Sylwester Maniak – Patient Care Tech

Name: Sylwester Maniak
Program: Patient Care Technician

Patient Care Technician Graduate

Sylwester recently completed the Patient Care Technician Program at Healthcare Training Institute. His journey and success is a story worth sharing!

I was attending community college and decided to drop out. I really wasn’t a school-person and hated the idea of listening to lectures every day, taking notes from books and all the boring classes that you have to get through before you can even focus on your major. I was hoping to go for a Business major, but that seemed really far away.

One day I was over at a friend’s house and we were talking with his mom about our future and what we wanted to do. His mom, being an RN, mentioned joining the medical field; it made a lot of sense. So I started looking for a school and found Healthcare Training Institute.

My experience with HTI was a bit rocky at first. Since I wasn’t really into school it was hard to actually focus. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do the work; I just wasn’t giving my 100%. I did miss a couple of lectures and Christine, the Registrar, would not leave me alone, she would call me nonstop and I even received a couple of letters of warning. When I stopped going to community college, they never even bothered to call me to see why. So it was definitely nice to see that I was surrounded by people who cared. My absences were not helping my grades though, and even though I knew the material, attendance was a big part of the program. I was put on probation twice.

It was very difficult getting up early, commuting, sitting through lecture and rushing to work. Come back home at midnight and get up early the next day to come to school again.

After being placed on probation I decided to give everything a turn around. I knew the material, I actually enjoyed the hands on and I was already half way done, why would I continue to waste time? Before I knew it, I was on the C.N.A portion of the program. I loved it; the clinical portions of the class were the most fun!

Realizing that I couldn’t continue wasting time was what made me focus and regroup my determination. I didn’t want to lose everything I had already achieved so I decided not to give up. That is probably the best advice I can give anyone struggling to continue their education; you already made the hardest decision, actually signing up and enrolling, now you are here and the only direction you can go is forward!

My life has totally changed; I get to help people for a living- that is pretty cool. Knowing my parents are proud is also very rewarding, especially after dropping out of college. I love working with intelligent people and the doctors and nurses take me under their wing and show me new things every day.

Coming to HTI was a very good decision. HTI’s lectures made me well prepared for my job, especially the hands on training. I also worked two hundred hours of externship which added so much practice to my skills.

I received plenty of help from the Career Services Department, Paula submitted my resume to many places and I received calls from places I would have never even expected.

I got hired right after externship by my site, but I have bigger plans for my future. I would like to continue my education! The sky is the limit.