PSW Personal Support Worker

PSW to RPN Bridge Courses

I recently stumbled across Mohawk College (in Hamilton, ontario) co-offering a PSW to PN bridging course in conjunction with McMaster.

PSW’s at my previous part-time job had been discussing this course for a long-time. I’m personally on the fence about taking a course such as this.

To be honest, the current employment climate is still a wild west of sorts. While the Ontario government has created a few different regulations and reporting systems, they don’t seem to be enforcing anything. If an employer gets caught doing something, there are told to stop. No punishment (that I can find) has been levied outside of that.

With that said, do employers in the future want to pay an RPN when they can essentially get a PSW to do the same type of tasks for a lower price? I understand that PSW’s aren’t supposed to carry out certain tasks. I also understand that drivers are supposed to stay at 100km or under on the highway. If the law isn’t enforced, what good is it?

So for the time being I think I’ll remain strictly a PSW. If the climate changes I may ‘upgrade’ to an RPN. But until the whole industry gets cleaned up, I’m not certain that it’s worth the time, effort and money to seriously consider a longterm investment such as a bridge course.