Canoga Park Senior High

What's RIGHT about Canoga

STUDENT HEALTH CARE INTERNS

Involvement in Health Care Careers has grown this year is two very important ways and it might take a moment to recognize the difference.

Health Care Careers is a class that is an option for senior year students that want to discover if a career in health care is really what they want. It does sound pretty tempting when they think about it. Health Care is one of the fastest growing career industries in the nation, with demand expected to remain high well into the future. California schools can only graduate about six thousand nurses a year, but the state needs at least thirteen thousand nurses a year just to keep up with the demand for care. For every doctor in the country, there are many times more nurses, technicians, therapists, counselors, and everyone on the business side of medical care which includes insurance specialists, accountants, financial managers, and hospital administrators. Needless to say, doctors will always be in high demand.

Our students are drawn to careers in the healing arts because they want to make a difference in the world. Imagine going to work each day at a place where you actually get to help people leave feeling better and being healthier than when they came through the doors. Our students get the chance to be part of the treatment team that sees the progress that patients make toward living free of illness or pain. Add those rewards to a career with high paying jobs and great benefits and careers in health care keep looking better all of the time.

There are currently ten students serving volunteer internships with our local community partners. They leave school during lunchtime and go to hospitals and clinics during what is fifth and sixth period for the rest of the school, although some assignments begin and end an hour later. Students going to Kaiser Hospital in Woodland Hills, work in surgery, physical therapy, pediatrics, women and children’s medicine, or the emergency room. Two students share a ride because they both work in the same building, but in different practices. One works with the nurse practitioner that developed and runs Westwind Women’s Health where she translates examinations between English and Spanish speakers while the other student works in the front office of Genesis Physical Therapy where she is learning the business side of running a medical practice.

Gillette Physical Therapy hosts two students that work there from 2:00 PM until 4:00 PM every school day. They are learning how to provide therapy with the latest and most sophisticated tools as well as the traditional heat, cold, and stretching therapies that have their roots in ancient traditions.

Comprehensive Therapeutics is another community partner that hosts two students from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM every day. The chief therapist is an active supporter of Canoga Park High School and this is just another step he has taken to make the learning experience that much better for our students. Normally, these private practices would only receive interns that were already enrolled in the physical therapy program at California State University, Northridge, so this is something special for us.

Our school nurse has opened her practice to one of our students this year. School nurses can go from reviewing paperwork and doing routine eyesight exams to providing emergency medical care in the blink of an eye.

Pierce College has, once again, opened its sports medicine practice to one of our students that is finding herself torn between a career in physical therapy and a career in sports medicine. Working with the sports trainer for Pierce’s athletic teams and a person that teaches physical therapy at CSUN is not making it any easier to choose one career path over the other.

There are ten more students that are currently being trained in Red Cross first aid and CPR so that they too can qualify for similar opportunities with our community partners. Given all of the places where students can serve internships and all of the different settings in which they can be served, Canoga Park High School has the largest number of community partners as well as the widest variety of health care settings of any school in our district. Expect us to keep growing.

Students that are interested in finding out more about our program can talk with their counselors or see Mr. Noel in room 313.