The Four Cities Compact hosts a nursing program at Barberton High School where students can learn about a career in nursing.
“I joined because my goal is to become a trauma nurse practitioner, so I figured this would let me see if I wanted to do this as a career,” said Reagan Hunt, a junior at Wadsworth High School and member of the nursing program.
The students take a number of different classes throughout the program learning about the ways of nursing.
“It’s an honors anatomy and physiology class, then you have a medical terms class and then you have your nursing class,” Hunt said. “It’s the length of four periods, all at Barberton.”

All three classes have a different aspect of nursing that is being taught. One class is learning about the body, another is about terms to know as a nurse, and the last is a more hands-on approach to nursing.
“Anatomy you’re learning about the body and what goes into it,” Hunt said. “It gives you a basis for nursing and taking care of people. Your medical terms class is learning what medical terms are what the words mean and diagnoses. Your nursing class teaches you how to communicate with patients and how to be a good nurse.”

Mrs. Christa Taylor, the teacher for the Junior Advancement to Nursing Class, says that there is no normal day in the program.
“Each day varies in our program, so I’m not sure if we have a normal day,” Taylor said. “For example, in the past two weeks, we have gone to Summa Hospital in Akron to the simulation lab, and we helped run the vision screenings at the primary and middle schools in Barberton. In the classroom, we are learning about infection control and the skeletal system. In the lab, we are learning and performing personal protective equipment, sterile gloves, and hand washing.”
Taylor was once a student in the class before she began to teach it and says it was beneficial in helping shape her nursing career.
“This program helped shape me and lead me in my own nursing career as I was one of the students in the first graduating classes,” Taylor said. “Some of the most important things about our program that I took with me include the exposure you get in the program, to health care settings, both in the hospital and other clinical sites, exposure to the multitude of patients, and the exposure to the real world of healthcare and medicine.”
The program at the compact sets up the students for their future in any field of nursing and gives them insight into the field that they would not normally get.
“The knowledge you gain from medical skills in the lab, anatomy, physiology, medical terminology, and introduction of theory that can be applied to not only nursing but in any medical field,” Taylor said. “I had the exposure and knowledge that I would have never had the opportunity to have without this program.”
Taylor also had the opportunity to create close relationships with her peers and teachers, a characteristic of the program that she still sees today.
“The friendships and mentors that I had during my time were the cherry on top, and now I get the pleasure of watching other students create friendships and mentorships that they would have never been exposed to if they hadn’t been in the compact,” Taylor said. “I have such a special place in my heart and gratitude for what I got from this program; that’s what brought me back to teach it.”