Washington County Enterprise-Leader
First CNA Course Gets Results
ALL STUDENTS IN PG CLASS PASS CERTIFICATION TESTS
PRAIRIE GROVE — Prairie Grove High School’s first class for students interested in becoming certified nursing assistants hit the ball out of the park.
All eight students who took the skills test and written test passed and received their CNA certificates. The 100-percent passing rate for both tests compares to a state passing rate of 83 percent for the written test and a state passing rate of 62 percent for the skills test.
“This class has been very dedicated,” said teacher and registered nurse Mandy Allen.
The requirements for the course are tough and are set by the state’s Office of Long Term Care. Students are required to take a certain amount of hours and cannot miss classes if they want to become certified.
Allen taught the class during the first semester and the students took their certification tests in January. Of those taking the test, one student scored 100 percent on both tests, three students scored 100 percent on the written test and three students made 100 on the skills test.
Prairie Grove is able to offer a CNA program because it’s now a public conversion charter high school. The district applied for the designation so it could offer career and technical courses that lead to
business and industry certifications for juniors and seniors.
The strategy is to give students an opportunity to graduate from high school with a diploma that demonstrates they have skills to pursue immediate employment or future education or training.
The high school is offering a medical careers pathway. The school’s goal, Allen said, is to set up a pathway that could include classes such as introduction to medical professions, medical terms and foundation of healthcare.
The students in Allen’s class this year earned four certifications, including their CNA: first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED). They’ve also learned how to use tourniquets and other methods to stop uncontrolled bleeding.
Allen said becoming certified as a nursing assistant benefits a student interested in any type of medical career. Many nursing programs today require candidates to be CNAs, she added.
“Long-term care has a huge need for CNAs in the field,” Allen said. “CNAs provide daily living needs such as bathing, taking vital signs, feeding clients, helping them get up. They are the eyes and ears of the nurse.”
Along with working in a nursing home or assisted living facility, a CNA also is qualified to work in a doctor’s office, Allen said.
Allen worked as a registered nurse in acute care for 24 years and then has been at Northwest Technical Institute for 12 years. She said Prairie Grove Superintendent Allen Williams approached her last year to see if she would be interested in teaching the high school’s new CNA course.
It was a good move, she said, because her children attend Prairie Grove schools and the high school has two rooms for the course, one a classroom and the other a lab that is better equipped than the lab for many nursing schools, Allen said.
The classrooms are located in the former second-grade wing that was in the primary building. The rest of the primary school has been demolished.
All the students in Allen’s class are interested in some type of medical career.
Senior Nicole Henry is interested in being a nurse. She said taking the class confirmed her career choice. She plans to go to the University of Arkansas and work “really hard” to get into the nursing program.
“It clicked along the way,” Henry said. “Working for it made me realize how much I wanted it.” Sydney Ruland, also a senior, is interested in being a medical examiner or mortician. She likes “quiet” surroundings, she said.
Ruland said one thing she learned from the course is the importance of humility when working with patients. She said the students in the program did not know each other well at first but soon bonded.
“It forced us to get comfortable with each other,” Ruland said. “We had to feed each other, wash each other, brush each other’s teeth.”
The course was not easy, was stressful and required a lot of studying, Ruland added.
Senior Sarah Cunningham pointed out the class teaches essential life skills, even for those who are not pursing a medical career.
One of the students already is using her certification. Senior Nacona Walters is working 40 hours a week at Prairie Grove Health and Rehab Center. She attends class in the morning and then goes to work in the afternoon and also works on the weekends.
Allen said the school, as a conversion charter high school, has a waiver from the amount of time students are required to spend at school every day. They are allowed to leave for activities, such as work or an internship, that are related to their studies.
Allen taught one CNA class the first semester and is teaching a new class this semester with eight students this year. This group of students will probably take their certification tests in May.