Matthew Avey

Career and Technical education has been around for some time, and has often been shaped by the current economic landscape of the country. While current evolving trends focus on relevance for students in the school setting, a coexistence with college preparation curriculum is now the new trend in modern technical education. New programs have emerged, including health science, over the past two decades. Health science programs have been developed with the idea of creating academic self-efficacy for students pursuing college preparatory programs in the health sciences after high school. The pilot school that was focus for this particular study had a new program that had very little data on students who had completed the program. The study identified specific thoughts regarding the effectiveness of the program in relation to several different factors.

The researcher-developed survey, Lincoln North Star Health Occupations Program Survey, was used to obtain data for this study. The study was distributed electronically to 119 student graduates of the program using SurveyMonkey®. The data were analyzed using means, standard deviations, ANOVA, t Tests, and Pearson Product Moment Correlation.

A brief summary of the findings indicates that nearly half of subjects completing the survey (47.5%) were enrolled in or had completed a health science program after high school. A large majority of subjects (93.4%) felt as if the courses in the program benefitted them for the future. Most students (63.0%-Nursing), (70.6%-Medical Terminology) felt as if courses were very helpful in preparing them for nursing or other medical programs. There was no significant relationship between number of courses taken and liklihood of enrollment in post-secondary programs (r = .357, n = 42, p <.02). In addition, there were no significant differences in response based on gender or year of graduation. Perception of the program was generally very positive, with over half of all respondents (62.4%) indicating a positive response to all questions regarding specific individual courses and the overall program. The information obtained from this study proved valuable for the school and school district that provided the program as well as individual teachers who are currently teaching in any technical education field.