Cayhill- On January 20, 2013, a class of thirty-three (33) students started the Licensed Pratical Nursing Course offered by the St. Maarten Medical Center.
The course will continue until April 2015 under the instruction of Brunilda Illidge, Practical Instructor and Nursing Educator and Antonio Pantophlet, Manager Patient Care/Education.
The LPN course is organized by the SMMC Education Department and falls under the auspices of IFE nursing school in Curacao.
The LPN diploma is an accredited diploma that qualifies persons to work in the Dutch Caribbean and the Netherlands.
Students in the LPN course hail from Saba (6), St. Eustatius (3) and locally; Mental Health Foundation (3), White and Yellow Cross (9) and St. Maarten Medical Center (12).
Besides being certified to provide training and internships in various levels; nursing assistants, licensed practical nursing and registered nursing programs, the SMMC is accredited by ECABO and CALIBRIS. In 2012, the SMMC obtained its status as a Certified Learning Institution.
ECABO is a learning center for vocational studies in the Netherlands, and is responsible for placement of interns from the Netherlands in recognized learning institutions around the world.
Being ECABO certified, the SMMC can provide internship to students from the Netherlands in the financial, secretarial, and ICT university programs. Calibris is the learning center for training and internships in various levels of nursing and healthcare.
Last year the education department offered internships to 13 students from the Netherlands, 16 from Curacao and 22 from St. Maarten. They aslo offered 2 courses; nursing assistant and registered nursing, to a total number of 30 students. The nursing assistant course was done on the island of Saba and the registered nursing in St. Maarten with students from St. Eustatius. A nursing upgrade course was also done in Saba and St. Eustatius. The sharing of educational resources, through training and instruction, between the three islands is part of the ‘We Care Together’ collaborative agreement implemented last year.
The SMMC looks forward to great outcomes from the LPN course and wishes each student success.
In photo: Antonio Pantophlet teaching the LPN class