Program Goals

The Institutional and Home Care Assistance program prepares students to practice the trade or occupation of Care Attendant in the health and social services sector. Graduates may work in positions that bear various job titles in the public, private and community networks. In general, the occupation of attendant involves helping and caring for clients of all ages who have physical, psychological or psychosocial illnesses or disabilities. The purpose is to help clients compensate for their disabilities and to assist them in maintaining or regaining their autonomy and health.

To be more specific, the tasks of attendants consist in providing care, supporting or guiding clients in organizing and carrying out activities of daily living, primarily those involving moving around, hygiene, elimination, comfort, dressing, nourishment and hydration. Attendants may be called upon to provide occupational therapy activities or to facilitate the process of socializing clients and integrating them into their environments. In all cases, attendants work to prevent infections, contamination and accidents. Most of the tasks carried out by attendants require that they first establish a relationship of trust with the client and the client’s family and friends, a prerequisite for providing care. These tasks then require attendants to adapt their assistive care to the client’s condition, family and friends, and physical surroundings.

Attendants work alone or with colleagues, depending on the workplace. They work in an existing team respecting each team member’s scope of practice. Their contribution consists in communicating, when needed, their observations about the clients they have met, and to make suggestions, if applicable. The information communicated may concern the client’s physical condition, emotional state, lifestyle habits, human and physical surroundings, and his or her family, social or cultural realities. In this way, attendants play a role in identifying the changing needs of clients, planning services for them and providing their ongoing care.

Practicing this occupation requires an extraordinary ability to adapt to the variety of clients and needs, the large number and different types of illnesses and disabilities, changing contexts, and equipment specific to each workplace. It also requires the ability to act ethically, prudently and with good judgment and to pay close attention to variations in the client’s overall state of health.

The program goals of the Institutional and Home Care Assistance program are based on the general goals of vocational training. These goals are as follows:

• To help students develop effectiveness in the practice of a trade or occupation, that is:
  • to teach students to perform roles, functions, tasks and activities associated with the trade or occupation upon entry into the job market
  • to prepare students to progress satisfactorily in the different workplaces covered by the program (which implies having the technical and technological knowledge and skills in such areas as communication, problem solving, decision making, ethics, health and safety)
• To help students integrate into the work force, that is:
  • to familiarize students with the job market in general, and with the specific context of their chosen trade or occupation
  • to familiarize students with their rights and responsibilities as workers.

Program Information

Credits