Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Chesterfield Inlet (June 19/02) - Staff at the Pimakslirvik Home in Chesterfield Inlet are in training.

Nurse and director of care Dianne Raniowski said last week that one group of workers had completed the first of 10 training modules and a second group was scheduled to complete the same course at the end of last week.

Several community members also took part in the Nunavut Arctic College program.

"It's going well," said Raniowski, who spent the afternoon working with students on improving their patient feeding skills.

Pimakslirvik, which is jointly owned by the Chesterfield Inlet Development Corporation and Tapiriit Developments, provides care for multi-handicapped children and adults in Nunavut. The training modules, offered at the local college campus, will allow staff members to become even more skilled in providing care for Pimakslirvik clients.

The courses are also open to community members -- a move that will likely encourage more local employment in days to come.

The majority of the 25 workers at the home are local residents, making the home one of the leading employers in the non-decentralized Kivalliq community.

Once all 14 students have completed the week-long first module -- environmental health and bacteriology -- 17 will move on to a six-week course on body systems.

"It's so everybody can understand the parts of the body and how they work," said Raniowski.

The interest level is high enough, she added, that Nunavut Arctic College would likely offer all 10 modules to participants.

"It's important they finish the whole course," she said. "It will help them feel more competent in their jobs."

Financing for the training was provided in a $650,000 budget hike this fiscal year.

The additional dollars are being used to bring staff up to par and pay costs formerly incurred by the Roman Catholic Diocese. Responsibility for Pimakslirvik shifted to the new partners this year when the church's contract expired.

Negotiations to construct a new care facility are also underway.

Walter Raniowski, the chief executive officer of Pimakslirvik, said he'd been told by the government to give an architect approval to complete the drawings for the new facility.

"We feel hopeful that the new building will be finished within a year. We're hoping to begin building this fall," he said.