Wednesday February 15th marked the start of the Licensed Practical Nurse Course for 22 elated students. The LPN program is a new course of Advanced Secondary, Professional & Technical Education (formerly referred to as SBO).
The course will train mostly youngsters between the ages of 16 and 24, but also some adult students. It takes three years to be a full fledged Licensed Practical Nurse at the White and Yellow Cross, St Maarten Medical Center, Mental Health Foundation or the Department of Health. Four students that completed the Nursing Assistant Course last year are also part of this LPN group.
The students will receive 6 weeks of an introductory training consisting of the modules "Basic Care", "Professional Interaction", "Care for Household", and an introduction program consisting of Anatomy, Reporting skills for nurses, Maths, Psychology, Anatomy and Physiotherapy (e.g. how to properly lift a patient out of bed).
After the first 6 weeks, the LPN course will continue with three days of job training and two days of school. The other modules that will be covered during the three year course are: Planning and Coordination of Care, Prevention and Health Info, Quality Care & Expertise, Nursing Skills, Care for Chronically ill patients/ the elderly/the mentally handicapped and Obgyn.
The course has been developed with Dutch Development Funds for Education and was a cooperative effort of the renowned nursing school IFE (Curacao), White and Yellow Cross, SMMC, SVOBE and SBO Service Center.
During the selection procedure, the students showed an enormous drive to work in the care sector and Wednesday they expressed their joy that their dream to pursue a nursing career will finally become a reality, with the actual start of the Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) classes and receipt of their books and readers. The next nursing course that is expected to commence next year is the "Registered Nurse Course".