MT. VERNON — This year at Mt. Vernon High School (MVHS), a new course, Health Science I, has been implemented that enables students to receive their Certified Nursing Assistant certification and college credit through Ivy Tech Community College.
The CNA program at Mt. Vernon High School was launched in partnership with the Anderson Career Center. The CNA program takes place in the afternoon for three hours throughout the full school year. Currently, the class consists of 15 students (juniors and seniors). Students are learning about dementia care, health careers, resume building, and medical terminology with hands-on experiences. In the classroom, there are wheelchairs, walkers, canes, beds — and a full lab with a patient simulator so students can experience how to handle ailments that a geriatric long term patient might encounter.
After the students master their in-class work, they travel to Springhurst Health (Trilogy) in Greenfield for their clinical hours, which are necessary to obtain a CNA certification.
These students are leaving the program (Health Science I & II) with potentially five certifications and up to 29 dual credit hours doing hands-on, real life clinical rotations at Springhurst.
Health careers are the leading careers of interest right now, and MVHS students are able to explore 96 health careers in the class. MVHS has several future goals for this program, one of which includes expanding into two separate classes: Health Science I, which is the CNA course being offered now, and Health Science II next year will be available for seniors. MVHS is also looking to expand the program in the near future by opening it up to other schools in the county.
