First HHS Nurse Aide Students Pass CNA Exam | Harrisonburg

If it is probable to be overprepared for an test, that’s how Clara Miller, Adriana Elias and Johana Alvarenga felt when they sat just before the Virginia Nursing Board to see whether they had achieved the demands to come to be qualified nurse aides.

The Harrisonburg High School seniors — ages 17, 18 and 18, respectively — were being the very first group of learners to total the nurse aide system via Harrisonburg City General public Colleges and a partnership with the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Local community. All 8 of the learners who done the semester-extensive method sat for and handed their CNA exam, which requested them to display five capabilities decided on at random from 22. They experienced 30 minutes to comprehensive the test.

While it was a high-stress predicament, taking area for Miller in Alexandria and Roanoke for Elias and Alvarenga, all a few felt extra than prepared to deal with the check.

“I say this with the utmost humility, but we ended up likely the most prepared men and women there,” Elias stated.

The a few females chalk their readiness to the plan they concluded and their teacher, Tricia Cummings, the STEM healthcare terminology and nurse aide instructor for the faculty division, and coordinator for the software on the university division’s side.

Miller claimed that this currently being the to start with time this method has been made available to HHS learners, there was a discovering curve for both her friends and her teacher. But Cummings adapted and taught them additional than they wanted to know to not only pass the test, but seek and achieve employment soon after getting their credentials. All 3 students are performing and program to attend higher education to continue on their nursing experiments.

The very first few months of the software were expended in the classroom finding out tactics and strategies that they would be carrying out on people. They invested a person month managing people at VMRC with supervision and a person thirty day period getting treatment of homebound people.

Even though they reported they were being anxious when they commenced dealing with individuals, the pupils found it right away satisfying.

“I cherished them from working day one,” Elias reported.

Miller reported that her 1st individual is someone she’ll hardly ever forget about and that it was tough to leave all of her people when they concluded the method.

“You get hooked up to the inhabitants,” Alvarenga agreed.

All 3 HHS seniors acquired into nursing as a way to help their neighborhood.

“I’ve recognised given that I was small that I wanted to go into nursing,” Miller said. “And starting to be a CNA appeared like a good stepping stone.”

Alvarenga also explained that she’s identified from a younger age that she desired to go into overall health care, and nursing appeared like the finest way to assist the community.

“It’s a way to make a big difference both equally huge and smaller,” Elias reported.

Miller will be attending James Madison College in the tumble, as will Elias. Alvarenga will keep on her nursing research at Eastern Mennonite University.

All three college students stated that finishing the nurse aide program by way of HCPS was the ideal determination they could have manufactured. It’s not just a stepping stone to a workforce vocation, Miller said. It’s instruction that can lead to ongoing experiments, as all a few new CNAs have shown.

“If you’re thinking about executing it, do it,” Elias mentioned.

The software, distinctive to Virginia, in accordance to Cummings, is open to 11th-grade and 12th-quality pupils.