PCA Undergoes Scrub Check by Ayaana Gupta
Students in the Patient Care Assistant (PCA) program at Melbourne High participated in a scrub check in Building 9, Room 900, to demonstrate their professionalism for work in healthcare. This event had students show they were prepared for the clinic environment by wearing clean scrubs, proper shoes, and following other standards like no jewelry and wearing a watch. During the scrub check, students were evaluated on their appearance and knowledge of patient care. This included skills such as CPR.
Senior Gracie Ostrander recently passed her CPR test, and she shared that the program confirmed her desire to become a doctor. “I realized I definitely want to go into healthcare,” she said. Ostrander said she enjoyed wearing her scrubs because they were comfortable and made her feel more professional. Throughout her first year in the program, Ostrander along with many other students including Carlito Nieves learned a variety of patient care skills and completed a CPR test during the scrub check. Ostrander expressed that her favorite part of the program was learning how to feed patients. Ostrander also learned that nurses cannot diagnose patients, which gave her a clearer understanding of medical roles and responsibilities.
When asked why working in patient care is meaningful to her, Ostrander said, “you can make someone's day a little easier and brighter, during a time when their life isn't so easy.” Senior Carlito Nieves explained that there are many interesting aspects about healthcare. “The most interesting part of healthcare to me is how much you can learn about the body and how there are so many different things to do to help people as well,” said Nieves. PCA instructor Mrs. Susan Robbins took charge of the program since her own daughter participated in it and seeing the impact it had on her, she thought that it was a great start for other students to have the same opportunity to begin their journey into healthcare.
Caption: CPR training during scrub check: Gracie Ostrander and Carlito Nieves are participating in a scrub check and practicing CPR on an infant. The scrub check happened in building 9 room 900. Ostrander and Nieves wore scrubs and practiced patient care skills as part of their training. To Ostrander, hands-on training is much better than lectures because “it makes you more equipped by giving you real life scenarios.” Nieves expressed “My favorite part of PCA so far is how we get to wear scrubs to school.” Photo by Ayaana Gupta