MSU's Polytechnic College to groom helpers for hospitals

VADODARA: Now you can expect a courteous and soft-spoken staff in hospitals with M S University's Polytechnic College along with a city-based NGO starting a certificate course titled Helpers for hospitals and nursing homes'. They are looking to train school dropouts and those from lower income group without charging any fees.
The course will be of six months duration and will be run in the hospital-run by Shroff Foundation at Kalali.The administration and monitoring of the course will be done by the staff of the Polytechnic College as part of its Community Development through Polytechnic (CDP) scheme of Central Government.
"The intention is to provide employment to unemployed youths and villagers. There will be talented work force which hospitals can employ. This programme aims at providing job to people who can earn their bread and butter instead of sitting jobless," said principal of polytechnic college K S Agrawal.
The core areas covered will be hospital organisation, work ethics, communication skills, counselling techniques, nutrition, balanced diet, personal health hygiene, development education, understanding human values and body as well as environment education. The curriculum of Jan Shikshan Sansthan will be followed while conducting the course.
"We will also be orienting them on basic medical aspects like minor aliments, first-aid assistance to medical team and attending patients. Aspects of sanitation, communicable as well as non-communicable disease will also be covered. The idea is to groom informed and educated helpers who can help patients in best possible way," said vice-principal of polytechnic college M M Patel and one of the four members of the core team constituted for CDP.
The first batch will commence by August end with initial intake of 25 students. It will be a five-month educative programme followed by one month internship at the hospital. Those who complete the course will be given certificate by the Polytechnic College. "We will help them in finding jobs. In fact we are looking to replicate the same for other hospitals who want to train their staff or want helpers. Through this course we just want to ensure that patients have a smooth sailing experience during their visit to hospitals," said N N Veer, consultant of CDP programme.