Health Care Assistant Certificate

NIC’s Health Care Assistant Program prepares you with the knowledge, skills and principles to provide frontline personal care and service to individuals who require assistance with tasks of daily living in a variety of facility and community settings. Health Care Assistants are respected members of a health care team, and provide hands-on support with the direction and supervision of licensed practical nurses, registered nurses and other health professionals.

As a student, you will participate in a range of classroom and learning center/lab activities and practice experiences. Working collaboratively with your peers and your instructor, you will develop essential critical thinking, problem solving, communication and physical care skills.

Upon completion of the program, graduates are qualified to work in a variety of settings such as home-based community care, residential/complex care and assisted living facilities, group homes, adult day programs, and acute care hospitals. Program graduates continue to be in high demand.

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Tuition and Costs

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Admission Requirements

To be accepted into a recognized BC HCA program, applicants are required to demonstrate proficiency in English. Please complete the following English Competency Self-Declaration form.
Completed HCA Intake Package. Carefully read the Health and Program Information Bulletins. Prospective students must review these bulletins and decide whether they believe the HCA program is suited to them. Prospective students who have questions or concerns should contact an educational advisor.

Applicants whose first language is English

Applicants must provide proof of education in an English-speaking environment (a country with English language systems/institutions) for a minimum of seven years or have been educated in an English-speaking environment for three consecutive years at the secondary or post- secondary level, and submit proof of one of the following:

C+ in one of Provincial English 11, Composition 11, Creative Writing 11, Literary Studies 11, New Media 11, Spoken Language 11, English First Peoples Literary Studies & Writing 11, English First Peoples Literary Studies & New Media 11, English First Peoples Literary Studies & Spoken Language 11, NIC ENG 052 , or assessment testing
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Applicants whose first language is not English

Applicants who have not been educated in an English speaking environment (a country with English language systems/institutions or who have been educated in an English speaking environment for less than seven years) must submit proof of one of the following:

Canadian Language Benchmark Placement Test (CLBPT): test must be within the last six months: scores as follows: Listening 7, Speaking 7, Reading 6, and Writing 6.
The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL): test must be within the last two years, IBT only. Overall score of 76 with no score lower than 20 in Speaking and Listening and no score lower than 18 in Reading and Writing.
International English Language Testing System (IELTS): Academic or General-test must be within the last two years: Overall score of 6 with a minimum of 6 in Speaking and Listening and no score lower than 5.5 in Reading and Writing.
Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program (CELPIP) Test must be within the last two years. Academic or General - Listening 7, Speaking 7, Reading 6 and Writing 6.
Canadian Academic English Language Assessment (CAEL): Test must be within the last two years. Overall score of 60, with no section less than 50.

Priority Admission for Aboriginal Applicants

The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal has provided Special Program approval to allow priority admission for a selected number of self-declared Aboriginal applicants to this program beginning in September 2013. For more information please refer to NIC’s Aboriginal Education Services program page (https://www.nic.bc.ca/indigenous-students/), or contact an Aboriginal Advisor at your local campus.

Before Classes Begin

Once accepted to the program complete the following:

Submit the Criminal Record Check form, which will be sent to you by Admissions once you are offered a seat in the program. This process can take some time, so submit promptly to ensure your clearance arrives prior to the clinical experiences.
Ensure you hold and submit a current Standard First Aid with CPR C certificate (FAC 021 ) that will not expire before the end of the HCA program.

Note: FAC 021 is offered at NIC. If you take a course at an institution other than North Island College, it is the student’s responsibility to ensure it meets the requirements. Please consult a NIC educational advisor or the HCA Department Chair.

Arrange to complete the immunization form, which will be sent to you by Admissions once you are offered a seat in the program. This form must be validated by a Health Professional (such as the public health nurse at your local health unit, a family doctor, or private immunization clinic) and must be submitted to the Health Care Assistant program faculty.
Ensure you hold and submit a Food Safe Level 1 certificate (TFS 010 ) that does not expire before the end of the HCA Program.

These pre-practice requirements are required in order for you to enter the Practice Experience placements. You will submit them to the HCA faculty. Please provide your instructor with your plan for completing any items that are outstanding on the first day of class. Once you begin the program your instructor will provide you with information to complete additional practice education and workplace specific health and safety requirements, which you must submit to the program prior to entering practice placement sites.

Course Requirements

Completion Requirements

The HCA certificate must be completed within 2 years of admission to the program.
To successfully complete the program, students must achieve a C or better in each course.
Successful completion of the appropriate HCA theory courses is required to progress into the practice experience.
A student who has failed a course, re-entered the program, repeated it and passed, and then fails another course will be removed entirely from the program and can only re-enter by going through the admission process and beginning at Term 1.
Re-entering the program is dependent on an available seat and at the discretion of the health care assistant department and in consultation with the Dean. Students who fail a required course may be asked to complete a learning assessment prior to being considered for re-admission. These regulations are important to ensure that graduates have the required skills and knowledge and are therefore deemed safe to practice.
Students are required to adhere to program professional conduct requirements as outlined in the HCA program manual. Failure to adhere to these program expectations may result in the student being required to leave the program.