12 TAHS students are taking part in a new interactive healthcare class
Ashley Swan is doing something this school year that she readily admits she never thought she would be doing, and students at Tracy Area High School are part of a first as well.
Swan, the Tracy Area School District’s nurse for the last seven years, is teaching an Intro to Medical Careers class to a dozen juniors and seniors. The elective is held in what used to be the Spanish room, but the language these kids are learning is all about the health field.
“I’m very excited about talking about healthcare to students,” said Swan. “Anyone that knows me, if you would’ve told me I’d be teaching ever, I would’ve thought you were crazy, but here I am. I never opened up the thought of being a nurse and teaching at the same time. I love that this is an opportunity for me.”
Swan, who earned her teaching license through the Minnesota Department of Education, will teach a CNA class next semester, and upon completion, students in that class will be able to take their CNA test.
Swan said the new curriculum came to fruition after a survey that was sent out to students indicated health care education was lacking. The closest thing the school had to the field before Swan’s class was human anatomy. “Our first unit, we went over healthcare careers and pathways,” she said, “what they need to do to get their desired career, how much schooling that would take, what they would make for a salary, explaining the difference between rural and big-city healthcare.” Students in Swan’s new class are required to do five hours of volunteer work outside the school in a variety of capacities, as long as it involves working with others. The school has partnered with Prairie View to get the students some hands-on experience they wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to.
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This is kind of getting their toes wet a little bit. This is the basics, but it is a big part of healthcare.
— ASHLEY SWAN “Interacting with residents and kind of getting out of that comfort zone, talking with residents,” Swan said about how the class gets students some hands-on experience she hopes will benefit them in the future. “We’re working with Prairie View, especially in our CNA course where they’re required to do 16 hours of clinicals in that semester.”
The students are also learning about vision and hearing screening, something Swan is very familiar with as a school nurse.
“It’s fun for the little kids to see the older kids helping,” Swan said. “It will be good to incorporate that; that can go toward their volunteer hours as well.”
Another aspect the class covers is checking vital signs. It’s Swan hope that the students use the new class as a springboard to college and beyond.
“I hope that when they go into their schooling that they think back on the communication unit that we did, or the healthcare career pathways,” she said. “This is kind of getting their toes wet a little bit. This is the basics, but it is a big part of healthcare.”
The classroom has three beds in the back of the room that were donated by Prairie View. There are also three new mannequins available to the students that were purchased by Southwest West Central Cooperative, which along with LYFT, sponsors the class.
“This is a good way to kind of get them exposed to some of the healthcare things that they can do,” Swan said. “There’s a wide variety here — OB, research and development, dentistry. I think the kids are enjoying it.”
While teaching is new to Swan, the healthcare field certainly isn’t. After graduating with a Nursing degree from Minnesota West, the 2007 TAHS graduate went on to earn her LPN and RN licenses. She then worked at the Tyler Healthcare Center before taking a job at the Avera in Marshall, working both at the clinic and in pediatrics.
“When Covid hit, I was doing the drive-thru testing in the parking lot; we all had to take our rotation there,” she said. “My role got switched to internal medicine and pediatrics.”
The switch in roles forced by the pandemic prevented Swan from continuing the patent care that she loved. Instead, she was limited to making phone calls and doing referrals.
“I kind of lost my love for the clinic after Covid hit and things were rearranged,” she said. “Coming to the school got me back to hands-on work with the students.”
And now she’s also teaching them.
