The Butler County Vocational-Technical School has nearly 770 students enrolled in 15 career programs.

However, the health assistant program, which prepares students for a variety of health care careers, is the school’s most popular, with about 130 students enrolled.

The 11th and 12th graders in the program learn about anatomy, physiology, medical terminology, infection control, emergency procedures and technology, and all lessons tie back to direct patient care. The students also get the chance to put their skills to the test in clinical settings.

Throughout their one or two years in the program, students can earn a variety of certifications, including CPR, AED, first aid, feeding assistant, nutrition, EKG, pharmacy technician, electronic medical records, patient care technician, medical terminology and personal care home direct care staff.

To gain more insight into how the school prepares students for health care careers, the Eagle spoke to recently retired executive director Joe Cunningham, instructor Tonya Blank, second-year student Corey Pettigrew of the Butler School District and first-year student Alyssa Polliard of the Moniteau School District.

QUESTION: Why do you think the health assistant program is the school’s most popular?

CUNNINGHAM: I would attribute that to several factors.

Number one, Western Pennsylvania is great for health care employment opportunities. There are a significant number of health care employers.

Secondly, they’re good-paying jobs.

With that said, we want to provide opportunities where students can go to work right out of high school if they choose. Or, a lot of our students go on to nursing school.

When we renovated and expanded the school several years ago, we changed the program by adding opportunities for students to earn certifications in more areas.

There are a plethora of jobs out there.

Our students can go on to study for advanced health care careers while also working in the field because of the certifications they earn here.

One of the advantages they get here is probably exposure to some of the harder classes they’re going to see at the next level: anatomy and physiology, as well as medical terminology and pharmaceutical languages.

I’ve also had students say they’ve done better on standardized tests because they learned Latin root words.

QUESTION: What are some of the key elements that prepare students for the work force, and how does working with health care providers shape your curriculum?

BLANK: I think the biggest thing is just working with patients.

The skills are there, but throughout every skill, you need to identify with your patient’s needs and be compassionate.

It’s a fine line. You have to have compassion, but you can’t be too compassionate because you won’t get everything done.

It’s really about working with the people no matter what skill you’re doing.

Anybody can perform a skill on a mannequin. ... The mannequin can’t talk back.

But taking students to a place like Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where they actually get to work with real people, puts their skills into perspective.

CUNNINGHAM: The clinical experiences are a real opportunity to do just what Mrs. Blank said: They get to communicate with the patients first hand. But more importantly, they get to practice their skills while they’re supervised.

BLANK: For example, right now we’re doing oral care, and they get to brush each other’s teeth. They can get familiar with that skill in class, but it’s not until they get to do it for a real patient that they understand what it’s like.

You have to be professional.

It’s different when you have an aide-patient relationship instead of a friend-friend relationship. It’s all about learning what that relationship is like.

We don’t spend tons of time in clinical applications, when you look at it per hour, but it is the most important part of the curriculum we do.

There’s so much they need to learn that we can’t always get out for a clinical experience.

However, after a big lesson, they get that opportunity.

For example, we’ve been doing the digestive system for about a month, and then at the very end, we’ll go to Sunnyview and feed patients.

So, after a long lesson, and after they feed each other and get comfortable with that, the clinical experience will be the final test, so to speak.

QUESTION: What are you able to share with students about employers’ expectations?

BLANK: I tell them there are companies in the Butler area that are dying to have good employees. They want you to come and work for them.

I tell them they’re looking for some of those soft skills, including leadership and accountability.

CUNNINGHAM: We also bring employers in as guest speakers so that message comes from someone else.

It’s difficult with these young folks — and it’s not just in nursing because we see it with many of the trades — the first thing employers tell them is they’re going to be drug tested.

You try to get the information to them early. We’re telling them that. Hopefully parents are telling them that.

QUESTION: For the students, what interested you in health care?

POLLIARD: My family has had a lot of health problems, and with that being said, I’ve always wanted to help people.

Whenever I was little, I used to see sick people because my grandmother was in a nursing home before she passed away.

I had always gone back and forth between being a teacher and a nurse, but whenever we got to visit the vo-tech, I decided that the most interesting thing for me would be nursing.

I figured even if I tried it and figured out it’s not something for me, then at least I’d have learned a skill set.

PETTIGREW: My aunt is a nurse at Butler Memorial Hospital. I’ve helped her out with some with different things, like when my family has been in the hospital and she took care of them.

My mom has been disabled my whole life, so I’ve always been her caretaker. I like to take care of my family.

QUESTION: How has getting the opportunity to do clinical work impacted you?

POLLIARD: It’s nice that we get to experience that. It’s not just with the mannequin. It’s real life, so we know if it’s for us or not.

Also, I would say just the interaction with people.

You actually get to apply your skills, and you get to know what health care is like.

PETTIGREW: I think it’s applying the skills you’ve learned and realizing this is what I’m going to have to do one day.

It’s preparation for going into the field itself.

I was doing physical therapy at the VA Butler Healthcare and I thought about it, and I was like, “Physical therapy’s a little too slow-paced for me.”

It’s realizing what you actually want to do and testing out different areas of health care — adult day care, nursing, physical therapy, dental, lab work, X-rays.