The Allied Health shop at Worcester Technical High School recently received a generous grant from the Mass Skills Grant Program for $250,000. This grant will be used towards shop equipment, a Sims Lab, and an Anatomage table, and will be shared with the Worcester Night Life Program.
The Night Life Program is a program that gives the opportunity for adults to take classes to learn about a specific trade and have skills to help and benefit them in the real world. Every shop in the school gets the chance to make a list of things they need and how it will benefit their shop. They also tend to look at the shops with the most job opportunities. “They try and fit the grant into those types of shops because that will encourage better opportunities for work,” says Allied Health teacher Mrs. Lonergan. After the request is sent and it gets approved by the State, grant applicants are asked a bunch of questions on the items the shop would want and how they would benefit their shop.
With the grant money, the Allied Health shop plans to get an Anatomage Table, Sims Lab, another cart of Chromebooks, and replace older and broken wheelchairs.
The Allied Health students will benefit immensely by receiving the Mass Skills grant. Mrs. Lonergan tells us, “It will get students better prepared for the working world or nursing school because they will be a step above everyone else.” The Sims Lab will give Allied Health students the opportunity to have more clinical time and work on many different scenarios with it. The Anatomage Table is going to allow teachers to teach the structures of the anatomy in accurate 3D. This will allow students to explore the human body as if they were dissecting a fresh cadaver. The shop is also getting more Chromebooks, enough for every student in the shop, and wheelchairs to replace all the broken ones.
The Sims Lab is probably the biggest and most important item the Allied Health Shop is getting from the grant. The Sims Lab will allow students to practice their skills on a dummy that moves and talks. The lab can make different scenarios that students can treat, depending on the patient’s presented condition. It mimics things like a patient’s range of motion, blood pressures, temperatures, pulses, and students can even put on and take off the dummy’s ostomy bag.
“It is pretty cool. It will show students the parts of the body. Students can take the heart out and open it up to see how the chambers all look and how the blood flows,” Mrs. Lonergan informed us. The lab is going to be set up in a separate room right across the hall from the Allied Health shop so students will have more space to practice and experience the lab.
The equipment in the Allied Health shop is very important, as the students are very hands-on and on their feet as much as they are doing book work. The shop hopes to get the new equipment from the grant as soon as possible either this year or next year.
This Mass Skills grant is a game changer for the Allied Health shop’s students and faculty. It will make learning easier, more realistic, and, therefore, more beneficial. This will help get students ready for real jobs in all medical communities. The Allied Health program is thankful for receiving this grant that will provide the educational tools that will advance learning for Worcester Tech students and for the Night Life program.