Articles - Winter 2009 - return to index
Fiji Native Starts a New Life at Lane
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| Diraj Singh had a job waiting for him when he finished the three-month Certified Nursing Assistant program. |
-By Chris Cunningham
Diraj Singh never dreamed that he
would make the best professional
decision of his life at Lane Community
College.
Shortly after he and his wife and
children arrived from Fiji in 2003 to
begin a new life, the former grade
school teacher began exploring new
career options.
Guidance from Lane’s academic counselors steered Diraj to the college’s one-term Certified Nursing Assistant program, which offered him handson internships at Avamere Riverpark long-term care facility and Sacred Heart Medical Center.
During his training, Diraj demonstrated
that he has the heart and spirit to be a
first-rate caregiver, says CNA program
coordinator and instructor Merilyn
Welch, RN. A high-performing student,
Diraj landed a job at Riverpark even
before he took the Oregon State Board
of Nursing certification exam for
nursing assistants.
But the multitude of job opportunities for CNAs isn’t the big draw, says Diraj, who three years ago accepted a position on the surgical unit at Sacred Heart Medical Center.
It’s the meaningful contact he has with his patients, whether reassuring them after surgery, repositioning them in bed, or monitoring their vital signs.
He says, “When I am with my patients, I never think of them as patients. I think of them as family.”
Passionate about serving others, Diraj intends to further his studies by enrolling either in Lane’s respiratory therapy program or in a physical therapy program.
According to Diraj, if he hadn’t come to Lane, it’s unlikely that he would have found his new life in the United States so immensely satisfying.
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