The future of careers in the health sciences field is wide open, with Panola College’s Health Sciences programs offering a pathway into those careers in two years — or less.
Kelly Reed-Hirsch, Dean of Health Sciences at Panola College, said her staff is always anxious to share details of the programs offered and plant seeds of interest. But most of the time those opportunities to showcase the programs are provided to future students from within the college’s service area.
“Today we have a group from Henderson High School. Their teacher actually contacted us and asked for a tour,” she said on Monday. “She is a former medical assisting student from Panola College. She wanted to give her health science students a half-day tour, and we’re really excited to have them come and see what we have to offer.”
On Monday, about 40 high school juniors from Henderson ISD came to see firsthand the programs available and how those programs can open career doors for them. The students were divided into six groups, with each spending time at the seven main program areas offered at Panola College in the health sciences field.
“This is going to be memorable for these students,” Reed-Hirsch said. “We’ve made it into a really fun day for them. Going station-to-station gives them a different perspective and helps keep them engaged.”
Those seven programs include the associate degree nursing program, a licensed vocational nursing program, occupational therapy assistant, emergency medical sciences, health information technology, medical assistant and medical laboratory technology.
“We’re showing them all seven of our programs,” Reed-Hirsch said. “We have seven programs and we’re giving them the opportunity to see all seven of those and made it into a really fun day.”
She said “Man Enough” is a similar program coming up in a few weeks in which male high school students from within the college’s service area will be visiting the college’s health sciences programs.
Reed-Hirsch said the program has about 275 students enrolled during the spring semester, with aspirations of enhancing enrollment to meet the growing job demand in health sciences.
Kim Breashears, coordinator for the Henderson High School health sciences program and one of the program’s instructors, said the exposure to the various programs provided a good overview of career options available to students in the health sciences area.
“We want to encourage college and going above and beyond what we offer,” Breashears said. While many of the students look at four-year universities, not so many look at the options a two-year program like Panola College’s can offer them, she said.
“A lot of them can’t afford going to a university and they don’t know what’s available close to home,” she said. Breashears said Henderson ISD has a big push going on to expose students to the variety of opportunities available to them. Randy Ford, professor of the occupational therapy assistant program, was among the college staffers providing on overview of his particular area of expertise.
“We’re going over clinical skills for occupational therapy assistance,” he said. “Today we’ll go over some practical skills that you’ll learn as an occupational therapy assistant, things like balance, fine motor coordination, grip strength and ability to follow commands.”
Ford, who holds a masters degree, said his program provides 60 credit hours of training with six different prerequisite courses, mostly dealing with science and psychology.
“When you graduate with your certification in this area and become an occupational therapy assistant, you should make between $65,000 and $70,000 a year in your first year out of school,” Ford said. “That’s a pretty good return on your investment in this area for a two-year degree.”
In the medical laboratory technology program area, Antiquene Nichols, chairman of the program, offered the students a hands-on opportunity to use a micropipette. He said the process of using the piece of medical lab equipment is common in the field.
“Some of them have never used a pipette,” Nichols said of the instruments used to safely handle liquids in a lab situation. The process is used to analyze bodily fluids, tissue and cells looking for bacteria, parasites and abnormal cells among other issues.
