There are 72 students in the Patient Care Career Technical Course at Clovis East High School this year.

One such student is Abigail Ilagan-Esponilla, who is just under two years away from graduating.

However, she said she felt no pressure to choose a career because of the patient care journey.

“I believe this journey showed me that I wanted to pursue nursing education,” Ilagan-Esponilla said. “I want to help people.”

The high school student was able to realize this after meeting and learning from medical students at California Health Sciences University.

Tuesday was the fourth time the two groups had met, with CHSU students teaching students at Clovis High.

“First of all, they’re really brilliant, especially here at Clovis,” said CHSU medical student Varsha Swamy. “They pick up the concepts so quickly, and it’s really amazing to see those teaching them.”

The focus is on giving high school students hands-on experience to get a feel for what the career path includes. While continuing to learn about the medical field, students can practice and demonstrate different medical skills on each other.

Dr Kelly Eichman, who designed the patient care pathway, said showing students the career options available to them can help relieve the stress that some students are beginning to feel closer to obtaining. of their degree.

“I really want to enjoy your high school years, but graduation is right around the corner, and it’s going to be timed pretty quickly to make decisions,” Dr. Eichmann said.

Many in the medical field want more students to go into nursing as the need for healthcare workers becomes even greater.