Mercy, SPS partner for Health Sciences Academy

Beginning in August, 50 local students will get a head start on future health care studies and career. A unique partnership between Springfield Public Schools and Mercy Hospital Springfield is creating a full-time eighth-grade learning environment on the regional hospital’s campus.

The Health Sciences Academy at Mercy will provide standard district curriculum in two 25-student classrooms in the administrative area of the hospital’s south tower. SPS Specialist for Choice Programs Christine Jones said the location makes the difference for the endeavor.

“These students in this program are getting the same curriculum as our other eighth-grade students in the district,” she said. “It’s just a matter of looking at the material through a health sciences lens. They’re learning all the same things, but we’re just putting a health care twist to it.”

Jones said while schools across the country are partnering with private entities to create alternative programs, her research turned up no other districts in the U.S. that have a program with the classroom setting located in a hospital.

The academy represents 18 months of intensive planning and preparation, which she asserts is the result of extraordinary “willingness and shared vision” on the part of school and hospital executives. Mercy Chief Operating Officer Jay Guffey said the program will introduce students to some unexpected aspects of health care.

“The idea is that we’ll be able to expose them to the operational side of a hospital and the health care environment,” he said. “Not just the doctors and nurses, but the whole concept of what it takes to run a complex organization – everything from logistics, to maintenance, as well as the medical side of things.”  

While safety, privacy and liability concerns will prevent student-patient interaction in most clinical settings, students will observe appropriate medical procedures via closed-circuit feeds to whiteboards in the two classrooms. But Guffey said the focus will not only be on the clinical side of health care but also on the dozens of things happening behind the scenes that impact medical treatments and their outcomes.  

“It’s not about the surgeries,” Guffey said. “For instance, at our hospital we clean and prepare more than 1 million pieces of surgical equipment each year. We want to show the students all the complex logistics it takes to get each of those things to come together at one time to make sure the procedure is successful.”

Making space
While the impact of the academy is expected to be large, the physical space is relatively small. Contractor DeWitt & Associates Inc. will begin renovation of the 6,100-square-foot, three-room suite on March 17, with completion slated for July 1.

Architects Bates & Associates worked closely with Mercy and SPS leaders to prepare the key design elements: visual integration with the hospital operations and modular, flexible learning spaces. Additionally, leaders felt the space required a modern, high-tech appearance to match the innovative nature of the bellwether program.

Mercy will foot the $800,000 remodeling tab, thanks in part to the donation of an undisclosed amount from a local family. Jones estimates the ongoing operational costs to be approximately $130,000 per year, which will cover two teachers’ salaries, supplies, curriculum development and busing students to Pershing Middle School in the afternoon to complete standard class work.

The inaugural group of 50 students, who will be selected by a random lottery, must have qualified grades and 95 percent attendance to be considered. While there is no cost for students, their families must provide their own transportation to and from the program.

Jones said this type of educational partnership leverages not only the knowledge base of diverse private organizations but also utilizes pre-existing resources. With the year-to-year fluidity of state education funding, shared community support is a common theme – and a necessity – across SPS’ Choice Programs classroom alternatives.  

Along with the project at Mercy, the district also is planning an August launch of the Academy of Exploration, which will host an additional 50 eighth-grade students at the Discovery Center of Springfield. The premise is nearly identical to both the Health Sciences Academy and the six-year-old Wonders of the Ozarks Learning Facility – WOLF – program for 46 fifth-graders at the John A. and Genny Morris Conservation Education Center, but the Exploration Academy will focus on STEM education areas of science, technology, engineering and math.  

“We are always trying to look long-range for opportunities to have students actively engage in their areas of interest, and to find relevancy in learning things through those interests,” Jones said.

“It’s basically the same curriculum, just viewed through the lens of health care, or conservation, or technology.”

Those opportunities are gaining popularity among an area school-age population that is nearing 25,000 K–12 students and their families. The 2013 Springfield-Greene County Community Focus report showed 64 percent of area parents are interested in having more diverse educational opportunities and 70 percent of SPS teachers would like the opportunity to teach in one of the district’s Choice Programs. Currently, 11 percent of SPS students participate in one of the three Choice Programs classes.

Carving out a reputation
Springfield has quietly built an arsenal of alternative programs. From the long-running Wings and Bridges gifted programs, to five accredited International Baccalaureate schools, to the Scholars middle school program at Central High School and Reed Academy, Jones said Springfield is developing a reputation as a community that values and promotes education in all settings.

“Along with our other Choice Programs, these two new academies demonstrate that we are willing to actively search out and develop opportunities for our students to become 21st-century learners,” she said.

That reputation will be a key factor in attracting and retaining high-caliber educators and administrators. Recently named SPS Superintendent John Jungmann has implemented special technology learning initiatives in both his previous positions at public schools in Monett and Liberty. Jungmann will take over for outgoing Superintendent Norm Ridder after nine years at the helm.

Medical history
The Health Sciences Academy is the new kid on the block, but Springfield’s health care institutions have a decades-long track record of innovative educational partnerships.

According to CoxHealth’s website, the Medical Explorers program that launched in 1968 was the first of its kind in the country. Mercy also hosts a long-standing Medical Explorers program, which is co-sponsored by the Boy Scouts of America. It offers 15-20 year-olds the chance to shadow physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other medical professionals while the students consider or pursue a career in health sciences.

Additionally, both local hospitals are partners in the SPS Business Associated Student Education program. Staged at seven local sites, it provides appropriate job-shadowing and training opportunities for 70 students with developmental disabilities. The 11 BASE students located at Mercy also benefit from the new Health Sciences Academy program, as the renovations include a modular space for their specialized classroom activities.

Guffey said the Health Sciences Academy and other educational programs set against a health care backdrop that will help his industry to develop the medical workforce necessary to care for the aging U.S. population. But he reiterates while this program will feed the staffing needs of hospitals and physician practices, it has further implications for students and the community at large.

“Quite honestly, they’ll gain other skills as they go through this,” he said. “They may not want to work in a hospital, but they’re going learn about business practices, learn about logistics, and other things that they can apply to any career.

“To me, this is truly a broad-based learning opportunity that will benefit the whole community.”