From left are Heritage High School Health Occupation students Chloe Ward, Casey Ridley, Kayla Miller, Noah Thornton and Jennie Bridges.Heritage High School’s Health Occupations students aren’t just wrapping up the school year, they’re concluding their hospital rounds.
Parkridge Hospital partners with Heritage to help give students on-the-job experience before they become job seekers themselves.
“We have partnered with 50 Heritage students since the beginning of this year,” said Parkridge Hospital Director of Emergency Services Robin Marsh. “When they come they are paired with a nurse and go through a full assessment of the patient during the time they are in the Emergency Department. The student may observe a cut foot on glass or a patient having trouble breathing that needs to be put on a ventilator.”
HHS Health Occupations instructor Shannon Henley and fellow HHS Health Occupations instructor coach Chuck Janow brought the students to Parkridge for a semester to observe fields of study the students are interested in pursuing as careers.
“My class is called General Medicine that goes to several locations,” said Henley. “Janow’s branch does ride-alongs with Angel EMS. A lot of students take both to see what they like.”
Marsh said she was impressed with the students and wants them to know Parkridge is a potential employer for them.
“My favorite part was being in the Emergency Room,” said HHS junior Kayla Miller. “Shadowing them made me realize I would love to be in the Emergency Room. It’s definitely stressful, but I would love to be an ER trauma nurse. I’ve had Ms. Henley’s class for three years of high school. We would not have been able to do this without her. Ms. Henley has shared a lot of her experiences with me and I know if I put forth the effort I can do it.”
Heritage High junior Jennie Bridges said she enjoyed shadowing at Parkridge’s main campus.
“I want to be a profusionist that runs the heart and lung bypass surgery machine,” she said. “I got to run vital signs and an EKG. I got to see what it’s like to be a medical professional.”
Student Noah Thornton is the vice president of HHS’ Health Occupations Students of America organization.
“My favorite thing was seeing a crash cart come in,” he said. “Someone could not breathe right and they gave him CPR. I want to be a nurse anesthetist and make sure people recover well from surgery.”
Heritage High HOSA President Casey Ridley said beyond the real-world personal experience he got this year, having teachers who have experienced the medical field helped him. He wants to be an orthopedic spinal surgeon.
“Ms. Henley is a registered nurse,” said Ridley. “Having teachers in the medical field helped us. Our other teacher, Coach Janow, was the head [Life Force] flight nurse. He taught us the fast-paced aspect.”
Email Katie Ward at kward@timesfreepress.com.