Macon resident opens long-term care facility to address Certified Nurse Aide need

MACON, Georgia(41NBC/WMGT)— Patricia Duncan has lived in Macon her entire life, and she’s been helping the elderly ever since she was a little girl.

She’s making it her mission to ‘Train the next generation of caregivers.’ with the hope of addressing the shortage of care givers in the area.

She recently opened ‘Wonderland International Training School’ located at 3770 Napier Avenue.

Duncan says she spent 8 of her 29 years in healthcare traveling across the state to help train caregivers.

But as the pandemic decreased the workers in that area, she knew she had to do something to address the problem.

“What really kind of touched me is that you know I was at a meeting with GACCP, which is the Georgia association of community care providers and people were just crying because you know they can’t find help, they can’t find CNA’s.”

Duncan says her school will help facilities like ‘The Phoenix at Lake Joy,’ an assisted living facility in Warner Robins.

By training someone to either become a Certified Nurse Aide(CNA) or a Certified Medication Aide(CMA), the school will place people in several nursing homes or assisted living facilities to work.

According to Michelle Sluka the Community Engagement Director with the assisted living facility, it has about 60 CNA’s and CMA’s.

But they’re always looking to hire more. “It’s always beneficial to have those qualified certified professionals in your building,so that you know that you’re providing the utmost care.”

For ‘The Phoenix at Lake Joy,’ 2 to 3 CNA’s are needed per resident at times. It’s a job the facility says is extremely important to have.

“They’re interacting with our residents providing direct care giving out medications and just being that life line for our residents,” said Sluka.

A CNA course at Duncan’s training facility will take 5 weeks to complete, while a CMA course is 3 days.

All the training is hands-on according to Duncan, and it’s a rigorous training. CPR classes are also offered at the facility.

Duncan says she just hopes she can help not only middle Georgia but the whole state.  “If we can just be a beacon to someone to some business you know we want to be that.”

To find out more about the courses offered you can reach out to Duncan at 1-833-770-3770.