t shy away from it. If you have a dream or a new sense of purpose in your life go for it and find what you are looking for.
