Medical Courses in High School Train Future Heroes

Empire High School students share how high school medical classes helped a university student keep Rep. Gabrielle Giffords alive after she was shot in the head.

April 4, 2011 -- On Jan. 8, Tucson, Ariz. was the scene of a tragic shooting. Tucson’s congressional representative, Gabrielle Giffords, was one of the victims of the shooting. She was shot through the head, but miraculously survived.

How she survived the immediate scene, however, is not a mystery. University of Arizona student Daniel Hernandez performed on-the-scene medical care just moments after the congresswoman was injured.

Daniel Hernandez was the first to treat Giffords’ wounds. His immediate response was to control the blood flow so Giffords would stop choking on her blood. He was able to keep the congresswoman alive until medics arrived on the scene to take her to Tucson’s University Medical Center.

Hernandez’ medical background goes back to when he was in high school. During high school, he took CNA medical classes. His experience in the class prepared him for an event like Giffords' shooting.

Joy Schaefer, a teacher at Empire’s Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) class, stated that students who go through the program are just as qualified as Daniel Hernandez because it is the same program. “We teach them skills and the knowledge to work in a facility,” Schaefer said. Another teacher, Beth Francis at CNA, actually taught Daniel Hernandez. Schaefer states that the class equally qualifies anyone, including Daniel Hernandez, to save a life.

Just as Hernandez made a difference on Jan. 8 with the medical skills he learned in high school,  numerous high school students involved in the Pima County Joint Technological Education District (JTED) are making a difference today.

Almost every Sunday, Empire High School students who attend JTED courses do their clinicals, in which they do take care of people in need during field training.

Empire students Christopher Treanor and Samantha Cooper have learned how to care for injured people during their time in JTED. An extensive portion of what they learn is safety for their patients because, “ [The] curriculum is focused around safety,” says Treanor. “If you fail safety testing [for a certain skill], you automatically fail the skill.”

Cooper remembers a day when she had to use her knowledge from JTED in a real world situation. When she and a friend got in a car accident, she was able to keep cool. "Right away I knew what I had to do," Cooper said.

Not only is it important for students to know what to do, but also how to act in situations. In the real world, those with medical experience need to act in an instant in order to help the patient as quickly and early as possible. “You don’t think about it, you just run right over to them. You don’t give a second thought to it,” Treanor said about the newfound instinct.

In medical cases, the situations are often scary and unexpected. Many can imagine that it would have been hard for Daniel Hernandez to treat Gabby Giffords just after she was shot when her shooter was still shooting others.

But Cooper and Treanor believe that an important trait they had been taught was how to be calm in an urgent crisis. By being calm, it would help them act on instinct and know what to do in that circumstance. “CNA taught me how to be fine mentally in those kinds of situations,” Cooper remarks. Without such a trait, Daniel Hernandez may not have been able to stop the bleeding in Gifford’s wound.

The introduction of JTED and medical courses into more high schools is a great opportunity for students, and a good insurance for those who are in need of medical help. These options make kids more comfortable trying to learn new medical skills and will increase the number of potential nurses as well as the number of helpers at clinic locations.

People in Tucson think highly of Daniel Hernandez because of his bravery and know-how, but his medical training background should be given some credit. The CNA class allows its students to be just as prepared as Daniel Hernandez was in the situation. And JTED courses, along with all medical vocational training programs, are creating more medically trained bystanders to help out and save the lives of those in need.
 

About the authors: Julianne Capati and Spencer Taylor are seniors at Empire High School.

Source: Converge