It has been 10 months since Health Science 2 Clinicals students have done clinical rotations at local hospitals due to COVID-19.

10 months since students roamed the halls of hospitals envisioning their future in healthcare. 

10 months since high schoolers became medical workers for the day. 

Until now. 

After acquiring their state certification as nurse aides, health science classes returned to hospitals this week to assist nurses and provide patient care. 

“Students were nervous because it was their first hands on experience.” Health Science 2 instructor Suzanne Altaan said via email. “We usually have the nursing home to introduce us to hands on patient care, but this year because of the pandemic we stayed in the lab. They performed many of the CNA skills but had good conversations with the patients.”

As the first class back to the hospitals since the COVID-19 outbreak, junior Kelly Liu was hesitant to return, but precautions were followed to keep students and workers safe. 

“I was definitely a little afraid, but I was more eager to be able to help out,” Liu said via text. “They have a ton of restrictions to keep everyone safe: there are separated COVID and non-COVID units, and we work in the non-COVID units. We have to use hand sanitizer whenever we enter and leave a patient’s room, gloves are always being restocked, and we follow standard precautions as well in order to keep us and the patients safe.”

Despite the uncertainty of the situation, students were finally able to perform their nurse aide skills on real patients.

“It was satisfying doing the skills we learned as it felt like we grew and learned something,” junior Madhav Suresh said via text. “It was also more relaxed as there was not as much of a time constraint to finish skills so it gave time to focus on the actual patient.”

Students like Liu were pleasantly surprised by their entrance in the health care world. 

“I was a bit nervous  at first since we were the first class to go, and I wasn’t really sure what to expect. But as soon as we started working, it was easy to get into the groove of things!” Liu said via text. “All the nurses and patients are extremely nice and patient with us, and it was exciting to be able to finally interact with patients, as we weren’t able to go to the nursing home this year.”

While the students were there to put their knowledge to the test, they also displayed their humanistic side, the most important skill in medicine. 

“The students showed not only their hard working ethics but their compassion for the patients,” Altaan said via email. “Per policy, patients may have only one visitor and sometimes that is not happening because of schedules of loved ones, so It was nice for the students to be able to provide that comfort level for the patients.”