The PSP Program facilitates students interested in healthcare careers

GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) – A milestone has been reached for the Orchard Hospital Patients Services Pathways (PSP) Program and its partner, Gridley High School: Its first graduate has officially been employed by the hospital.

The PSP Program, believed to have gotten off to a quiet start in 2018, facilitates students interested in healthcare careers by allowing them a closer look and firsthand experience in the industry through a partnership with Orchard Hospital. Orchard Hospital Emergency Room Manager, Beth Brown, says that the PSP Program was designed to help students discover “all of the modalities within healthcare that you can go into” and “interest them and excite them to be a part of healthcare when they get through school.”

The Pathways Program is two-partite - the educational foundation occurring on campus at GHS, through instruction from certified instructors with medical backgrounds, college level educational materials and training using state of the art equipment, such as mannequins to practice blood draws and a new lab facility for running basic diagnostic tests - all of which is funded through grants procured by Gridley Unified School District. Students then leave the classroom for clinicals or live training and observation at Orchard Hospital, shadowing healthcare professionals in the Emergency Room, or specialists as they treat patients.

Currently, the PSP Program offers two health occupation classes, one medical terminology and nursing course. Students commit to a 3-year course at GHS when joining the PSP Program, in which they are exposed to multiple fields of practice within the realm of healthcare, helping them weed-out and narrow down their interests. The instruction, certifications, and college level course credits they receive during the PSP Program give them a head start when they graduate and move on to college level training. Lyndi Little-Wallace, Director of Marketing and Community Outreach says Orchard’s program is “really advanced. I feel like we have amazing pathways to help kids decide right away “What do you want to do?” and get your feet wet. Try it and if you don’t like it, you learned in high school” and have the opportunity to move forward with less time spent determining the course of your future.

A recent graduate of GHS and part of the PSP program, Madison Tull is a testament to the PSP programs success and echoes Little-Wallace’s sentiments. Tull, who currently attends Oregon Tech and is majoring in Respiratory Care, attributes her positive transition and advanced placement in her college program, to the PSP Program. She shares that when first investigating careers in the medical field, she felt she would be limited to nursing. While participating in the PSP Program, she shadowed a Respiratory Therapist and immediately recognized it as her calling. Her training in the PSP program shaved almost a year off her college programs pre-requisite courses, putting her on the fast track to her degree in Respiratory Care and giving her solid confidence in her career choice. In addition, she has already benefitted from her training through the program as it allowed Tull to work at Orchard Hospital as an Emergency Room Clerk during the summer before returning to Oregon Tech in the fall.

Being able to experience first-hand, what it is like to work in a rural hospital’s Emergency Room, Tull says she has gained a perspective only made possible through the PSP Program and Orchard Hospital. Working in a smaller hospital has allowed her to see how intimately the healthcare team operates together for ultimate patient care. “I really enjoy getting to hear them come in with their cases and bounce ideas off each other,” she says about conversations had between specialists, nurses, and doctors in the E.R. “It’s like a whole new type of environment that I never knew really existed,” she says compared to some of the larger hospitals she has had attended for clinicals.  It has made her reconsider working for a large hospital and opened her eyes to the benefits of working in a smaller hospital, such as Orchard.

As one, if not the largest, employers in Gridley, Orchard Hospital understands the connection between the community it serves, the people it employs and how it all fits into the small-town dynamic. People grow up here and if they stay, will eventually need employment. What better way to support the community other than providing quality healthcare, than to offer training and education to our youth that gives them a leg-up on the competition, shortens college level training, and promotes jobs within our own community, all the while illustrating the benefit and necessity of rural hospitals.

While Orchard is not officially considered a teaching hospital, Brown says that it now has college level students attending and observing the clinical side of the program from Cambridge College, Butte and Yuba Colleges, along with GHS students as the PSP Program gains more momentum.  “I love this program” says Brown, with Tull agreeing and standing as a true testament of the successful nature of the PSP Program.