North Cedar students take steps in health care

CLARENCE - Fourteen North Cedar students took a CNA nursing class this year.

Kirkwood Community Colleges offers the class for all juniors and seniors.

There were four required nursing courses - medical terminology, explorations in health, nurse aid and professionals in health - the students took throughout the year. earning 12.5 credit hours.

'Out of the four classes, my favorite class was nurses aide,” said senior Cory Weber. 'In the nurses aide course the students learned their skills such as making a occupied/unoccupied bed, giving partial and complete baths, taking blood pressure, temperature and respirations just to name a few of the many skills the students learned.

'Kirkwood brought in a hospital bed, bedside table, a manikin and much more to assist the students ... We went into a clinical setting and did hands on work to provide care for the residents.”

In March and April, the students went to Clarence Senior Living and worked from 4 to 10 p.m. to get 30 hours in for the clinical part of their class. Mary Utley, a senior, works at the Clarence Nursing Home as a dietary aide and said she plans on being a full-time CNA when she graduates.

'My favorite part was beginning clinicals, because I already work at the nursing home,” she said. 'It's nice to finally get to work with the residents one-on-one more than I usually get to.”

On April 21, the students went to Kirkwood's Hiawatha testing center to take their skills test. The skills test had a written component and students had to demonstrate they could perform the proper care of a patient.

'It was nerve-wracking waiting for the scores to come in,” Lindsay Crock said.

After passing the skills test, students are given a form confirming they passed. They can submit information for their CNA certification. For some students this is the first step in their nursing career.

Providing college credit courses at the high school is a wonderful opportunity for students. Hopefully there will be 14 young people from North Cedar joining the health care field shortly.