A partnership between Cleburne High School’s health science program and Heritage Trails Nursing and Rehabilitation Center is having a healthy impact on students and graduates aspiring for careers in the medical field.
For three years, Heritage Trails has worked with CHS students enrolled in the health science technology III class, which prepares them for the state licensing exam to become certified nurse aides.
“The state mandates that our certified nurse aide students spend a certain amount of hours in a longterm care facility working with patients,” said health science teacher Robin Gosdin, who is also a registered nurse. “Heritage Trails has helped us meet this standard. Our students help their patients get up and dressed. They help with bathing and brushing their teeth. They are practicing the same skills they will use in the workplace and receiving experience that’s hard to provide in the classroom setting.”
“Our students have posted a 100 percent passing rate in both the written and skills state certification exam since we introduced the program five years ago,” Gosdin said. “Heritage Trails has played an important role in helping our program and our students achieve and maintain this high standard.”
“The staff at Heritage Trails has been wonderful,” said Gosdin, who is in her sixth year as coordinator of the health science program at the high school. “They hire our students and help us with whatever we need.”
Many of Gosdin’s students who receive their nurse aide certifications are currently employed by Heritage Trails.
“We have five or six CHS graduates who are working as nurse aides at Heritage Trails who are also in college, or going to be,” Gosdin said. “They are able to work while pursuing degrees in nursing or certifications in other health care fields.”
LaToya Bryant began working at the longterm care facility as a certified nurse aide following her graduation from CHS. Now a licensed vocational nurse, she is studying to become an R.N. with the ultimate goal of a career as a certified registered nurse anesthetist.
“I’ve always wanted to be a nurse,” Bryant said. “Anything CHS offered that related to nursing or health I took. I was also a student trainer.”
“I was one of the first three juniors in the history of the CNA program at Cleburne to get the state certification,” Bryant said. “I was in the first class of CNA graduates, and I am proud of that. Mrs. Gosdin’s medical terms class was another of the courses I took at CHS. I had no problem at all with my college-level nursing courses because I’d learned so much in my high school classes.”
Cleburne graduates Angela Fruin, Gladys Perez and Maribel Calderon received their CNA licenses through the health science program and are also on staff at Heritage Trails.
“Coming in as a CNA really helped,” Fruin said. “I had thought about nursing, and when I found out the health science program was available at CHS, I thought I’d take the classes. I thought getting my CNA would help me get my foot in the door.”
“Heritage Trails will help us if we want to go on in our education through tuition reimbursement,” Fruin said. “That’s really awesome. Everyone here is very helpful when we have questions about jobs in the health care field.”
Calderon says that the best thing about the CNA program at CHS is the way it blends classroom instruction with workplace training.
“I liked being able to practice the skills we had learned in class, here at Heritage Trails,” she said.
Heritage Trails’ partnership with CHS extends beyond its work with students. The facility offers two $500 scholarships yearly to graduates who have attained their CNA licenses and wish to continue on to nursing school.
“We’re committed to this program and offering scholarships,” said Diann Choate, Heritage Trails admissions director.
In addition to its work with CHS, Heritage Trails also participates in the CISD Adopt-A-School program as a partner with C.C. Cooke Elementary School.
Heritage Trails Administrator Sharon King, who works closely with Gosdin and her students, enjoys watching the students mature in their knowledge and skills as they move through the CNA program.
“You can see the changes, from that first day to when they are finished with the course,” King said. “Their work with our clients and staff changes what they thought, to what they know. It’s like watching your child grow.”
King views the partnership with CHS as a win-win situation because the knowledge and skills they receive in the classroom, coupled with the experience they receive through their work at Heritage Trails, makes them ideal candidates for employment.
“Mrs. Gosdin does such a great job preparing them,” King said. “They are familiar with our environment and expectations when they get here. What they are learning in the high school’s CNA program makes them the kind of employee we want here. Good CNAs are critical to our operation.”
“To me, one of the main things I like about the program is that, even if students are going into nursing in the hospital setting or on to medical school, they have had an experience in a nursing home,” said King, whose career in health care began through a similar high school program. “Through this experience at Heritage Trails, they do not have the negative feeling many associate with a nursing home.”
Perez, a member of the CHS class of 2007, is pursuing an LVN degree while working at Heritage Trails as a nurse aide. She says the most positive thing about her job is interacting with the patients.
“I love the little ladies,” she said. “They are so cute. It’s fun to learn things about their past. I like being a CNA, but my goal is to become an LVN.”
With eight students recently passing their CNA state licensing exam, Gosdin is pleased to see her program’s success rate continue. Since May 2005, 67 CHS students have received their nurse aide certifications.
“It’s exciting to see that my students have gone forward with what they have learned here and are now successful in achieving careers in the health industry,” she said. “I have one former student who recently received her RN. I have another who has decided to combine health care with education and is working toward a teaching certification at Prairie View A&M.;”
“One of our Cleburne graduates is working at a Fort Worth hospital making $11 an hour as a transporter,” she said. “They are also paying for him to go to school. He got that job because of the classes he had taken here. We offer two CNA classes a year and area health care facilities know when we’re about to graduate a new class. They want to meet our students — they come recruiting.”
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