Photo: Castanet
Josh Dawson – Jun 16, 2024
STUDENTS FILL HEALTH ACADEMY
High school students are already filling the seats of the Kamloops-Thompson school district’s new health sciences academy, which is set to launch next fall in a bid to provide hands-on health care experience before graduation.
On Monday, SD73’s board of education heard that 27 students have already enrolled in the academy at Brocklehurst Secondary School. The first cohort has 28 seats.
“They were all exceptional candidates, and so that was that was the very powerful part that these are very good students with very diverse interests when it comes to healthcare,” Rick Kienlein, SD73’s director of secondary learning services, told the board.
“We are hoping that grows and we might have some very hard decisions to make in the future but the decisions are quite easy this time. So 28 applied, 28 were accepted, one dropped out.”
New course to sample careers
The new academy was approved by the board in January. Courses are expected to include anatomy and physiology 12, career life connections 12, work experience and a new Health Sciences Career sampler course.
The board unanimously approved the new sample course Monday evening.
Kienlein said the course would include a mandatory core module and an additional eight modules, of which at least three are required to be taught for a total of 120 hours of instruction across four classes in a semester.
“The core module includes cultural safety military standards, empathetic relationship building safety, ethical and legal issues, health and wellness, anatomy and physiology, medical terminology, medical mathematics, and pathways and careers in healthcare,” Kienlein said.
The non-mandatory modules are specific to healthcare occupations and include Nursing, Respiratory Therapy, Health Care Aid, Laboratory Services, Diagnostic Medical Imaging, Mental Health and Addiction, Pharmacy Services and Physical and Occupational Therapy.
Kienlein said the course will be available to all schools across the district as well as any other secondary school in B.C. after receiving board approval.
A $400 student fee is associated with the course. Fees for certifications, including $110 for a first aid, CPR and basic life support course and $20 for an online preventing disease transmission course, are optional.
According to the report given to the board, the sampler course is intended to allow students to explore and gain hands-on learning experience in public sector health care occupations.
Transition plans and dual enrolment?
Trustee Jo Kang questioned if there have been conversations with Interior Health or Thompson Rivers University about transition plans for students after completing the program.
“In terms of formal transition agreements, we have some existing agreements that we can leverage in a dual credit capacity but we’re not there yet,” Kienlein said.
“At this point, the conversation has to do with access to facilities.”
Kerry Gairdner, district vice-principle of career programs, said students will alternate attending Royal Inland Hospital and Overlander Residential Care on Wednesdays to receive different work experience.
