As part of an effort to address a nationwide nursing shortage and give students a good opportunity in the medical field right after high school, Kennedy began offering a semester-long, 120-hour, after-school certified nursing assistant program for students three days a week.
While the 10 students in Marchwicki’s class last week just pretended to perform procedures on each other, they would have to perform those tasks on real elderly patients in just a few weeks at Manor Care Wheaton on Georgia Avenue. That type of training is required before taking the examination at the end of the semester to become certified by the Maryland Board of Nursing.
Marchwicki also teaches a similar but more in-depth CNA course in Kennedy’s medical academy, Tri-M. Five other county schools also offer the CNA certification courses during the school day, but Kennedy is the first to offer it after school.
Marchwicki said the after-school program has the potential to reach students who wouldn’t normally think about being in the medical academy and who want to find a job with good pay and benefits right after high school.
During the class Thursday afternoon, students watched videos detailing the steps to certain procedures like brushing teeth and helping a patient use a bedpan.
These seemingly simple tasks become important when nursing assistants are dealing with elderly and sick patients, such as at Manor Care Wheaton. Students learn very specific steps to ensure that the patient is comfortable, the nursing assistant is respectful and the procedures are sanitary.
Practicing on one another also gives the students an idea of what it feels like to be a patient, Marchwicki said.
As student broke up in pairs and practiced procedures on each other in four hospital beds in the classroom, Marchwicki was on hand to direct and quiz students to get them on the right track.
‘‘I’ve learned a lot so far,” said Mercedes, a senior, about the class. ‘‘It’s a lot of information.”
Although Mercedes said she has school, a part-time job and an evening class to juggle, she thought that finding time for the after-school program was important.
‘‘With the license, you get more experience in the actual career before you go and work,” she said.
Many of the students also said that while they would like to go to school for a career in nursing or medicine after high school, they were likely to use the CNA license to make money for their education.
Antoinette Kollie, 20, a senior at Kennedy, said she would like to study nursing at Howard University in Washington, D.C. She said she hopes to work while going to school to cover costs.
Hospitals often pay tuition for nursing assistants who want to go back to school to enhance their skills and get a higher degree, Marchwicki said.
‘‘Having this course so young in life, I really think it stresses the foundation of skills,” she said.
Jonathan Tamayo, a 2006 Kennedy graduate, is working full time as a nursing assistant in Holy Cross Hospital.
‘‘[The job] gives me experience and it teaches me how to interact with people,” Tamayo said.
Tamayo said he is saving up money to go to nursing school. He also said that while his time under the Kennedy program at Manor Care Wheaton helped provide him with real-life experience, he realized when he got into the profession that there is a severe workforce shortage at hospitals. He said he has had to care for up to 14 patients at one time at Holy Cross.
The CNA program, which was created by William R. Leahy, a Greenbelt neurologist, was originally introduced in Prince George’s County about 10 years ago when Leahy realized that there was going to be an increasing need for nursing assistants and home caretakers.
The Montgomery County program at Kennedy is funded through a $30,000 grant from the Healthcare Initiative Foundation in Bethesda.
Both classes are offered free for students.
Rosanna Thomas, coordinator for the division of career and technology education at MCPS, said since the program is only in its first year as an after-school offering at Kennedy, it is still too soon to gauge its success or determine if it will come to other schools.
Thomas said Marchwicki has been an excellent asset to the students.
‘‘She is energetic and exciting and she is very passionate about what she does,” Thomas said. ‘‘It was an easy fit.”
