Emory and Henry College has received a grant to help launch an academic program to prepare high school students for careers in health care. The program is one of several state “Lab Schools” that are in the works across Virginia through the Department of Education.
Emory & Henry College and its partners in Wythe, Smyth and Washington Counties will use the $200,000 planning grant to develop a detailed curriculum for the program, called Southwest Virginia Healthcare Excellence Academy Laboratory School – or SWVA-HEALS.
"There’s a nationwide nursing shortage and it’s even more acute in this region," said Laurie Anne Ferguson, Dean of Emory & Henry’s School of Nursing. "If the solutions were easy they would have already been found, but they’re not. It takes collaborations." She was speaking at a press conference Wednesday to announce the funding.
If it receives additional funding this summer, the SWVA-HEALS program would begin January 2024, and high school students in Wythe, Smyth and Washington counties and the city of Bristol would be eligible to apply. From 10th-12th grade, they’d attend half-day courses, get college credit and hands-on experience to prepare them for careers in nursing or behavioral health.
The program is focused on a "grown your own" approach to getting more young people trained to work in the health care industry, said Lou Fincher, Dean of Emory & Henry’s School of Health Sciences. "Studies have told us that students who grow up in a rural area, earn their education in a rural area, are more likely to practice in that rural area."
Fincher said they hope is to have 20 students in Marion and 20 students in Abingdon. "So it is an investment in a long-term pipeline. But those dividends will pay for a long, long time," Fincher said.
Emory & Henry will be working with faculty at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center, the A. Linwood Holton Governor’s School, Virginia Highlands Community College, Wytheville Community College, and public school systems to develop curriculum for the SWVA-HEALS program in the coming months.
This is one of 10 planning grants that’s been announced by the Virginia Department of Education to develop a lab school.
Ivy Sheppard of WEHC contributed to this report.
