HS 183 - Personal Assistance Awareness

3 Credits

This course provides the human services worker with a basic understanding of personal assistance practices for supporting individuals with physical limitations and disabilities. Students are introduced to personal care skills and medical procedures, focusing on activities for daily living (ADL), which are essential to supporting children, youth, and adults with physical limitations and disabilities across different settings.

Rationale:

This course is an elective for the students in the Educational Assistant program. Individuals working in the Human services field encounter individuals with physical limitations and disabilities who require specialized support. These supports require a basic understanding of personal care (i.e., activities for daily living), including ethics, teamwork, safety, feeding, body mechanics, elimination assistance, medications, and own personal care.

Prerequisites: None
Corequisites: None

Course Learning Outcomes:

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to

1. define personal care basics in the framework of activities of learning (ADL), including priorities and ethics.
2. describe the importance in the areas of teamwork and communication along with stating strategies to support these skills.
3. describe the importance of understanding the individual being supported and how this understanding impacts strategies used.
4. state the safety precautions required for preventing infections, including the use of personal protective equipment (PPE).
5. identify the safety precautions (i.e., body mechanics) required for lifting and transferring an individual.
6. describe safe food practices.
7. explain the requirements and differences in the types of nutrition and delivery strategies provided to an individual.
8. articulate the types and strategies of elimination assistance provided to an individual.
9. explain the process of assisting an individual with medications.
10. articulate the importance of self-care by providing examples of own strategies.

Wilk, M., Sorrentino, S. & Remmert, L. (2022). Sorrentino’s Canadian textbook for the support worker (5^th ed.). Elsevier Inc.

Optional Resource Materials:

Students are required to read articles available online and to watch/listen visual and auditory resources.

Conduct of Course:

This course includes lessons, activities, discussions, presentations, and videos to provide a basic understanding of the activities of daily living [ADL] supports a human services worker may be required to provide assisting individuals with physical limitations and disabilities. Additional reference materials may supplement the text.

Regular attendance is essential for success in any course. Absence for any reason does not relieve a student of the responsibility of completing course work and assignments to the satisfaction of the instructor.

Content of Course:
1.   Personal Care Basics

a. Priorities

b. Ethics

c. Teamwork

d. Communication

2. Understanding the Individual

a. Growth and development

b. Caring for the young

c. Developmental disabilities

d. Speech and language disabilities

e. SPLICE framework

3. Safety: Preventing Infections

a. Understanding infections

b. Prevention strategies

c. Personal protective equipment (PPE)

4. Safety: Basics of body mechanics

a. Body mechanics

b. Lifts and transfers

5. Nutrition and Fluids

a. Nutrition and nutrients

b. Safe food practices

c. Enteral nutrition

d. Adapted eating utensils

6. Elimination Assistance

a. Urinary elimination

b. Bowel elimination

7. Assisting with Medications

8. Self Care

Course Assessments:

 

Course Pass Requirements:
A minimum grade of D (50%) (1.00) is required to pass this course. Students must maintain a cumulative grade of C (GPA - Grade Point Average of 2.00) in order to qualify to graduate.