EUGENE, Ore. — The call for healthcare professionals continues to grow in Lane County and most of the country with a special focus on bilingual technicians. At Lane Community College faculty and staff have been looking at the challenges English Language Learners (ELL) face entering a workforce that can have a language of its own. English as a Second Language Instructor Nancy Wood has made these students a priority with classes and developing free materials for students.
PASS Lane is a program at LCC that focuses on non-native speakers of English, GED students, adults who are new to college or have tested below college level reading/math, or other students interested in transitioning to credit classes while working on academic skills and receiving extra support to succeed. One of those areas works with ELL students interested in becoming Certified Nursing Assistants. A new, two-term cohort of the program will begin in January 2023 with a daytime program at the Mary Spilde Downtown Center. There is no cost associated with the program for accepted students. This covers training, fees, clothing, supplies and the exam fees for the Oregon State Board of Nursing exam to earn a Certified Nursing Assistant License.
According to Wood, the CNA cohort expanded for this upcoming year to admit 12 to 14 students. There are limitations on the number of people that can take the CNA course due to the need to ensure they can be placed in facilities for clinicals. An additional healthcare language learning option is the ESL for Healthcare 2-term series. Students interested in increasing their English skills while learning foundational health science report loving the small size, as they get lots of individual attention and opportunities to use the language.
“However another significant benefit is that many of our multilingual speakers bring with them exceptional strengths in terms of respect and care for elders, the ability to connect with others, and a deep sense of gratitude to be here in the US, especially here in Lane County, said Wood. “Many students who come from cultures that have more collective values are extremely grateful to be here and are eager to give back.”
Wood said she was inspired to help ELL students reach their goals when she saw the challenges they face in reaching those career goals. The largest challenge is licensure testing. Even the most experienced of healthcare professionals who are not native English speakers find the exams challenging. This is a nationwide problem where the language used and a lack of familiarity with standardized multiple choice testing can hinder qualified ELL who are not used to such exams. Another issue is the language barrier when it comes to everyday terms versus medical terminology.
“One issue for speakers of first languages other than English is the need to learn not only medical terminology and professional terms in English, but they also need to learn the common language a patient might use,” said Wood. “For example, most English speaker would know the term kneecap, and only need to learn the medical term 'patella.' An English language learner would need to learn both common terms and medical terms at the same time.”
With financial assistance through a grant from Open Oregon and the collaboration of LCC faculty member Sean Jones, Wood began addressing the issue of a lack of open source options. She based her idea on materials she had seen used in Minnesota where she lived previously. Collaborating with Jones, she ensured that her edits to increase readability for students maintained the accuracy of the health science content. Originally, the grant from Open Oregon was used to modify the eight or nine week resources from the Minnesota Department of Health, but then mushroomed into two separate courses with a lot of new materials.
As for the future, Wood said, “I would really like to continue to refine my materials and to be able to keep accommodating new technology to teach students to become facile using digital modalities of education. At the same time I'd also like to have resources that are very low tech and accessible to students from cultures such as Afghanistan where access to computers is often limited. The digital divide is enormous, and while I want to continue to help students enter into the way things are being done in the 21st century, I also don't want to have students get left behind because they can't access digital materials.
“The goal of our programs is not simply to create resources,” added Wood. “It is to create resources that help students succeed.”
Those interested in learning more about PASS Lane and the next CNA cohort should visit www.lanecc.edu/pathways and contact Career Pathways Advisor Marcia Koenig at Koenigm@lanecc.edu.
Lane Community College educates over 25,000 students annually at six locations across Lane County and online. Students and alumni from all 50 states and 79 countries create more than an $850 million dollar impact on the local economy, helping to support more than 13,000 local jobs. Lane provides affordable, quality, professional technical and college transfer programs; business development and employee training; academic, language and life skills development; and lifelong personal development and enrichment courses.