Nursing 101
Magnet high school's nursing academy provides students with hands-on experience and opens their eyes to career possibilities in health care

By Rebecca Ray
December 10, 2003

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.

After Ricardez's father saw how much he enjoyed the OR, he suggested that his son consider it as a career.

Ricardez began to consider becoming an OR surgeon and has been part of the academy ever since.

Students must apply for acceptance into the academy and are chosen based on their interest in health care. The academy has 64 juniors and sophomores, seven of whom are male.

Academy students prepare for college nursing programs by taking an "Elements of Nursing" class their sophomore year, a physiology class their junior year and chemistry and algebra II their senior year. Sophomores in "Elements of Nursing" learn how to take vital signs and become certified in CPR.

Students also take intensive English classes and participate in a mandatory book club, in which they're required to read and discuss health care novels and works of nonfiction. The classes and book club are designed to help the students meet college nursing program requirements by raising their reading levels to the 12th grade. For many of them, English is not their first language.

Support for the academy comes from various hospitals and local colleges, including De Anza College, where students can take a medical terminology class.

During their senior year, students can take the CNA course at Mission College, which involves theory and supervised clinical work. After they complete the course, they can take the exam to become licensed as a CNA.

As CNAs, the students can earn about $13 an hour, Bliss said. She added that many of them would not be able to afford college unless they received scholarships or worked while in school.

Medical excursion

During Columbus Day weekend, the juniors visited five university nursing programs in the state. At the University of California, Davis, students saw cadavers and got a close-up look at brains, silicone implants and nerves. Ten students also observed operations on a horse and a dog at the School of Veterinary Medicine.

Junior Tuyen Vo, 15, who plans to attend the San Jose State University School of Nursing, said she enjoyed seeing different college environments and what their medical and nursing programs required.

Vo, who is considering emergency room nursing, also said she liked how the academy has introduced her to different kinds of nursing.

Like Vo, junior Zulema Hernandez, 16, applied for the academy knowing that she wanted to be a nurse, but wasn't sure what kind of nursing she wanted to do. But ever since she saw health care professionals perform a cesarean while she was job shadowing, she has considered L&D nursing.

Hernandez added that she enjoyed a trip the students took to the Santa Clara County Coroner's Office, where she saw real organs for the first time. She said that her mother, a former medical assistant, was impressed.

The academy has succeeded well beyond Bliss' expectations. "It seems like every time I turn around, someone else is approaching me with a new idea," she said.

However, she isn't sure if she'll be able to admit more students into the academy next year. The Johnson & Johnson money is funding only current students.

She said she needs more funds by February, when she would like to begin recruiting freshmen for the 2004-05 school year, and she is still looking for sources.

Right now, however, Bliss and other faculty members are excited about the academy's potential impact on health care.

"I'm so glad we're able to do something that is giving back to health care a little bit," said nursing instructor Chantal Chatman, RN, who worked as a nurse for several years before becoming a teacher.

"The opportunity to give the kids that part of me has been a great experience."

Contact Rebecca Ray at rebeccar@nurseweek.com