In A-B Tech’s Ferguson Center for Allied Health and Workforce Development, seven Career and College Promise (CCP) high school students are tucked behind floor-to-ceiling curtains practicing their nursing skills. Their voices are hushed as they speak with each other and minister to their “patients”, medical mannequins with various ailments that are tucked into hospital beds.
When they entered this room five months ago, the students, who range in age from 17 to 18 ½, were apt to move through space like other kids their age: breezily and perhaps a little distracted. Now, according to their teacher Karen Manfred, they have learned to move more mindfully and slowly, to check in with their patients to ensure their voices are being heard and understood. These habits, along with showing love, respect, and dignity, Manfred said, are important to becoming a Certified Nurse Aide (CNA).
A-B Tech's Career & College Promise Program allows eligible high school students to dual enroll in college classes tuition-free and study a variety of subjects, including the CNA course. Students who successfully complete college courses can use that credit towards further study at A-B Tech or transfer credits to a four-year college or university of their choice.
When they started the program, many of the eight CNA students weren’t sure of their future career paths. Now, nearly all would like to go into healthcare, and several already have jobs. Nurse aides work in a variety of settings, including hospitals, medical offices, nursing homes, and assisted care facilities.
Annabelle Lastur, 19, learned about the program during a high school career day on A-B Tech’s campus last September. The personable student thought she wanted to be a dental hygienist at that time. What she didn’t know was how much she’d enjoy working with older adults. Her junior year, she took a position with Best Care Agency, a home healthcare agency that offers in-home support to older people aging in place. Lastur was matched with “Miss. Alice”, a spunky 84-year-old woman with whom it seemed none of the other aides could peacefully work. “Nobody could handle her,” Lastur said.
Lastur spent from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. with Miss Alice each day cooking meals, watching old movies, and listening to her stories. The two women quickly bonded, perhaps, Lastur said, in part to the fact that she “agreed with her all the time and didn’t get offended by her sense of humor.”
Lastur’s role changed when Miss Alice’s health took a turn, and her kidneys began to fail. Instead of saying goodbye to her personal companion, the older woman asked if Lastur could take a CNA course so that she could boost her skillset to include personal care. Lastur started A-B Tech’s program in February and, she said, it was just in time. Each new skill she learned was called for in her day-to-day work with Miss Alice. From brushing her teeth to helping with the bathroom, and transferring her from bed to wheelchair, Lastur got to practice each new skill on the job, and she found that she enjoyed helping in this deeper way. “I didn’t think I’d like doing it all, but it was easier than I thought it would be,” she said. “I just wanted to help her, and I didn’t care. She told me she loved me. She needed my help so much.”
Since Miss Alice passed away in March, Lastur has been working as a CNA for a small independent and assisted living community in Fletcher called Silverbell Homestead. Though she still wants to be a dental hygienist and is currently taking pre-requisite courses, she is content in her present role using the skills she’s mastered on the job.
Summer Middledorf, 17, says she fell into a nursing role naturally. The TC Roberson High School student was working as a server at Givens Estate and began helping with other needs when the staff was shorthanded. To her surprise, she loved working with older adults in more of a one-on-one helping role. Around this time, she says, TikTok ads for CNA jobs started popping up on her phone. Then, a counselor at TC Roberson told her about A-B Tech’s CNA program, and she felt led to apply. Middledorf, whose older sister is also a CNA, feels most drawn to working with babies and mothers and would like to become a medical sonographer long-term. “I heard that sonography was difficult to get into,” she said. “I thought this (CNA program) would be a good starting point.”
Middledorf said she’s enjoyed getting to know the other seven students in the program who have been together three hours a day, Monday through Thursday, since February. “I enjoyed the class a lot,” she said. “There were three of us from TC, and we became really close.”
Ean Oakden, 18, said he has known since he was a boy that he enjoyed being around older people. His mom worked for 14 years as a CNA at Universal Healthcare, and after school, he’d meet her at work and hang out with the residents, who quickly adopted him as their own.
Oakden heard about the program at TC Roberson through his counselor. He admits he was nervous about the hands-on part of the job, helping with personal hygiene and daily care, but said that it was easier for him than he expected.
Oakden’s uncle is an anesthetic nurse in a hospital intensive care unit, a job that appeals to the student. He plans to pursue a nursing degree at A-B Tech and then transfer to Western Carolina University to complete a bachelor’s degree.
A-B Tech’s CCP Nurse Aide program offers classes throughout the school year; the next class begins in September. They must have a 2.8 GPA and be a junior or senior to apply. Interested students are encouraged to set up meetings with their guidance counselors, who will contact A-B Tech.
To learn more about A-B Tech’s Career and College Promise high school dual enrollment programs, visit Career and College Promise High School Programs or call (828) 398-7900.
