ANNISTON HIGH SCHOOL: Nursing program helps students find jobs, but needs funding to survive

March 22-- Mar. 22--Medical science isn't sure what an appendix does, but Anniston High School junior Kyla Palmer knows what it feels like to hold one.

Palmer job-shadowed at the Crawford Clinic, on Woodstock Avenue adjoining the school, this year as part of the career tech department's health sciences programs. She and freshman Ja'Mya Williams learned about health insurance, the billing process, taking phone calls, setting appointments and, at least once, held the human body's most mysterious organ.

"After that I thought I would want to choose a different career," Palmer said, wearing blue scrubs during a presentation to the Anniston Board of Education on Wednesday. "But it opened my eyes to many different things."

The eye-opening program is one of two hosted by the school's career tech department, each based around putting students in live medical facilities to learn by doing, rather than reading.

Anniston's relatively new programs are similar to other health science curriculums in local school systems, including Calhoun County and Oxford high schools, with a focus on preparing students for work in the medical industry.

Piedmont City Schools superintendent Matt Akin said in 2015 that "healthcare is right at the top" of area workforce needs, just after the system received a $70,000 grant to bolster its medical program.

Anniston's second program, a certified nursing assistant curriculum, has a budget of $200,000 provided by Cynthia McCarty, a state Department of Education board member from Anniston, according to career tech director Ed Sturkie. About $5,000 of that was spent buying equipment and renovating the school's labs, he said, but the rest remains. The problem is that it's only another three years' funding, and that's with one instructor handling work recommended for two instructors, Sturkie said. To sustain the program, the department will need to find grant money or make partnerships in the medical community.

"The partners are really getting a return on their investments," Sturkie said Friday by phone. "People from (NHC Place) and doctor's offices, it's really helping them."

Attempts to reach McCarty by phone and email about further funding were unsuccessful Thursday and Friday.

Students in the nursing program complete clinical trials at NHC Place, an assisted living facility, and take tests to become certified. Sturkie said one student who completed a clinical trial there is interviewing for a job at the facility, and three others are scheduled to take their certification tests next week. The certifications can give students better chances of finding a job, especially in a region with several health care providers nearby, Sturkie said.

"We're right in the center of two hospitals and numerous doctor's facilities and clinics," Sturkie said. "Anniston has emerged as a medical city."

Kevin Lockridge, director of the Calhoun County Career Academy in Jacksonville, said the academy's health sciences program serves between 100 and 125 students from the county's seven high schools. The school's three-year program ends with clinical trials and a test to earn a patient care technician certification, which Lockridge said is an entry-level hospital certification. Graduating with certifications can make it easier to find a job or enroll in college, he said.

"When you go to a college to try and enroll in nursing school, that's competitive. It's not easy to get in," Lockridge said. "They're much more prepared than coming from high school without experience."

Sturkie said the department is considering a night program for nontraditional students at the suggestion of Trudy Munford, school board member. Those students might be former members of the medical community who have let their certifications lapse, she said Wednesday.

He also said that the department is ready to discuss partnerships with interested parties from the medical community.

"We're looking for partners, looking for funding; whatever we can get that makes us sustain this program, we welcome it," he said.

Assistant Metro Editor Ben Nunnally: 256-235-3560.

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