When every second counts, nurses are there to assist. For one South-Western Career Academy (SWCA) student, assisting came before she was a registered nurse – or even a high school graduate.
One afternoon the 16-year-old was shopping for groceries when she saw a young girl collapse to the ground. Because she had spent a year in SWCA’s pre-nursing program and was beginning her work-based learning program, she knew how to spring into action during an emergency and used chest compression to save a child’s life.
While this was an unexpected scenario for a student, registered nurses working in hospitals see individuals in critical condition daily, and having real-world experience is a vital part of nursing education.
Real-world work
Pre-nursing students in SWCA’s program run drills and use mannequins for patients as first-years but through a partnership between the career academy and OhioHealth, the upperclassmen can apply to work and learn as patient support assistants (PSA) in a local hospital, assisting in emergencies and saving lives – all before they turn 18.
“I’ve historically been a critical care nurse and so that’s a lot of what we focus on. A lot of my stories have those end-of-life moments in them, but really it’s the interactions with the patients,” says Rebecca McNeil, pre-nursing educator at SWCA.
Pre-nursing students
Interacting with patients has proven to offer more than just academic advancement to the students. Many create meaningful relationships with their patients, which is another important element of the occupation.
“When they’re working with the human beings in the bed, they’re feeling their hearts pulled and they’re understanding that this is really stepping into someone’s worst moments in their life and helping them through that,” McNeil says.
One male student had an older female patient become increasingly fond of him and began following him around. He felt embarrassed until he heard that this woman had previously been closed off to other staff members. The experience showed him the importance of cultivating trust between himself and a patient as a healthcare professional.
“He would find little things for her to do where she was helping him and it really created a bond,” McNeil says.
Another benefit for students in the work-based learning program is getting paid for their positions as PSAs.
The students in the program often leave high school having made around $20,000 or more, not including tuition money they’ll receive if they continue working as little as one weekend a month at an OhioHealth facility while studying at a university.
Programs like the one through OhioHealth have grown in recent years to mitigate the anticipated deficit of nurses expected nationally in the coming years.
“Just in the state of Ohio, by the year 2028, we’re going to have over 300,000 nurses retire,” Debbie Stith, career pathway specialist at SWCA, says. “We don’t have bodies in colleges getting licenses to replace that… (OhioHealth said) let’s help them pay for colleges so they can continue on and get their different licenses…and the goal is then to kind of grow them in (OhioHealth’s) system and not lose them.”
Future impacts
Before this partnership, nursing students would often get their field experience working in an assisted care facility. By working in a hospital instead, they get a broader view of different healthcare disciplines, helping them determine what area of healthcare they may be interested in studying post-high school.
Even those not interested in becoming registered nurses will still gain experience, pay and potential financial assistance as PSAs.
“I’ve got two (students) that are now going into research, (they said) ‘This was my favorite patient, and she died because of this. I’m going to change that. That’s not going to happen again,’” McNeil says. “Being able to go on different floors at OhioHealth, where they’re offering that opportunity, that’s when the students kind of hone where they’re being called to meet that need of health(care).”
No matter what plan the students have after graduation, participating in the program gives them a competitive edge when applying to higher learning institutions.
“If you have a student, even if they have stellar academics, and you have a student very similar academically but also has clinical experience, the college will take the student with a clinical experience, because, let’s be honest, healthcare is not the nicest of the fields. We’re a little gross,” McNeil says. “If they’ve got somebody who’s experienced that clinically, they’re much more likely to continue, graduate and/or pass the state licensure.”
Not just anyone is eligible for the program. Students must first pass a state-tested nurse aide (STNA) exam, which is the focus of their studies as sophomores in the program. They must also retain a 95 percent or higher attendance rate, have a good GPA and transportation, and most importantly be compassionate, driven and reliable.
“The phrase I use with the students is, ‘(Patients are) living, breathing human beings who want to stay that way,’” McNeil says. “I want them to have enough fear that they’re very careful…and it’s no longer a patient or disease or a room number, but it’s a person that they’re connecting with and taking care of, and that’s the goal of healthcare, is to treat our human beings the way we would like to be (treated).”
Maisie Fitzmaurice is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at mfitzmaurice@cityscenemediagroup.com.
