FORTVILLE — More than a dozen students at Mt. Vernon High School are working toward becoming certified nursing assistants thanks to a new course offered there.
Some of them are as young as juniors — an age group to which the state only recently made the certification available. The students will be able to use their certifications to work in health care and propel themselves into other areas of the field.
Mt. Vernon’s Health Science I course, through which students can earn their CNA certification, launched at the beginning of the school year.
Stan Wilkison, Mt. Vernon High School assistant principal, recalled conducting a career interest survey with the student body during the 2017-18 school year that indicated a large percentage was interested in health care.
Mt. Vernon students already went to Anderson Career Center for its health courses, but it required a drive, and an even longer one for on-the-job training known as clinicals.
So Wilkison started talking with Jason Neal, director of the Anderson Career Center, about offering a satellite program at Mt. Vernon High School. They worked with Mee Hee Smith, regional director of work-based learning at the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, on a program that aligns with the state’s new CNA programming that’s going into effect over the coming years through the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet’s Next Level Programs of Study.
Neal said under the former model, students would take Health Science I, an introduction to medical career fields. Then they’d take Health Science II, during which they could earn their CNA certification.
Under the new model, the CNA portion moves to the first course, meaning high school students as young as juniors can earn the certification.
To provide the program, Mt. Vernon contracts with the Indianapolis-based Hardon Educational Institute, which also assisted the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet on the Next Level Programs of Study.
“It’s really outstanding for all of the parties involved here — Stan, myself, Hardon Educational — to put this thing together very quickly and to be on the cutting edge of what is to come for the Next Level Programs of Study,” Neal said.
Students also earn college credit through the course.
There are 15 Mt. Vernon High School students in the class, all juniors and seniors. The class is three hours a day.
Students do clinicals at Springhurst Health Center in Greenfield. Kellee Harney, a nurse and co-founder of Hardon Educational Institute, said students put into practice more than 70 resident care procedures they must master, like transporting patients and providing showers.
The subjects students learn in class include human anatomy, medical terminology and dementia care as well as the signs and symptoms of various ailments, like heart attacks.
“CNAs are our first line of defense,” Harney said. “They’re around the patient the most … so it’s very important for them to be able to have that knowledge.”
Students practice skills in the classroom with the help of mannequins, wheelchairs, walkers, canes and a patient bed.
“It’s a full lab that would simulate what a long-term care patient room would look like,” Harney said.
They also learn about almost 100 different health careers.
“So many times people want to be nurses and doctors, and it’s only because they haven’t been exposed to physician assistant, and all the other positions that are out there,” Harney said. “Not every student is going to graduate and go off to a four-year school. Some of them will obtain certifications differently, or do a two-year program, or nine-month program. But gainful wage is our goal, and we know that health careers can offer that.”
Students learn resume building and job interviewing skills as well.
“I can say that the students there are very bright,” Harney said. “They have excelled a lot faster than we anticipated.”
She’s enjoyed seeing how they’ve transformed.
“You watch them come in so timid, so shy, so afraid, and you boost them and then you watch them go into the clinical experience, and we have all these rave reviews,” she said.
Those reviews also often come with the question, “When can we hire them?” she added.
The students will take their state exam in April for their CNA certifications, which will include a 100-question test on which that they’ll need to score at least 80%. They’ll also have to demonstrate randomly selected resident care procedures.
Harney said CNAs make up an important profession.
“Our geriatric population is growing rapidly,” she said. “People are living longer, and as a result, the need for support for our geriatric community is huge.”
It’s in demand as well, she continued, adding she gets a lot of calls from entities looking for CNAs and home health care workers.
“And so we have to be able to start younger, to give these students the opportunity to jump in health care,” she said.
Emily Rollo, a senior enrolled in Mt. Vernon High School’s CNA program, said she’s always been interested in a health care career, but wasn’t sure if it was right for her.
“When I heard about the CNA class, it sounded like the perfect opportunity to have a sort of test trial to see if this is really what I want to do,” she said.
Her favorite part of the program was the clinical portion, which was completed in the fall. She enjoyed working alongside health care workers and learning such as how to take a patient’s blood pressure and pulse and observe their respiration.
“On our first day of clinicals, it felt like we were jumping off of the deep end; scary but also fun,” Rollo said. “After spending hours learning in the classroom, it all felt worth it.”
Savannah Laker graduated from Mt. Vernon High School in 2015 before earning a Bachelor of Nursing from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis in 2019 and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in nursing education. She praised the addition of her former high school’s new course and said she definitely would’ve taken it had she had the chance.
“It allows prospective nursing students to decide if they like providing patient care before deciding to make it their career,” Laker said. “There are many people who become nurses without fully realizing all it entails to take care of someone.”
Wilkison said the school plans to add a Health Science II course next year, and is also considering opening the courses up to other schools in Hancock County.
