February 21, 2022 Raider students prepare for medical field through CTE courses
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ORANGE PARK – Orange Park High is preparing the next generation of medical professionals, whether it’s the school’s Emergency Medical Services or Academy of Medical Science programs.
The four-year programs are rigorous, have their own classrooms and thousands of dollars of donated equipment.
In the EMS lab sponsored by Liberty Ambulance, has mannequins that can breathe, be tested and shocked with an EKG.
Senior Landon Evans called the EMS program an overall great experience. He said the students have ride-alongs and uniforms.
“It’s like having another job, basically,” Evans said.
Molly Green, a senior who’s in her third year in the program, and she plans to be a certified EMT when she graduates.
“It’s prepared us for the real world and given us the experience to learn what we’ll actually do,” Green said.
In a nearby classroom, CNA students Luis Santos, Danaelle Jean Marie and Falisha Celines are practicing taking care of patients in a room of hospital beds. Jean Marie compared the program to a family.
“This is a big deal right here. This is where it gets serious,” Jean Marie said of being in the program’s fourth year. “It’s just amazing to be in this program.”
Celines liked the partnership with Orange Park Medical Center and praised the program’s life lessons.
Instructor Rafael Ramos is there to comment on the trio’s work in placing a mannequin in a bed correctly. If something is amiss, Ramos lets them know immediately and they fix it. Ramos said some of the seniors are already working and some starting salaries are about $17 an hour.
“Here you are coming out of high school, you don’t even have a college degree, and you’re making a livable wage,” Ramos added.
Ramos, a former paramedic in New York, said his goal is to give students life experiences. Several of his alumni are in the field. Over the four years, the amount students are thinned out, and he meets with parents to give them the full breadth of how intensive their child’s fourth year in the program will be.
“I treat it like a college class,” he said.
Graduation Coach Scott Thomas said the teachers push the students to be their best.
“If you walk into any of the classrooms, you’re going to see the dynamic student-teacher relationship that they have,” Thomas said. “The kids who are in the program love the program.”
“I feel like we have better opportunities and stuff like that,” she said.
Santos added that students went to elementary school and conducted health screenings. They also went to Penney Farms last week.
“Actually, doing it for real is completely different from a mannequin. It’s just one of (the) things you have to experience for yourself to get the full lesson,” Santos said.