Civic Memorial Partners with Local Hospitals to Offer New Medical Careers Classes

BETHALTO - Civic Memorial High School will offer a new class designed to help students on their path toward a medical career.

Medical Careers 1 and 2 allow students to learn more about the medical field, shadow local medical professionals and get ready to become CNA-certified. Angie Parish, who will teach the classes, noted that her goal is to help students decide if the medical field is right for them.

“They’ve got high expectations. That’s why I’ve been killing myself trying to get this up and running; I want to meet their expectations,” explained Parish. “It’s all because of the students. That’s where it all starts, because the kids have a need for this and I have a huge interest in the medical field, so why not pair it up and see what we can do with it?”

During their regular meeting on June 27, 2024, the Bethalto Community Unit School District #8 Board of Education unanimously approved a partnership between the district and OSF Healthcare System, Ottawa Regional Hospital & Healthcare Center, Mendota Community Hospital, OSF Multi-Specialty Group and Greater Peoria Specialty Hospital LLC.

This means students will be able to shadow medical professionals at local hospitals. Superintendent Dr. Jill Griffin noted that these “push-out” classes will benefit students as they learn more about the field and get firsthand experience in a medical setting.

“Those kids will get to go out and do observations in those medical facilities, and so now we have these partnerships established, kind of like we do with student teaching where our kids can go out and get experience,” Griffin said. “We’re excited. It’s a great opportunity for our kids.”

In addition to these shadowing opportunities, Parish’s classes will invite guest speakers and offer hands-on CNA training. Students will practice skills on each other and staff members. The Medical Careers 2 class will also count for an hour of college credit through SIUE, which is the first time a high school has partnered with SIUE to offer college credit.

“[Students] will be ready to go take the CNA test and be certified by the time they’re done with this class. That’s the hope, anyway,” Parish said.

Parish is thankful to SIUE School of Nursing, Anderson Hospital, Alton Memorial Hospital, St. Anthony’s Hospital and Jersey Community Hospital for their time and help to make this class happen. She also thanked Lacy Cobb, a nurse who has volunteered to help, as well as Bethalto’s Career and Technical Education department, Civic Memorial Principal Justin Newell and the Board of Education.

Parish hopes the class will help students decide whether they want to pursue a medical career. She noted that many of her students are interested in careers in travel nursing or flight nursing, and she can’t wait to see them thrive in the new Medical Careers classes.

“We’re doing a lot of new stuff,” she added. “It’s going to be an amazing program.”

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