Caroline Center offers a comprehensive 15-week education and career skills training program with exceptional teaching that is inspired by the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Our program’s proven results are evidenced in our many graduates – women who are confident, successful, highly qualified healthcare professionals, who are in demand by major area healthcare employers.
CNA/GNA Curriculum Overview
- Roles & responsibilities of the CNA/GNA – developing qualities of care and compassion and modeling outstanding patient care skills
- Understanding working in direct patient care – topics range from anatomy and physiology and health terminology to infection control and legal and ethical issues
- Nursing theory and clinical skills practice for certification
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Patient assessment: Learning how to read and monitor patients’ vital signs, including blood pressure, dementia care, height and weight, pulse, respiration and temperature and specimen collection
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Personal care: Helping patients who are not able to attend to their daily personal needs and providing hair, skin, and dental care
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Patient mobility: Re-positioning patients in their beds; helping patients transfer to wheelchairs; and, walking with patients for exercise
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Creating a comfortable environment for the patient: Ensuring that cleanliness is maintained in the patient’s room, bed linens are changed, and soiled clothing, linens, and towels are laundered
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Personal interaction: Providing emotional support for patients that respects their cultural, personal, and religious identities and is appropriate to the patient’s level of understanding
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Caroline Center has a fully equipped and recently updated Skills Lab with bed stations, medical equipment, and anatomical manikins where trainees can practice their clinical skills in small groups
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CNA candidates participate in week-long clinical internships under the supervision of a registered nurse preceptor in area hospitals, assisted living communities, and long-term care centers
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Upon successful completion of the program, graduates register with the Maryland Board of Nursing, and they are eligible to take the geriatric nursing assistant (GNA) exam with the National Nurse Aide Assessment Program through the American Red Cross
PhT Curriculum Overview
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Roles & responsibilities of the PhT – developing attention to detail and the ability to multi-task and practicing outstanding customer service skills
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Understanding how a pharmacy works – day-to-day life of a PhT in a retail pharmacy, hospital, or in-patient pharmacy and in other organizations that provide pharmacy services
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Pharmacy study and skills practice for certification
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Classroom topics: Trainees learn brand and generic names for medications; over-the-counter product equivalents; use of reference guides and dosage handbooks; navigating pharmacy computer software; pharmacy math and pharmaceutical calculations; pharmacology; principles of pharmacokinetics; and, the therapeutic classes of drugs; and, review of the legal and ethical issues regarding drugs and medications
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Model pharmacy experience: Trainees get hands-on experience in Caroline Center's pharmacy skills lab and mock pharmacy through PioneerRx in compounding medications and sterile preparations; using aseptic technique and working under a pharmacy hood; prescription deciphering and dosing; proper arrangement of medications on the pharmacy shelf; working with mortar and pestle (compounding); and, using scales and weights
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PhT candidates work 160 hours (3 weeks) in practical internships in a retail pharmacy under the supervision of a pharmacist and are posted to the Maryland Board of Pharmacy
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Upon successful completion of the program, graduates are encouraged to take the exam for national certification in pharmacy (CPhT)