Aged Care Certificate 3

To Blue Topaz,

After many years of yearning to do what I seeked out when I was eighteen but my parents didnt not agree and put me down a different career path of Business, I am now in my mid forties with a teenage son and I am going to pursue my dream get my cert 3 then 4. So hey go for it girl and it appears we will be starting together so lean on me if you like and we can throw ideas around. I have done a lot of research into this and Tafe is far the best way to go, in saying that by correspondence or face to face. I came across so many other training facilities that offer the Tafe course but triple the price.

I am going to send out my resume to aged care facilities within my area and surrounds in hope that one will support my study whilst working gaining that experience.

So Blue topaz welcome to my world.

Elle

Hi Danp,

Thanks for your reply to my post. I'm working full time in Real Estate (talk about an industry change), and studying around that. My plan is to stay in this job until I finish the course, and then see what awaits me in Aged Care. I'm hoping that perhaps when I get to the work placement part of the course, I can find a facility nearby, and then negotiate doing some evenings, weekend, etc with them to get my hours up and get my assignments completed. That's the plan anyway.

Thanks for your help though, it's much appreciated.

Cheers,

Mathew.

Hi everyone, I have read all the posts and found this forum very interesting.

I have started my course today and am doing Cert III aged care and Cert III Home and community care together. It goes for about 20 weeks and we will be doing our placement with a mentor to show us around. I'm very excited as I have wanted to get into this for ages.

So far we have just had an introduction and received our text books etc.

Hi everyone Im new here and I need some help on how I could start my Cert.3 career.Can anyone please tell me the steps to do and who are the persons or organization to contact.TY very much for your reply on these.

hi im matthew do age care i was wondering has anyone down the dementia assiments if you have could you help me out and email me and tell me please at fester1990@hotmail.com

Hi Teamtribal,

I have just started my Cert 3 and am doing it with RDNS at Wayville. Cost is $2200 but it is cheaper with TAFE who have a new course starting in September.
I'm doing a fast track course which runs for 17 weeks.

Hi.

I'm doing a Cert III aged care traineeship. The theory provider is National College Australia. I've found alot of the questions really vague, and quite a few typos that make it really difficult in the notes. Or maybe i'm being too thorough with those questions, looking at them through eyes of a university student and working myself into a tizzy trying to think of the best possible answer even though i'm only supposed to write a few lines. Every time I pick up the modules, i get too focused on a single question, get cross with it because there is not enough info to answer it, or too many correct answers because they have not clarified what they are looking for, and put it down with barely a word written. However, I am loving the work.

Hi Everyone,
Oh how I wish I had found a forum like this when I did my Cert III in Aged Care and Home and Community Care 5 years back! Ah well I got through pretty well and must say I enjoyed the challenge of learning again after no study for 10 years very much. I have spent the last 5 years working as a Community Carer but began to find I needed more of a challenge. With this in mind I also started working in a High Care Nursing Home 18mths ago and am loving it!

I am very interested in furthering my studies now though. I am wondering if anyone could tell me how to find out about Traineeships/Scholarships for Div 2/EEN/Cert IIII studies? I am a single Mum with a Mortgage so I cannot afford to leave work to study. Does anyone know what other options there might be out there?

Hi everyone, Great to hear the level of interest in aged care. I have a couple of years work in age care and would encourage those wishing to go into this area to try to get some work experience first. This is allow you some exposure to the type of responsibilities involved and maybe spur you on to something different..say a Div 2 En course. I am by no means trying to pour cold water on everybody's aspirations but merely suggesting a more practical approach to age care. As I have mentioned earlier, i have done age care and its pretty full on and can be both physically and mentally taxing. I was about to go do my Cert III but decided against it - instead I am now past mid way in my Div 1 RN course. I can only say that age care was the turning point - it gave me an appreciation of the work and made me realise that I loved working and caring for people. However it also made me realise that I can do more...and that means getting more education...LOL. I am 45 this year and being a male in a female dominated industry is not easy, more so for people who tend to stereotype nurses as being only females.

For those who are looking for what's available down the road or maybe comtemplating such an opportunity later, do give it a thought. Cert III is a great way to start but if you want more without having to jump through hoops that you have already conquered, it might make sense to do a cert IV instead or maybe even go straight to Div 2 (Enrolled Nurse). It will open up more opportunties that you can ever imagine. I am currently specialising in cardiac, whilst I am still a student and on practical placements...I realised that the opportunties to pick up something and make a difference really gives you a rush. Recently whilst on prac. I had the opportunity to do an ECG for a patient (normal process for those admitting to a ward..its a baseline read). Because I have done a course in ECGs, I managed to pick up a long QT interval (involves calculations) and a valvular disease (noticing very small notches in the waves), which I would not have been able to do if fate in working in age care had not pushed me into this field. Sadly, shortages in nurses is so chronic and many people do not understand that nurses specialise like doctors too. In this instance, none of my colleagues picked that up because they did not spent a whole semester doing the course in ECG, however having said that they were specialist in respiratory care, something I am just a baby compared to them. It only goes to highlight the incredible diversity and opportunities available in nursing and age care.

I am encouraged to see the positive responses in this thread about all you who are keen to be part of age care nursing. At the same time, I would certainly encourage you all to find work in age care and let your experience dictate if you would want to pursue further studies. Cheers

BTW long QT interval is a critical condition and can/usually will lead to sudden death as the heart's ventricles cannot re-polarized fast enough before the next signal..sorry this is as layman as I could keep the explanation to, actually its a bit more technical butI won't go on to bore you all ...lol. Long QT syndrome is generally from a genetic trait that was traced to people from a swedish/nordic decent and the balance of those with long QT are from taking cardiac medications. For those who have family members with nordic familial ties and have members who experience cardiac failure even at a young age and have no apparent "reasons" for it, please go have an ECG to check up. The doctor who identified long QT interval is still researching the genetic tree even now and has since charted the descendants all the way to the americas and australia! They are still seeking to trace the lineage and hope to inform people at risk.

I have included a link about an Australian family withlong QT syndrome which i hope woud be interesting reading for all - www.mydr.com.au/heart-stroke/long-qt-syndrome-the-foley-familys-story

The course I am applying for is at Chisholm Tafe, 3 days a week, as I recall, for 6 months.