Learning to work in long-term care communities

PREP LTC 

PREP LTC helps Ontario long-term care homes build or expand clinical student placement programs, provides online education for preceptors and students, and develops resources to support positive placements for personal support workers and nursing students, as well as nurse practitioners and internationally educated nurses. 

Clinical placements are key to providing nursing and personal support worker students with hands-on experience on-site in long-term care homes under the supervision of preceptors – experienced staff who are trained for this role. Positive clinical placement experiences drive recruitment, as students often take jobs in the homes where they complete their placements. Meanwhile, becoming a preceptor gives existing long-term care staff the opportunity for career development and growth. 

In their first three years, the PREP LTC team engaged more than 80% of Ontario’s long-term care homes and supported more than 20,000 clinical student placements. Over 1,400 long-term care team members have completed free online training that equips them to mentor students confidently, PREP LTC also launched iPrecept, a free society to acknowledge and support the crucial role that preceptors play in training students. 

PREP LTC is led by the Ontario Centres for Learning, Research and Innovation in Long-Term Care (Ontario CLRI) at the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging (RIA), in collaboration with the Ontario CLRI teams at Baycrest Academy for Research and Education and Bruyère Research Institute.

Living Classroom 

The Living Classroom is an innovative education partnership model that combines theoretical learning with practical hands-on experience by placing the classrooms directly into long-term care homes. The many benefits of the Living Classroom model include improved personal support worker (PSW) recruitment and retention rates, a strengthened senior care workforce with both academic knowledge and practical expertise, and improved quality of care for older adults. 

Students alternate between in-class learning – delivered in the home or nearby – and applying what they learn as they work with residents within the home. The program is especially beneficial to rural, remote and northern regions, as homes can grow their own staff, and students can train without having to leave their communities. 

The Living Classroom model was first implemented in Ontario through a partnership with Conestoga College, the RIA and Schlegel Villages in 2009. Since then, 20 new Living Classrooms have opened in long-term care homes in collaboration with public colleges and adult and continuing education school boards that offer PSW certificate programs. 

Many of these long-term care homes report a positive impact on their ability to hire new team members as PSW students can see firsthand what the role involves, and the difference their work can make to people’s lives. 

The recent Living Classroom funding, led by the RIA through the Ontario CLRI, and in partnership with the Ontario Association of Adult and Continuing Education School Board Administrators (CESBA), will double the number of Living Classrooms to 40 and train up to 1,300 new personal support workers by 2026. 

Read the original story in the Spring/Summer 2024 issue of LTC Today Magazine.