Kids plan health careers, attend two high schools

Yelena Canter and Jasmine Brown go to two high schools at the same time as they study to become registered nurses. And, they get expert medical information via video-conferencing to help them in their studies.

Yelena and Jasmine are among health career students who attend South County Tech in the mornings. Then, Yelena returns to her home school, Oakville High School, for afternoon academic classes.

Jasmine takes her afternoon classes at her home school, Mehlville High School.

Last semester, the girls had a one-hour anatomy and physiology class and a two-hour health sciences class in the mornings. Afternoon classes varied, depending on what classes the juniors were studying at their home schools.

Typical of the video-conferencing classes they watched last semester was one on organ donation and another on heart transplants. Those classes were produced by Saint Louis University's Adventures In Medical Science (AIMS) program.

Debbie Jones of Mid-America Transplant Services (MTS) was the expert used for the organ donation class. She's MTS' community educator and broadcast the class from the SLU campus.

MTS is one of the regional clearinghouses that monitor transplant needs and donor availability. It also transports the organs to the proper medical facility. MTS also arranges transfers tissue donations, such as eye corneas, tendons and ligaments.

The health career students received the organ donor information via closed circuit TV while sitting in South County Tech's Multi-Media and Conference Center. That's just down the hall from their regular classrooms.

Seventeen-year-old Yelena is a native of the Russian Far East who was adopted five years ago. She said she's interested in becoming a trauma nurse.

She also said she'll consider signing up to be an organ donor in case she suffered a fatal injury. "I'm not afraid of that," she said.

Sixteen-year-old Shellicia Bonds of St. Louis is in her second year in health studies at South County Tech. Her home school is Mehlville High School.

The junior said the videoconference information added to information from teachers in regular classes. "The video told me a lot about organ transplants," Shellicia said.

She wants to use her health information and skills next summer. She said one of her aunts works at an area nursing home and Shellicia hopes to be able to work there during summer vacation.

MTS educator Ms. Jones told the kids about the great demand for organ transplants. On the morning of the videoconference, she said there were 94,424 Americans on the national waiting list for donated organs. "Nearly 40% of them are waiting for kidneys," she said.

Ms. Jones also told of the "shelf-life" of the various organs that can be transplanted. "Shelf-life" is the time that doctors have between the removal of the organ and the time it must be transplanted into another human.

"A heart can be outside a body for only four hours," she said.

Ms. Jones said her "favorite organ" is the liver. That's because that "blood filter" organ can regenerate itself. For instance, it's possible to transplant a section of the liver and it will, in time, grow into a complete liver.

That's particularly important when an adult liver is to be transplanted into a child. There usually isn't room in a child for a whole adult liver. But, doctors can transplant the "tail" section of the liver. As the child grows, the "tail" regenerates itself into a whole liver.

Sixteen-year-old Minecia Davis said she likes the videoconferences because they get lots of new technical health information. "The videoconferences introduce new health material and help me understand the field better," she said.

The Kirkwood High School student said she likes the South County Tech classes because they provide a lot of hands-on experience. For instance, her health sciences classroom is equipped like a hospital ward.

So, when the students study hospital practices, they can practice techniques. Sometimes they use flexible plastic "patients" and sometimes a student acts as a real-life patient.

Administrators at South County Tech and the student's home school cooperate to make sure the two-school education satisfies graduation requirements for each student.

Jasmine Brown said, upon graduation, she will get gets a certificate as a Certified Nurse's Aide (CNA). That will allow her to work in a hospital and help pay for her nursing education. She wants to be a registered nurse.

(For more information about Mid-America Transplant Services, visit www.mts-stl.org.)