An enormous amount of effort, money and time goes into the preparation of a health care professional. It is vitally important that those who believe this should be their chosen path, get a chance to have a real life experience before they invest in their formal education. The Center brings that opportunity to many. Several types of career-bound students typically have significant teaching-learning experiences in the Center’s “live laboratory.”

Nursing Education

CNA Education
CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) students from local federal job training programs and Cabrillo’s nursing students do their clinical rehabilitation rotations at the Center. CNA students come in a large group and spend a day at the Center. Cabrillo’s nursing students come in groups of 4 or 5 and spend two days observing and working individually in classes.

RN Education
Cabrillo College has an outstanding and sought-after RN education program. Nursing students at Cabrillo, besides learning about both clinical and educationally based rehabilitation, also provide outstanding information to the Center staff.

One of their assignments is to visit students in their homes and assess the safety and health of the home environment. These reports assist our Independent Living Skill staff seeing how well suggested adaptations have been adopted and are being utilized. Nursing students alternatively, prepare and present a one hour lesson to Center students in the Memory Classes.

At the conclusion of each rotation, nursing students meet with Center staff to ask questions and discuss their experiences. The following comments from one week’s group of students from Cabrillo are typical of the responses Center staff consistently hear:

Student 1: You don’t get to know a whole person in a hospital setting. They’re just lying in a bed, you know. You don’t get to see how what they are doing day in and day out affects how they are walking, talking and so forth.

Student 3: Here, you get to see their whole personality. In a hospital they aren’t even in their own clothes. Here it’s so personal. You get to see them at lots of places on the road to recovery. Not, just the acute care stage.

Student 1: I found the experience here really deepened my understanding of the recovery process for a person living with stroke and the ongoing recovery and recuperation—the daily impact in their lives. How they come from the initial starting point in acute care into the longer stage of OK I’m relearning how to relive my life in new ways. And, what I see here is that it is such a safe environment and such a supportive environment that everyone feels really comfortable. They are not trying to be or say something that they cannot be at this time.

Student 2: It’s a stimulating atmosphere too you know. I’ve never been to a Tai Chi class before, or a ceramics class. It’s so creative and colorful. It’s great!

Student 4: The other aspect of the environment is that it doesn’t seem like therapy. It’s not clinical. It’s very classroom oriented. It’s very student oriented.  

Student 3: And even though all the teachers here are therapists in their own right. That separation isn’t felt. They are here to share, to guide, to participate in the recovery process.

Center Instructor: Do you see a value in having a center like this be part of the college?

Student 1: I found it very valuable. In Merritt’s class today, the students taught me about aphasia. What it was like to feel it. So when I’m in acute care in the hospital I can now understand how scared and angry and frustrated patients are. I’m much better prepared to offer support. They taught me how to work with someone with aphasia in acute care. It’s just unbelievable how far they have come and now they are teaching me. It gives me a perspective to share--that there is hope. I can now say, I’ve met people who are further along and they taught me! It’s a perspective I wouldn’t have gotten if I only saw people in the hospital.

Student 2: This rotation is really valuable for the entire nursing program. Because it’s hands on and what we learn in the classroom is very clinical. And, what I learned sitting here and hearing people discussing their strokes, gave me more depth and insight into stroke than anything that I’ve read!

Student 3: I’m with that too.

Student 4: Yeah, me too.

Undergraduate and Graduate Interns

The University of California at Santa Cruz and San Jose State University annually take advantage of the Center’s “live laboratory.” Psychology majors at UC spend a semester and sometimes do sample research with Center counselors. In 1994, a UC medical anthropology student, Rachel Gardner, wrote her graduating thesis on the Center. The thesis, The Stroke Experience in Santa Cruz: A Look At Ethnic And Cultural Differences I Dealing With Stroke And The Differences Between Educational And Medical Stroke Rehabilitation Settings is available from the University and from the Center.

Graduate students in speech pathology and occupational therapy spend a semester at the Center. They learn from students and they work under supervision teaching classes and doing evaluations. They add a great deal to the staff and help keep us current on new and emerging research findings.

Pre-Vocational Volunteers

The Center has proved to be an ideal placement for potential students. The occupational and physical therapy worlds have learned the hard way that some students, although strong and smart, are not able to emotionally cope with witnessing and sharing day to day human suffering. They now insist that before a student is accepted into a training program, that they spend significant time locating and volunteering in a health care setting.

Activity Directors

Although not currently offered, Cabrillo has for many years offered Activity Director Certification. Many local residential centers have benefited from hiring staff that received their training at the Center by Center staff.