Vo-tech allied health program helps PHS students

by Justin Renigar & Jake Richards

If you are looking to go into a medical field of work after high school, then allied health would be a great program for you to get into. The people who run the program are Val Turpin and Jay Radaeough. It is a program that teaches kids the basics of nursing, and there’s no free ride in it. “There is a lot of homework,” said nursing student Meranda Shillingsford.

You learn medical math, you dissect pig hearts, lungs, sheep brains, and you learn to be certified in CPR and Fist Aid. Second year students get to go to the hospital two or three days out of the week and watch a surgery. They also help assist the nurses in the ER. That is called a certified nurses assistant.

The benefits of this program is that after high school, it is easier to get a job as a certified nurse’s assistant because you have experience. “I’ve learned a lot of useful things like CPR and first aid,” said nursing student Caroline Combs. If you want to go to college to become something higher than a certified nurse’s assistant, this program eliminates some college courses you would have to take. If you want to become an EMT, all you have to do is take a test right out of high school, and your chances of getting that job are higher. So a lot of opportunities can come your way out of this program.