Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Northwest Technical Institute, Farmington High Joint Medical Project
FARMINGTON — One by one, the students came in for firstaid care.
One student had a dislocated shoulder; another’s arm went through a window. A young man was in shock and another cut off his finger in an accident. One student had a compound fracture in his leg from a motorcycle wreck.
The students moaned and groaned to show discomfort and some cried out in pain.
Except the scene wasn’t the result of real accidents.
The fake injuries were part of a joint project with Farmington High drama classes and area high school students taking a medical professions course with Northwest Technical Institute.
NTI instructor Ellen Tidwell said the project benefited both groups.
Her students needed to practice their first-aid skills and the high school drama students used their technical skills to create real-looking wounds and their acting skills to dramatize their injuries.
“It was a cross-over to pool our resources,” Tidwell said.
NTI offers nine courses through its Secondary Career Center to high school juniors and seniors in northwest Arkansas. The center provides training for current high school students to earn high school credit in career and technical fields, according to Keith Peterson, NTI vice president of instruction. Supported by the Arkansas State Department of Career Education, the center also gives high school students access to career and technical certification programs and concurrent college academics.
In addition to the medical professions course, the Secondary Career Center also offers criminal justice, culinary arts, automotive service technology, automotive collision repair, dental assisting, cosmetology and medical professions: certified nursing assistant and patient care assistant. Tidwell teaches two sections of the medical professions course in the J Building at Farmington High. Her 18 students this year are from Farmington, Prairie Grove, Greenland and Fayetteville high schools.
During the first semester, Tidwell’s students received an introduction to medical professions and studied anatomy, physiology and medical terminology. This semester, students are studying medical procedures, such as first aid and CPR, human behaviors and disorders and abnormal psychology.
Most of her students take the course because they want a career in the medical field.
Elizabeth Anderson, a senior at Prairie Grove High, said she is interested in a career as a pediatric physician’s assistant because she wants to improve the quality of life of people, not only with medicine but also by providing comfort to her patients.
Anderson said the project with the drama students helped because they had to care for patients they did not know.
“It’s a lot different than doing it on each other,” Anderson said. “They came in screaming and you don’t know them and you have to take care of them.”
Farmington High drama teacher Rebecca Garza said her students created their injuries and wounds using lots of karo syrup, toilet paper, food dye, corn starch and chocolate syrup. Like the NTI students, the project helped the drama students, Garza said. Her tech design students learned how to use everyday products to make wounds that looked real and her performance students had to act and interact with people they did not know.
The Secondary Career Center serves 17 school districts and the courses are offered at no charge to high school students. Most of the courses are taught at the NTI campus in Springdale. Other locations are Farmington High, Regional Technical Center in Fayetteville, the Career Academy of Hair Design and Northwest Arkansas Community College.