ShawneeDispatch.com

When Tom Porter went to college he didn't like doctors.

"I didn't want to be a doctor," he said. "I wanted to be a homestead farmer. I thought doctors were overpaid and held in way too high esteem socially."

However, Porter went back to school after he discovered his passion for health care, and he is now an anesthesiologist at Liberty (Mo.) Hospital.

"You don't always realize where the end of your road is going to be, sitting where you're at," he told Shawnee Mission North High School students.

The students were enrolled in North's new signature program, Biomedical Health Science, which exposes students to health care careers before graduating from high school.

The new program is similar to North's previous Health Careers courses, however there are more classes with a stronger focus on preparing students for the work force or further education, said Wendy Thill, director of career and technical education for Shawnee Mission USD 512.

Sophomores may enroll in a course called exploring biomedical careers, where they will learn about different types of health care careers and will discover the education requirements for those careers. Students also learn about trends in health care and get to hear from professionals in different areas, like Porter.

"The class is so that students have a pretty comprehensive look at what the careers are and which one would be of interest," Thill said.

Students who choose to continue past the introductory course enroll in biomedical health science careers one, where they will learn the different systems of the human body, medical disorders and medical terminology.

Before moving further in the biomedical courses, students must complete a human anatomy and physiology course.

In biomedical health science careers two, students have a chance to shadow a health care professional and also may earn their Certified Nursing Assistant certification if they take the course for the entire school year.

"The CNA certification is used to get their foot in the door for jobs they may want to have as they go through their medical education," Thill said. "If you are going to do some work and pay for college and you are interested in a medical career, it's a great thing to be able to work in that environment."

That CNA certification also is required by some colleges before a student can go pre-med, Thill said.

Next year, the Biomedical Health Science program will grow and offer a program of study for pre-medical health science, Thill said.

Whereas the Biomedical Health Science program focuses on careers that would require an associate's degree or a bachelor's degree, the pre-medical health science program will prepare students who are interested in a health career that would require a doctoral degree, Thill said.

"Each program has the anatomy and physiology requirement and bio med one and two," she said. "In Pre Med Health Science in addition to those classes they have to take a stronger academic core so that they will be prepared for success at the graduate level. They would be taking courses like calculus and introduction to organic chemistry."

A career-focused path in high school isn't new, Thill said.

"It's something that has been out there for a number of years," she said. "It is now becoming more important and you are going to see a greater emphasis on career focus. That emphasis is important so that the student has an opportunity to explore interests they have in high school. We don't want students to have to go to post secondary institutions and take remedial work. We want them to continue to move forward."

Aaron Porter, junior at North and the visiting anesthesiologist's son, said he took the course because he was interested in pursuing a career in medicine like his father. He said he thought it was beneficial to get a jump-start on picking his career choice.

"If students can get exposed to it earlier and earlier, they can figure out if they actually know what they want to do," he said.

Connie Gandy, an instructor for the bio med program, said the students will get credit for their work with a notation on their transcript stating they completed the bio med courses.

Sometimes, students find they are not as interested in a career path as they once thought, Gandy said.

"I have a senior right now who initially, when he began, he wanted to be a veterinarian, and then he wanted to become a surgeon," she said. "Now two months before graduation he has determined ultimately that he wants to become a nurse.

"The best-case scenario is that they get to explore and discover and determine what direction they want to go as they leave high school."