Tapanga Kirby – Health Care Assistant – Prince George

“I heard about the program through WorkBC as I was involved in a program with them trying to find more consistent work as I was working in home care and already providing care for those in need.  Getting accepted into the program it meant everything for me I had taken care of my grandparents in their last years of lives before passing away, and knew it was something I wanted to continue to do helping and supporting people during their last moments and supporting them how every they want.

The experience of being in school as an adult was a new one especially with a portion of this program being online and learning and navigating the challenges of the online learning, there were other challenges such as their only being one instructor on for clinical and having to navigate around them for things in the facility like lifts, some success I had during this program were seeing all the smiling faces and sometimes the hard I’ll miss you from residents knowing I gave them great care made it all worth it, I made irreplaceable friends in this program other adults going through the same learning experience and difficulties made it easier to understand and connect to each other.

With this education I plan on continuing to care for those who can’t care for themselves with dignity, respect sympathy, and love as I once did for my own grandparents.  Some personal achievements I had during this program was despite have my own learning difficulties ADHD and having a special needs child at home that requires 24/7 care I kept my grades in the A and sometimes A+ section.”