Health Careers Academy

Health Careers Academy

Instructor: Rachel Higbee
315-589-2627

In the WTCC Health Careers Academy, students have the opportunity to obtain multiple certifications over two years.

During their first year, juniors have the opportunity to become certified in the following: Patient Care Assistants (PCA), CPR/First Aid (AHA), OSHA 10, and Home Health Aides. Students get to experience real-life hands-on care at medical facilities for a total of 60 hours.

Health Careers Academy has incorporated many different hands-on learning approaches such as Anatomy Fridays. Each week the students are assigned a body system that they create using clay.  By the end of junior year, students have the potential of obtaining all five certifications. These certifications are the foundational building blocks that students will require upon their return to our program their senior year. 

Senior year jumps right back into medical skills and hands-on learning review from the previous year. Seniors start their adventure in obtaining the Certified Nursing Assistant Certification. Similar to the junior year, the senior year has an additional two weeks of clinical rotation for a total of another 60 hours (120 hours total over 2 years). However, during these rotations, our student's main focus is Long Term Care Facilities and Rehabilitation Centers. This allows our students to have experiences in a multitude of healthcare profession areas. Seniors also have two college courses embedded into our program, English 101 and Bio 110. Students the opportunity to obtain a total of six college credits in the program. 

All of this leads up to the New York Certified Nursing Aide exam at the end of the school year. Eligible students register and test at WTCC, which is an approved Facility Testing Site. To date, WTCC has achieved a 100% passing rate for the CNA Exam for the last five years!   

We have added a new certification called Certified Patient Care Tech (CPCT). Many hospitals train their PCT in their facility. We are now able to offer that here on our campus after the students have successfully completed and passed the CNA exam! This portion of our program takes everything that our students have learned previously while adding new and fun content such as phlebotomy and EKG (both of which we are able to demonstrate and practice in our lab). After completing the learning objectives they take a computer exam (much like CNA) where they can obtain their Certification as Patient Care Technician. 

At the time of graduation, students are not only prepared to enter into the medical workforce, but they are able to do so in any of the three major medical areas: Home Care, Long Term Care/Rehab, or Hospital. Our goal at WTCC is to take the students of today and create the medical professionals and team members of tomorrow! 

Job Outlook (US Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook-2021):