FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

What is a Personal Support Worker (PSW), Personal Attendant (PA), Registered Nurse (RN)?

PSWs in Ontario provide a range of health services in a variety of settings: long-term care facilities, adult-day programs, supportive housing, group homes, hospitals, educational facilities, private homes, etc.

Ontario’s PSW training program is a single program that consolidates and replaces the former health-care aide, home-support worker levels I, II, and III, personal-attendant and respite-worker training programs. The Government of Ontario approved the PSW program on April 28, 1997. The development of the PSW curriculum was a joint initiative of the Ontario Government and the Ontario Community Support Association.

PSW training is offered by Ontario community colleges, registered private-career colleges, adult education divisions of some Boards of Education and not-for-profit organizations. All organizations providing this training base their programs on the document “Personal Support Worker Training: Outcomes and Module Outlines” which is published by the Ontario Community Support Association (OCSA). This full-time course runs approximately 20-24 weeks depending on the institution. PSW certificates are issued by the training institution.

The PSW training is arranged in modules with two official exit points:

• Personal Attendant – Completion of the first seven modules, responds to the needs of attendant care workers and the client/consumers they serve who wish to be active in the directing their own care, and in training attendants to meet their individuals needs, students who wish to confine their role to basic homemaking may also exit the program after the first seven modules.
• Personal Support Worker – Completion of the entire program (14 modules), responds to the needs of the workers who require the full range of training to work with clients who have a wide variety of individual needs and varying degrees of ability to direct their services.
• A Registered Nurse is certified by the College of Nurses of Ontario and as such is accountable to the public and responsible for insuring that their professional practice and conduct meets legislative requirements and the standards of profession.