A group of high school seniors from Augusta Christian spent a significant portion of the school year learning support for elderly patients, all while becoming qualified for a career caring for others.
“I think they were all nervous about the geriatric part,” said school nurse and health sciences teacher Amy Jenkins about the students in the certified nursing assistant program, which is part of the school’s overall Career and Technical Education curriculum. “Everybody was like, ‘I’m not sure I want to work with elderly people.’ But I think the consensus afterwards would be that they really enjoyed it. And they really valued the time they got to spend talking with them.”
Augusta Christian is one Columbia County school that offers a pathway for students who are interested in the healthcare profession. Starting in 10th grade, the kids in the Healthcare Science program go through health science courses, learning medical terminology and the essentials of anatomy, and then in their senior year may choose to take either the sports medicine class or patient care fundamentals.
Patient care fundamentals, or clinicals, is a training course for certified nursing assistants. Jenkins instructs them in various skills need to aid nurses in a real hospital setting, which the students practice in lab as well as part of their nursing home clinical rotation hours at long term care facility at Brandon Wilde.
At the senior living facility, each student is paired with a certified nursing assistant to help with daily tasks, getting an overview about what the work would look like.
“We did a lot of helping out,” said Augusta Christian senior Janet Paradise, who’s in the program. “Some of us did some dirty work, like changing diapers and stuff; and some of us helped cleaned and feed them. We just kind of followed the CNAs around, shadowed them and figured out what they did.”
While some students admit that some of the “dirtier” aspects of the work were particularly challenging, they found the experience of connecting with older patients charming, fulfilling and enlightening.
“I remember there’s one guy who talked about how he’s a cardiologist,” said student Brendan Wiley. “And then, he was into golf, and I’m into golf too. I really enjoyed hearing his story.”
Several students note having conversations with residents and getting to know them as the highlight of their clinicals at Brandon Wilde.
“My favorite part was being able to talk with them,” said Ashlynn Jenkins. “They’re all so sweet, and most of them just want to talk.”
Larry Banks, healthcare administrator at Brandon Wilde, says the sentiment from the residents is reciprocal.
“Many of the elderly love to have young people around,” said Banks. “They really typically enjoy it. Our staff has more than they can get done in a day, just like any of us. These students have more time to sit with them, listen to stories, do activities and provide companionship.”
After completing the clinicals, which also includes hours at Doctors Hospital, the students take an exam which, if they pass, earns them a license to work as nurse’s aids right out of high school. For the remainder the course, instruction primarily consists of employment and life-skills training.
Lakeside High School is another school in the district that has a healthcare sciences pathway program, but Augusta Christian is the county’s only private school that offers the training.
Head of School Les Walden says Augusta Christian incorporated the certified nursing assistant program into their career training curriculum about a decade ago when his predecessor, David Piccolo, noted the healthcare opportunities in the area.
“When he started at Augusta Christian coming in, he saw what a big medical community we were,” said Walden. “With MCG, several hospitals, Eisenhower, our veteran’s hospital, medicine was big and accorded here, and he felt that it would be a good program to put in our schools so that we could funnel students into the medical field.”
Amy Jenkins, who has been teaching at Augusta Christian for six years, but had taught in Columbia County public schools several years before, notes that the course proves beneficial for both the students and the seniors, and, for those students genuinely drawn to the medical field, brings to relief their capabilities and compassion.
“There’s this big gap between geriatrics and teenagers it’s really neat to see at the end of this rotation ho they grow to love these patients and see their value and that they have things that they can teach them,” she said. “Most of the residents Brandon Wilde have been lawyers, doctors, nurses. It’s nice to hear about their past, and you can learn a lot from them.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering education in Columbia County and business-related topics for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
