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Language barrier no longer an issue for aspiring nurses |
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Written by Caroline Zentner LETHBRIDGE HERALD
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Monday, 23 November 2009 |
Aspiring nurses whose first language is not English will soon have access to an online course at Lethbridge College to help them improve their English and learn technical nursing terms.
The college’s English Language Centre will create the online ESL (English as a Second Language) nursing pathways course with the help of a grant of more than $306,000 from Alberta Employment and Immigration.
“It’s very exciting because it’s online and we’re going to be one of the first ones to be doing this. I think there’s a demand for this sort of thing not just for nursing but for lots of other professions that have those unique technical terminologies,” said Sandy Vanderburgh, dean of Applied Arts and Science. “The next step might be looking at something similar for prospective engineers, perhaps people going into criminal justice careers or culinary or trades.”
The college will digitize the course materials for the Introduction to Communication and Culture for Nursing class developed at NorQuest College in Edmonton. The course concentrates on reading, writing, listening and speaking skills, medical terminology and intercultural communication. Students from around the world will be able to take the course according to their own schedule.
“The course will allow foreign trained nurses or medical practitioners who don’t have English as a first language to become more aware of the technical and cultural issues around the nursing careers in Canada,” Vanderburgh said.
The traditional face-to-face teaching is in no danger of disappearing at the college but it also has a mandate to offer alternative delivery methods. Online courses are growing in popularity as they allow people to continue working while pursuing more education.
“Often when immigrants come to Canada, they may not be working in the profession they’ve been trained in and this course being online would afford them the opportunity to keep the job that they have but still be able to get this training in the evening or on weekends,” Vanderburgh said. “Doing it in a distance format has a lot of advantages.”
Philip Harttrup, director of the English Language Centre, is overseeing the process of digitizing the course content with the goal of having the first course available next September.
Designed to be completed over one semester, the nursing pathways course will cost the same as other distance courses offered at the college. The price is somewhat higher because of the extra work involved in setting up and administering the course.
“This was really the work of Philip and his team over in the English Language Centre and they should get all the credit for this,” Vanderburgh said.
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