A Rural Secondary Teachers’ Alliance Encourages Success in College Health-Care Programs How Did We Plug Them into a Support Network?

Presentation Outline What is the RHA? How Did We Develop It? What Brings Us All Together? What’s a Typical Institute Like? What Have We Accomplished? Where Do We Go from Here?

Who Is the Rural Healthcare Alliance? Santa Fe College High School Academies Healthcare Industry Santa Fe College was established as a community college in 1965, and has been a state college since 2008 Santa Fe College (a charter member of the League) offers over 90 career and technical programs, 11 of which are in Health Sciences (one of our specialties) The HS academies started as a group of 8 with articulation agreements with SF – we continue to grow and now have over 3 high schools involved with the RHA Gainesville is healthcare hub in SE; major medical centers, rural hospitals, clinics, nursing home facilities – this equals jobs

Who Are We - Where Is the RHA North Central Florida We started with: Healthcare Employers (8) Community Colleges (3) High Schools (8) Universities (2) Community Organizations (100’s) (13) (Heart of Florida)

Communities brought together by a DOL grant Goal: Increase number of qualified professionals to fill Nursing & Allied Health vacancies in the Heart of Florida Focus: Support Rural High School Health Academies Result: Better prepared students Though we have been together for over 30yrs and have collaborated on numerous projects and consortia, the advent of CBJT grant from the DOL was the impetus to become proactive in supporting our High School partners (Students from the Gainesville High School Academy of Health Professions have been honored by the School Board of Alachua County for their recent success in the Health Occupations Student Association’s (HOSA) national competition) – 6500 participants nationally, and four Alachua Co HS students placed.

What have we tried? Technology Access Networking Curriculum Support The DOL grant afforded us the opportunity to get some of the newest educational technology and curriculum information to the high schools but we needed to a way to do this. The features we wanted to take to the academies could be done through an annual meeting – thus the inception of the Rural Health Alliance’s High School Teacher Institute. Tech access – bought computers for the programs; supplied mp3 players for podcasting; digital cameras Networking – brought all outlying communities together with post-secondary instructors Curriculum Support – facilitated networking with publishers; “difficult concepts” series; interaction with college faculty

RHA Teachers’ Institute a Typical Experience An example of what we could do while still supported by DOL funding. Once a year event, and we were able to pay for teacher subs and teacher travel

What is the Teachers’ Institute Today? With a little help from our friends (Perkins Initiatives) The program is now a one-day event, but held twice annually. In the fall we address renewing and updates to the articulation agreements. Still find ways to supply teachers with vital items (books, software, jump drives)

Who Comes to the RHA Teachers’ Institute

Accomplishments Networking with rural academies Expanded offerings with the academies Increased Post-secondary options Through networking with publishers, post-secondary faculty, and fellow academy faculty the programs have grown and the students entering the programs are now some of the best and brightest. Further, the academies have been able to expand their offerings with the help of the RHA and community support through clinical sites. Upon graduation options include: Education at post-secondary level Allied health fields – respiratory & rehabilitation aids Nursing – CAN Dental – Dental Aid Emergency Medical Services – EMT Pharmacy Technician

Evaluating the RHA Teachers’ Institute Then (in 2006 , 2007 and 2008) Assessment of the 1st three years of the teachers’ institute was done sing an onsite eval, based on 1-5 likert scale, 1 = least valuable, 5= most valuable

Evaluating the RHA Teachers’ Institute Now (2010 and 2011) Began using survey monkey in last two years to develop a more robust report and analysis of the meeting outcomes.

What’s new? Pre-testing High School Instructor Coaching Re-writing Exams

Analysis of Success? Health Cores College Courses Introduction to Health Care (3.0 cr hrs) Medical Terminology (3.0 cr hrs) College Sciences Courses Human Anatomy & Physiology (4.0 cr hrs) Elements of Chemistry (4.0 cr hrs)

Questions?