Seven girls finish first CNA class at CHS

For the first time, the Custer School District (CSD) held a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) course for high school students. Seven girls participated and said the course helped them decide whether or not they wanted to enter the medical field and in which direction they wanted to go. 
Through the class, the students can get a CNA license while in high school, as long as they pass the skills and knowledge tests. With the certification, students can then work at a nursing home or hospital. 
The only requirement for the Career and Technical Education (CTE) course is students have to be 16. Some schools require students to take anatomy and physiology, but CSD does not have any prerequisites for the CNA class. 
CSD biology and math teacher Mindy Dooley supervises the class, although she cannot officially teach it since she is not CTE certified as a clinical nurse. Because of this, Dooley said, “We had to find someone that could actually teach the class and help them with things.” 
Dooley got involved with the class because she used to be the Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) advisor, and she teaches anatomy and physiology.
“So it’s kind of in my wheelhouse,” said Dooley. 
After the initial start-up bumps, Dooley said, “Monument really stepped up and helped us. They’re the ones that also work with Rapid City Christian, Rapid City Central and Spearfish.” 
Through an education outreach program, Karma Vollmer, a Licensed Practical Nurse with Monument Health in Rapid City, came down once a week to work with the students on their skills. This included things like how to put on gloves, gowns, goggles and masks correctly and how to take them off correctly. 
“One of the days was how do we wash our hands correctly, wash them long enough, scrub and not touch dirty things when your hands are clean,” said Dooley. 
Some other things the class learned through the program were hygiene, relationships with patients and how nursing homes differ from hospitals. 
“They’ve learned a lot about how to take care of residents and the dynamics of talking to patients that are partway through dementia and aren’t totally there,” said Dooley.
If the class needed to go to Rapid City for training, Dooley got a substitute to cover her classes and drove the students.
Aside from the skill training, the students completed 75 hours of online coursework with a textbook that Monument picked. The students also had to do 16 hours of clinical work in a nursing home in Rapid City over two days. After that, the students had to pass their certification tests.
The class was held every day, but Dooley said the students do not necessarily need to work on the material every day since it is only 75 hours.
“Basically, they have to go through the textbook, their workbooks, do the assignments, take the quizzes and at the end of the semester, they have to take their skills and knowledge test,” said Dooley.
The Custer students took their certification tests Monday, Dec. 15. 
Dooley said, “For the skills test, there’s four skills, but they don’t know what four they are. They have to complete those skills correctly, and then the knowledge test is a test they have to take to see if they know the content.” 
The week before, the students also had an eight-hour skills review where they got to practice all the skills in Rapid City, since the Custer CTE building does not have a hospital bed. 
Some students passed the certification tests, and some did not. However, students can retake the tests after more time learning the material. 
Four of the students were available to answer questions and said they wanted to pursue careers in the medical field. 
Rylan Lowe said, “This definitely taught me that I don’t want to be a CNA, but also showed me what healthcare looks like. I do want to be in healthcare, but I do not want to be a nurse.”
“It taught me the basics of medicine,” said Kaye Lohmiller. “Even though I don’t necessarily want to be a CNA, it taught me how to be prepared for other healthcare professions.”
In contrast, Gabriella Riley said she liked working with the people at the nursing home and might pursue a CNA job. 
“I just like working with the people, having that experience working with residents and seeing how their life is and how difficult it can be,” Riley said.
“It makes you feel good too, helping them out,” said Morgan Lappe. 
Instead of pursuing a job as a CNA, the girls are now considering pursuing careers as Emergency Medical Technicians, physical therapists and dental hygienists. They agreed that the class helped them learn more about the medical field and decide what direction they wanted to go. 
One of their favorite parts of the class was the skills review, where they “played hospital” and practiced the skills that they had learned with real medical equipment.
“I really liked doing the skills with Karma here at the school, where we got to work with each other,” said Lappe.
Riley said her favorite part was working with the residents at the nursing home. 
However, the class came with a few wakeup calls. 
For Lowe, the hardest part was “the shock of seeing actual people. Seeing how hard it is for them, what they go through every day and trying to still be professional while you’re there.”
“I agree. Some residents, it’s not as hard for them, but for some, it’s harder. They don’t have any family to come see them and can’t remember anything. You just want to go up and give them a hug and tell them it’s okay, but you can’t really do that,” said Riley. 
Another challenging part was the amount of online quizzes, abbreviations and terminology. 
As for what’s next, Dooley said there are junior nursing positions in Custer and Rapid City that those who passed are eligible to apply for if they want.
The girls agreed that it was a worthwhile class, and they learned so many different things. 
“You learn things about yourself too,” said Lappe.
Although only girls took the course this semester, boys are welcome as well. There is no cap on the class size at this time. Dooley said four students are already registered for the next semester. 
“I would love to have more (students). Some of the girls found out that this is not something they want to do. So if nothing else, that’s something you learn,” said Dooley. “It looks really good, especially if you’re wanting to go into something medical. It’s a good thing to have on your resume, saying, ‘I went through the hard work to get this certification,’” said Dooley. 
Prospective students can sign up for the next semester. It is about $400 for the scrubs, textbook, online portion, flu shot, drug test and background check. 
The course can either be completed in a semester or over a year. This year, the CSD opted to do semester-long classes to be revisited next year. 
“If we do a year-long, then there’s more time to get them into nursing homes, to get them into hospitals and have more experience, so we may end up switching it,” said Dooley.