Sartell High School offers a CNA class. You might be wondering what CNA stands for, and here is all you need to know. CNA stands for certified nursing assistant. Being a CNA consists of many skills you need to have and it’s a great way to get introduced into the medical field. If the medical field career interests you, this is the first step to get you started. 

In this class, you listen to presentations and learn the basics before you move on to the hands-on part of the class. You will take tests and quizzes on the topics you know about such as disease and infection control, comfort care, and the actual skills we perform. You will learn how to care for someone, and how the healthcare system works, you will have actual actors come in and you will perform the skills you have learned on them, go on field trips, and do a clinical at the community center. 

“You learn how to take care of people from their vitals and comfort people and help them with their ADLS and taking blood pressures and everything in between.” – Taylor Nordquist, SHS senior 

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This class includes a very hands-on program. Some of the favorite skills that the students learned were how to feed an independent resident, denture care, unoccupied bed making, vitals, and catheter care. That is just a small chunk of the skills you learn how to do in this class. The students said that the best part of being a part of this class was being connected with their classmates and being able to connect with their teacher Kara Brink. They also liked how this class allowed real-world jobs and to get experience beforehand. 

 “The class is very educational and I got a lot of opportunities to practice my skills and I was able to get a real job and get experience before I went out into the real world.” – Hailey Kuznia SHS senior

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Kara Brink is the teacher of this class. She is a nurse at the elementary school now too! She started her career working at a nursing home and then went on to pursue her dream job at Regions Hospital in St. Paul. She got her interest in helping people because she used to go with her dad to work when he was a physician and would spend time at the clinic. During her time at the Regions Hospital, she worked with patients with heart problems. She went from telemetry to progressive and then to the ICU. She was a charge nurse for overnights. Her shifts consisted of 12-hour nights. She enjoyed her overnights because it required her to have more critical thinking skills and her unit had to work together. 

“ I love working with the heart, I love everything about it.” – Kara Brink 

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The way she got into teaching at Sartell High School is very interesting. One of her favorite parts of being a nurse is the education she gets to share. Whether it was the patients she was telling or the students she was teaching.  She always had an interest in teaching, and she always knew how important it was to have good nursing assistants. She wants to help create good nursing assistants.