Nursing Assistant students get ready to work with patents in the fall

The Nurse Assistant program enjoyed a successful return this year after a two-year hiatus

Sashel Delarosa finds herself both nervous and anxious just thinking about the next step. This fall, shortly after she begins her senior year at the Center for Career Services, Delarosa and her classmates in the Nursing Assistant program will begin working on live patients at a local nursing home.

“I’m also very excited,” said Delarosa, a student from New Rochelle about to complete her junior year. “This is what I want to do, so this experience will really help us get a head start on other students.”

The opportunity that awaits students in the Nursing Assistant program is exactly what instructor Glenda Pollard has prepared them for. The first-year program, which returned this year after a two-year hiatus, has been designed around teaching the fundamentals of nursing. Next year, the students must work 108 hours in order to sit for the Certified Nurse Assistant exam next spring.

The students recently completed their final project, a patient simulation. The patient presented certain symptoms and each student had to identify a plan for care intervention.

The project was filmed, and students will have to present and discuss the video with their class.

“They’ve done very well throughout the year with these types of individual and group projects,” said Pollard, who has worked as a Registered Nurse for more than 40 years and taught adult education courses for 10.

Her students have learned both how to care for patients and, vitally, how to communicate with them. During the school year, they also received valuable insight into these medical and personal interactions during visits to Blythedale Children’s Hospital in Valhalla and Montefiore Einstein Advanced Care in Elmsford.

“We learned a lot of new skills this year,” said Nadia Leon, a junior from New Rochelle. “Next year, we will learn more. The goal is really for us to be ready to work with patients.”

“They’ll be ready,” Pollard added. “I will make sure they are ready.”