Nursing program created for ESL students

By Randi Moody

Mt. Hood Community College’s Career Pathways has been filling needs in the community for years. With the addition of the Certified Nursing Assistant program for non-native English speakers that began this fall, they will continue that tradition.

According to Steven Storla, Career Pathways coordinator, many people are focused on attaining skills that will allow them to enter the work force in the immediate future instead of college credits leading to a degree farther down the road.

This is where Career Pathways lends a hand. Their programs are three-to-six-month, job-focused trainings intended to lead to a job upon completion.

The CNA program is simply the newest member for Career Pathways.

“There’s a shortage of nursing assistants in Oregon. Particularly, there is a shortage of people who want to take the training and work a number of years as a nursing assistant,” said Storla.

MHCC offers a mainstream nursing assistant class four times a year but Storla says those classes always have a waiting list and usually are taken as a prerequisite to enter MHCC’s nursing program. “With our increasing diversity in Oregon, more and more residents of nursing homes and long term care facilities have different ethnic backgrounds. They may be living in a nursing home where no one speaks their first language,” said Storla. The new CNA program will allow those minority students who wish to enter the health care profession another avenue to do so, therefore, fulfilling a need in the industry.

A CNA certificate can lead to different careers in the medical field from stages of nursing jobs to medical office specialists, medical management, even hospital jobs according to Storla.

The pilot CNA training, in session now, has 12 students enrolled all from varying ethnic backgrounds. “We’re very happy to have 12 students in the class all extremely motivated and all doing well,” said Storla.

Other Career Pathway programs include Hospital Unit Clerk with CNA, CNA plus, Retail Management, Office Specialist I, Administrative Assistant and Welding Technology with Vocational ESL.

“Welding Technology is our longest one, we’ve been doing that at MHCC for 15 years and it’s very successful,” said Storla. “Last year 14 students graduated and now they’re all working as welders.”

For information on Welding Technology with Vocational ESL, the new Nursing Assistant Training with Vocational ESL or any of the other Career Pathways programs, contact Storla at (503) 491-7251.