Students are required to be in attendance and successfully complete their clinical and mentorship placements. Placements are an important part of the CCA Program as it provides an opportunity for student learning, development and evaluation of the required entry-level skills and competencies required of CCAs. Students are required to complete a total of 330 clinical placement hours including 110 hours in Skills Development and 220 hours in 1:1 mentorship hours in long-term care and community.  (LTC mentorship – 80 hours, Homecare mentorship – 80 hours and Open mentorship- 60 hours (Open mentorship can be completed in either LTC or Homecare as student’s choice).
Students are required to have a car, have access to a car or reliable transportation for all placements. (Skills and 1:1 mentorship)  

Placement Sites

Students’ complete placements in one of the long-term care facilities partnering with the Northwood Career College:

• Northwood Ivy Meadows
• Northwood Bedford
• Northwood Halifax
• Northwood Homecare

Skills Development Placements

Skills development placement introduces the students to the work environment and allows them to develop their skills by providing hands-on experience with support from a clinical instructor (RN/LPN). Students complete this placement under the supervision of an NCC clinical supervisor.  Students will have the opportunity to integrate the theory and lab learnings while in this placement and may require prompts and cues as they learn to apply their skills to the long-term care setting.  Students will be evaluated throughout their skills development placement to ensure they are meeting the entry-level competencies. Students will be required to keep a daily journal and submit a self-reflection at the end of their placement to their instructor. This self-reflection will be used as an assessment for their placement.

Long-Term Care Placements

This is an 80-hour placement completed in a long-term care facility with a trained CCA mentor. Students will develop, demonstrate, and grow their skills to practice safely with the support of their mentor, registered staff and their clinical supervisor. Mentors will evaluate student progression on a weekly basis to ensure students are meeting entry-level competency. CCA mentors will be provided with the evaluation documents developed by the CCA Program to help ensure students’ success and will work collaboratively with the mentorship team.

Homecare Placement

This is an 80-hour placement completed in the community with a trained CCA mentor. Students will develop, demonstrate, and grow their skills to practice safely with the help of their mentor, registered staff, and their clinical supervisor. Students are only able to count hours while in client care. Travel time is not included in the required 80-hour requirement. In the event it is difficult for the student to this obtain the 80 hours, the CCA Program allows 5% (4 hours) of the placement through informal/formal team meetings, case conferences and /or evaluations by the mentor/placement site.

Open Placement

In this 60-hour placement, students have the option to return to long-term care or homecare placement. By this placement, the student should be able to lead the care routine with the support of the mentor. Mentors will observe the student’s demonstration of the competencies to ensure safety and proficiency in their skills. Mentors will evaluate student progression on a weekly basis to ensure students are meeting entry-level competency.