“CVHS Health Academy is a small learning community that gives you many opportunities that can benefit you if your interest is in the health field,” says Mrs. Gibson, Health Careers teacher. Picture yourself in the shoes of any kind of doctor, nurse, dentist, or even that of a first responder. The Health Academy helps students get in the path of becoming who they want to be.
Starting off as a sophomore students are required to take a Health Careers 1 class where they learn of the wide variety of careers in the health field, and along with the jobs in the medical field they learn types of procedures, rules, and codes that certain job sites are suppose to follow. While the students are introduced to the basics of the medical field, they are also learning skills such as CPR, basic water rescue, vital signs, etc. Students receive hands on training and then are certified as First Responders.
During junior year, students are given an opportunity to job shadow based on their career interest. For example, in a hospital some of the different departments students are able to job shadow in are: Labor and Delivery, Nursery, Surgical Tower, Operating Room, Emergency Room, Radiology, etc.
“I job shadowed at John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in the Progressive Care Unit, there I got to give complete bed baths, take vital signs, and was able to care of patient of Telemetry. It was a wonderful experience,” says Crystal Batres, a senior in the Health Academy.
John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital is the most common job shadowing area along with Animal Samaritans, Living Desert, Santa Rosa Clinic, and Eisenhower Hospital. Kathy Jimenez, a student in the academy says, “At Animal Samaritans I learned how to clean up surgical tools that are used to neuter the animals and how to take an animals temperature, it was fun.”
The required class for a junior is Health Careers 3, Medical Terminology, and as a senior Health Careers 4, Psychology. An option that is offered to seniors is to sign up for ROP and take the nursing assistant or medical assistant program, which begins from September and goes on the entire school year. You can become certified as a nurse assistant or medical assistant. The classes are either in the morning from 9am-12pm or in the afternoon from 1pm-4pm, which means students will only have two classes at CVHS.
The Health Academy allows their students to get involved in their community by participating in community service. Some of the organizations the Health Academy is involved with are the Flying Doctors, Diabetes Fair, Heart Walk, Pet Walk, Relay for Life, and many others. “I am always volunteering for the community because others need help and I am not always thinking about myself, and the Health Academy provides a lot of resources,” says Arcelia Vidana, a student in the Academy.
For all the hard work done every year, Health Academy Students are awarded with field trips. On the sophomore trip, students and teachers have the opportunity to know each other better. They stay overnight in cabins where everyone gets to socialize and become closer, like family.
Come junior trip, the students get to spend a night at a Motel 8 and the next day go to Disneyland and have fun with everyone. Last but not least, the senior trip is where they go to Catalina Island in the month of May. As a reward and the final trip for the seniors they stay on the island for three days and two nights, it’s the last time the seniors will be together with their “family” before they go on with their lives and their own separate ways. “I am so excited to go! I have been waiting for this trip for two years. All the hard work has finally paid off. I plan on making it as memorable as possible.” says Denise Navarette, a senior in the Health Academy.
When they are all finished, “students will leave the Health Academy with a wide range of knowledge of the health field from work ethics to medical terminology,” says Ms. Arguello, the academy’s senior advisor.