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Osvaldo Ricardez, Andrew P. Hill High School nursing program student, attended Valley Med's nursing camp for Andrew Hill students last summer. At camp he changed his career goal from teaching to possibly becoming an operating room surgeon and has bee part of the academy ever since.

Annie Pham looked like she had just met a movie star. "What unit did you visit today?" the nurse asked.

Pham, 16, began describing her job-shadowing experience to the nurse and nine of her high school classmates.

"I was just in labor and delivery," said Pham, who was at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif. "And I got to see a woman give birth. It was just … Wow!"

Pham's experience solidified her desire to become a labor and delivery nurse. She and her classmates from Andrew P. Hill High School in San Jose are part of the school's new nursing academy, which is pioneering new ground as one of the nation's first high school programs focused exclusively on nursing.

The school's medical magnet program coordinator, Marilyn Bliss, founded the academy in 2002, not only to address the nursing shortage, but also to provide more career opportunities for the school's primarily low-income and minority students.

Through special nursing and science classes and hands-on training, the academy prepares students for college nursing programs or for a career as a certified nursing assistant.

Pham, a junior, said she enjoys that the program provides her practical experience. "You get to experience real things in life, and not just sit behind a computer," she said. "You never forget this. Ever."

Bliss founded the academy as part of the school's existing Health/Medical Professions Magnet Program that, since 1989, has exposed students to various health care careers.

Bliss, who has no nursing background, became aware of the nation's need for nurses a few years ago after talking to a nurse at nearby Mission College. She decided to address the nursing shortage by introducing Andrew Hill students to the profession, and she applied for a grant to start the nursing academy.

The school received a $90,000 Bridge to Employment grant from Johnson & Johnson to fund the academy for three years (2002-05).

Although Bliss founded the academy mainly to help ease the nursing shortage, she also established it to address the shortage of health care workers in general. The academy helps prepare students for other careers in direct patient care, as well as careers in health administration, biotechnology, medical research, veterinary medicine and sports medicine and rehabilitation.

Bliss said she wanted to expose students to as many careers as possible to help them get a better idea early on of what they want to do.

In the right direction

One junior who has benefited from the nursing program is 16-year-old Osvaldo Ricardez. Before he attended Valley Med's nursing camp for Andrew Hill students last summer, he had considered entering a "helping" profession, but had been leaning toward teaching. At camp, though, the operating room caught his attention. During the camp, students spend a week working with nurses and other health care professionals in different units.

Ricardez was intrigued when he watched surgeons cut open a body. "I've always been interested in body movements, and the way it works is just fascinating to me," he said.

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