Anyone teach High School CNA/Health Careers classes?

sorry, duplicate post

Hey CowgirlBSN,

My local school district is considering offering a healthcare technology program & I'll be speaking with them about it next week.

I'm sooooo excited! Not only for myself but also for the kids, you know? What a great service to offer to the kids - a career (or the introduction thereof) in the field of healthcare during these rough economic times.

My principal is wanting to model it after a specific program and will be e-mailing me the info. tomorrow. If you'd like I could PM & share it with you. Are you guys modeling yours after any particular model? I'm excited about this (depending upon the content that is) because developing the teaching material can be the most arduous aspect of teaching in my opinion.

I've only ever worked in education with & for fellow nurses, so I'm not sure what it'll be like working with the young adults. Apparently though, there'll be a screening process with admission to the program, i.e. high scores in sciences, an essay, etc. so only the motivated kids will be there.

This program is going to be a sequenced program, whereby they take med. terminology one semester, then basic skills the next, etc.

Do you live in a rural community? I do, so partnerships with practicing facilities will be limited. However, because it is so small, everybody knows everybody and it's a little easier to network? Do you have any relationships with folks at higher learning institutions nearby?

Are you familiar with HOSA (health occupations student association) http://www.hosa.org/index.html

Well, holler back when you get the chance. I'm so glad to hear of someone else who's going into this. Maybe we'll get some responses from folks who've been doing it for a while.

Hey, Cowgirl, sorry it's taken so long to get back with you, just got off an 8-day stretch @ work (pant, pant).

Okay, here's a site that the administrator provided to me that's got a lot of good info: http://www.texashste.com/

Also, here's another good site: http://www.ctat.org/index.html They even have a conference this summer for new health science technology teachers: http://www.ctat.org/events/tcec09-index.html

This is all Texas stuff, perhaps Illinois has a similar association?

I'm thinking one of the best things for your health occupations would be: network, network, network!!! Do you have friends in other fields; PT, radiology, OT, lab???? Hey, I bet your school district has OT & ST on staff, huh? That's a start...

Sure wish someone who's in this fields would join the conversation. What were/are their struggles, what's worked well for them. In particular, I'd like to know about interactive techniques, etc.

I have been teaching the same program for three years. The hardest part is dealing with some of the attitude problems one encounters with teens, and of course, parents. My program is coupled with the local communty college and my students get 5 credit hours for the class. This is helpful b/c I can always fall back on "this is a college course" when they start complaining about consequences. If there is a way for you to merge your program with the local CC, I encourage that. It is win win for everyone. The students get 5 ch free, a leg up on their allied health studies and you get a higher calibre of student.

In my area the ratio is 1:10 for clinical, and I take them for 60 hours on site. I have usually had 18-20 students, which requires an assistant clinical instructor. Getting a great one went a long way toward making my life easier.

Make sure you have the handbook from the NLN long before you start so you can be sure to have all the equipment you will need. School systems can take a loooooong time allocating funds for equipment.

Make your syllabus crystal clear from the beginning. Make the student and a parent sign it. Make them have their immunizations, birth cert, ss#, DL# etc in weeks before clinical starts. Believe me, 2% will still not have them to you until 11pm the nigft before anyway. I guarantee it.

Make the objectives measurable. That sounds obvious, but there cannot be much room for interpretation here. You need the leeway to bounce them out if you have to, and that is MUCH harder to do in a highschool enviornment. MUCH. I had one who refused to come near urine or stool, lol b/c "I'm going to be a radiologist and I don't have to know how to do that." The girl basically refused to do anything except vital signs and it still took half a semester to get rid of her and then I had her crazy parents calling me and threatening me. Her Dad ws my sons football coach in the middle school and he was very cruel to my son. He said "two can play at this game." I could tell you a lot of parent horror stories.

However, it is really a great time. Most of the students are enthusiastic. Too young to be cynical or jaded! they work hard and have high standards. the patients LOVE LOVE LOVE them. It is a great chance to touch lives. and it is 8-4pm M-F and pays 55k a year, summers off. Can't beat it!

I am a LVN with BS degree in Total Quality Management. I am going to be starting a new job as a healthcare instructor at the high school. I will be teaching intro, CNA, & pre-req for LVN. If you have any thoughts on this I would appreciate any help you can give me. Do you know of any books to help me prepare for these classes. Thanks for your help.

WOW.... I am glad I decided to look on here... I am an LPN (live in PA) I just found out on Monday that I will be an assistant instructor at our local Career and Technology Center (formerly Vo-Tech) working with High School students -- my job will be the clinical supervisor of CNA students in the LTC where they will be training. They will also use my as a substitute classroom instructor, as well as a sub building nurse.

I will be taking the Teach the Teacher course next week... got the materials already... it is a TON of paper... hoping they don't intend to spoon feed it to us.

Any hints/tips etc would be welcome!