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Area CNA shortage has facilities looking to HNHS, HU, other means

HNHS senior Marissa Brown (left) offers her arms for a bilateral blood pressure check, taken by fellow health occupations/medical terminology students Lauren Sands (center) and Amanda Muench (right). Following the class the students can choose to go into certified nursing assistant or emergency medical technician training through the high school’s vocational tech program.
HNHS senior Marissa Brown (left) offers her arms for a bilateral blood pressure check, taken by fellow health occupations/medical terminology students Lauren Sands (center) and Amanda Muench (right). Following the class the students can choose to go into certified nursing assistant or emergency medical technician training through the high school’s vocational tech program. Photo by Rebecca Sandlin.

Originally published Jan. 5, 2015.

In a room full of hospital beds, sterile-looking drawers on rollers filled with medical supplies and a nearby box of stethoscopes, high school students are taking turns taking each other’s blood pressure.

It’s a scene that could be placed in any healthcare setting, from a nursing home to a hospital ER, with the exception that the young students of Huntington North High School’s vocational tech program are the ones providing the medical care. And they know that once they graduate from the HNHS Certified Nursing Assistant program and pass their board test they’ll have a good job waiting for them.

Local healthcare facilities say there is a shortage of CNAs and they are eager to hire graduates once they are certified.

“We definitely need them,” says Shane McVoy, administrator of OakBrook Village in Huntington. “They’re like the backbone of the building. They’re the ones that are providing the primary care for our residents, and they spend the most time with them. Without them we wouldn’t be able to function. They’re very valued here.”

McVoy has hired graduates from the HNHS program before. Currently his nursing and rehabilitation facility employs between 20 and 25 CNAs, who work all three shifts, working full time, part time and PRN (as needed). Sometimes they will work a 12-hour shift on weekends.
At Parkview Huntington Hospital, President Juli Johnson says there are about 25 CNAs – called nursing assistants – on staff, but it is not a requirement for hire.

“A lot of my nursing assistants are CNAs, but it’s not an actual requirement,” she says. “We get the kids from there (HNHS) … We try to use that group. We try to work with our partners. We also get them from the HU nursing classes. … I know we’ve hired out of the EMS group that’s at the high school.”

Stephanie Shady, health services instructor at Huntington North High School’s career technical education program, says there are 47 students in medical terminology and health occupation classes, and about 30 of those will go on to CNA training; the rest will go through the high school’s emergency medical technician program.

“The class is three class periods long, so they get three high school credits, and they get six school credits through Ivy Tech with health occu-pations/medical terminology,” she explains, “and for the CNA class they get five dual credits. So they get 11 total credits.”
At present there is a waiting list to get into the program. Shady hopes to have a second instructor come on board to allow more students in the program, because the need for certified healthcare assistants is great.

“We have all kinds of facilities calling us, wanting to know when our EMT/CNA class is done, because they’re needing help, so there is a high demand for the CNAs,” she says. “This is a big stepping stone to go on to nursing … They can also work during the summer or work during college. It’s something that can potentially help them pay for college. And some facilities that hire them will pay money for them to go back to school for nursing or further their education. And if they want to make it a career they can do that, too.”

There is also CNA training for adults as well. Shady says Ivy Tech has just hosted a class at HNHS for adults and partners with WorkOne to provide more training for adults seeking a start in the healthcare field.  The next class starts in March.

Shady says some area nursing homes also offer on-the-job CNA training to qualified applicants, often with the understanding that employees continue to work at the facility for a period of time after they are trained.

Training can be costly, depending on where it is obtained. Rarely, healthcare facilities or physicians will offer free on-the-job training with the expectation that the employee will become certified. But more commonly, schools such as Ivy Tech offer classes costing roughly $870 for programs lasting from four weeks full time to 16 weeks part time.

At some high schools such as Huntington North, training is offered to students at a bargain rate – mostly paid at taxpayer expense. For a young person planning to enter the healthcare field, the opportunity to get basically free, hands-on training gives them a leg up and prepares them to go right into a career following graduation or enter college courses already acquainted with medical terms and procedures.

Tova Wiegand Green, dean for the division of health sciences at Ivy Tech, says the range for CNAs generally runs between $10 and $15 per hour.

“We also see some CNAs transition into home health aid, and that pay can be quite good,” she adds.

Senior Katie Schenkel says she has enjoyed being in the class at HNHS.

“It’s preparing me for college, which I want to go into nursing,” she says. “Ever since I was little I always wanted to do nursing. I just like helping people out, so this kind of helps because I knew it was going to prepare me for college.”

Schenkel plans to use her CNA certification to work over the summer and perhaps even while she goes to college to become a nurse practitioner or occupational therapist.

Likewise, senior Lauren Sands has always wanted to be a nurse. She says taking the class now will give her an edge when she applies to nursing school.

“I like having a class where I’m more focused on what I’m going to do in life,” she says. “I like doing the labs. I like doing hands-on things. When we got to work the blood drive, that was fun, too. …

“I just think it’s a really good program. It gives a lot of people the idea of whether or not the medical field is for them, because I know some girls in this class that after seeing the pictures of diseases and things like that, they say, ‘This is not what I want to do.’ And this is totally what I want to do.”