When Carla Tisdale stumbled onto the Nursing Unit Clerk program at University College of the Fraser Valley, she finally found her niche.

"I went into this with no expectations," Tisdale says. "I lucked out. I really, really enjoy the job."

Tisdale entered UCFV's Nursing Unit Clerk program in 1997. Although she didn't know what to expect, she was pleasantly surprised to find a fast-paced, challenging, and rewarding career awaiting her.

"I wish I had done it earlier," she adds. "This is a great job."

Tisdale completed the part-time program in 1998 and worked shortly at Burnaby General Hospital before being hired full time at Langley Memorial Hospital more than three years ago. She credits UCFV's instructors and the in-depth program for easy transition from student to full-time employee.

Nursing unit clerks work with the nursing staff on all wards within a hospital and ensure that area runs proficiently day in, day out. A nursing unit clerk needs to be versatile, patient, and well versed in medical jargon, have office skills, and be able to deal with a multitude of people including doctors, nurses, patients, and family members.

"It is a clerical position but there's much more to it than that," says UCFV instructor Heather Hurtubise. "She's the one who will put in doctor's orders for tests and medication, ensure transportation if those tests are in Vancouver, and communicate with the nurses, other health care professionals, patients, and families to ensure the physician's orders are carried out accurately and in a timely manner."

Hurtubise and fellow instructor Shirley Jones describe a nursing unit clerk as a hub in a wheel. Everything that takes place on that nursing unit goes through the nursing unit clerk.

"It's usually the first person you see when you come onto a ward in a hospital," Hurtubise adds. "It's quite a different job. You deal with absolutely everybody and anything that happens that affects your unit."

The program offered through UCFV's Continuing Studies department can be taken either full or part time. A new session begins in March and applications will soon be processed. There's a lot to learn in the 400-hour certificate program. Students will take courses that teach pharmacology, laboratory orders, diagnostic and surgical orders, and clinical skills. Communication skills, processing patient data, and dealing with hospital staff and visitors, along with learning managerial skills, are all covered. There's also a 150-hour practicum.

Debi Hoffman is just completing her practicum and will complete the program in February. Like Tisdale, this is something she wishes she had done years earlier. As soon as her children were school-aged, she enrolled in the program and is glad she did.

"I'm doing my practicum on three separate wards so there's a great variety," she explains. "It's a great, think-on-your-feet job."

Hoffman credits Hurtubise and Jones for making the intense program totally do-able.

"You are very lucky to have those two women teaching the course. There was never a time where I felt overwhelmed, overloaded or that I couldn't cope. I went into the practicum well prepared."

For more information about the Nursing Unit Clerk program, contact Laura Larson at 604-864-4626, or email larson@ucfv.ca. You can also check the web at www.ucfv.ca/cs. Scroll down to the certificate section.