Medical careers in focus for board

MARION - Careers in medicine for graduates of Marion High School were the focus of a slide-show presentation to the Marion Community Unit School District No. 2 Board of Education on Tuesday night from teachers and former students from the MHS Health Career Programs.

Through the programs, MHS students can earn credit with John A. Logan Community College and graduate as a Certified Nursing Assistant or CNA, which can then lead to a career in healthcare.

The teachers present were Misty Ross, who is the district's director of nursing and health career instructor, Kim Miller, the medical careers instructor and Nikki Travelstead, the CNA instructor.

In the classroom, students learn such tasks as transferring sick people out of beds and transporting patients in wheelchairs.

One of the former students, Morgan Kessel, recalled how she went to work in a Carterville nursing home on an overnight shift, from midnight to 7 a.m. She would arrive at school still wearing her nursing scrubs.

"But I would be there," she said. Kessel is continuing her career in medicine.

Another student, Tori Allgaier, who plans to follow a career as a nurse practitioner, said she is thankful for the programs.

"I don't know what else I would be doing with my life," she said.</group><group id="CCBDD190-2D47-4A8F-AA26-9EB2A03919D3" type="seoLabels"><seoLabels>