A few years ago, Tiverton High School added a CNA pathway as a part of their various CTE programs that get students on track for certain careers. For students to complete the pathway, they have to take one year of biology (any level), one year of anatomy/physiology, and of course, the CNA class run by Ms. Lindsey Cordeiro. Through the CNA class, students get to develop their basic medical skills and learn how to do things such as taking pulse, taking blood pressure, transferring from bed to a wheelchair, and much more. At the end of the course, the students will take a state exam that consists of a written portion, and an actual test where they perform their skills to a set of judges. With this, they also go to Brookdale Senior Living in Tiverton where they will obtain their 40 clinical hours necessary for their CNA license.
Just recently, the group of CNA students for this year went to Johnson and Wales University to attend the fall HOSA conference (Health Occupations Students of America). During this conference, students got to choose which workshops they went to. All of our students went to the physical therapy workshop, where we got to see the actual workspace of the students at Johnson and Wales who are majoring in physical therapy. There were also demonstrations of how certain tools were used as well as using them in practice, such as gait belt. Afterwards, the students split up into separate workshops. Some of the students went to suturing, where they were able to actually practice suturing a cut through a practice kit. Some students went to triage, where they were able to find out what parts in a case study are more important than others, and they were able to actually perform the triage and divide and conquer who was going to take care of what. One student was also able to learn about the pathway of medical school and what avenues there are to take.
Overall, the students of the CNA program had an awesome time at the conference. When they go back in March, they will be able to pick what competition they participate in (with prior practice), and if they win, they will be able to go to the national competition in Indianapolis, Indiana! We wish the best of luck to our students, and we can’t wait to see where they end up!
