College Isn’t The Only Answer: What The VUSD Adult School Has to Offer. Part 2: Medical Programs

Teachers at the Adult School who teach anything medical share what high school students who are interested in medical can do if they feel that college isn’t the right fit for them.

By: Beth Musto

For any high school student or anyone in general who is looking to start their medical career journey, the VUSD (Visalia Unfied School District) Adult school has five medical related programs.

They offer resident care assistants, medical billing and coding, medical assistants, nurse assistant training, and vocational nurse training. With the nursing assistant program, students will have to take a state test to get certified as a nursing assistant, and with the vocational nurse program, you will also have to take a state test to become a licensed vocational nurse.

Laura Jancinto teaches for the medical billing and coding program and basic human anatomy. She says that in her program, there are some differences and similarities to the courses in college.

“It’s very brief and very fast. But the commitment still has to be there,” Jancinto says.

Marixssa Martinez is the teacher for the medical assistant program. She says, “[The students and I], we focus on the front office portion first, the first part of the class, it’s about two months, and then the last two months we do back office, so that would be more of the insurance portion. The front office, like the demographics, and [adding] inputs data into the computer. And then the back office is going to be focused more on the clinical skills. So they would be doing vitals, they would be doing blood pressures, then phlebotomy and injections.”

Mary Sliva is a certified nursing assistant instructor at the school. She says that they have a strict attendance policy in the CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) Program because of mandated state hours. Students in the class would need to get 60 hours in the classroom and 100 hours of clinical, being in the hospital.

Sliva says, “Our NAs, they learn the skills here. We then take these skills to the nursing home or the hospital, and then we go ahead and apply those hands-on. In our program, we do teach our students to make sure that the residents are comfortable and that they’re safe.”

“It’s extremely important. And then, of course, once they complete the CNA program, they can continue and pursue the VN [Vocational Nurse] program, as well as RN [Registered Nurse] programs and other medical programs. So it’s kind of a pathway. This is kind of a stepping stone, a pathway into other careers in the medical field. If that’s what they choose,” says Silva.

Moving onto the Vocational Nursing program. The program is an entry-level nursing program upon completing the classes, students will be able to take the NCLEX (National Council Licensure Examination) and after passing the test, student will become licsend vocational nurses.

Hedie Matthews and Amanda Musto, both teachers in the VN program, say that the length of the program is 3 semesters. The class time varies; theory (the class time) is on campus 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. And clinical (going into the hospital) hours are different hours, depending on the unit of study.

Joyce Glaspie, the program coordinator for the LVN (Licensed Vocational Nurses) and also supervisor of the nursing assistant program, says that there is a lot to cover on the first day of the program. Where the bathroom is, doing icebreakers to get to know your classmates, and going over expectations.

Glaspie speaks from experience, as she went through a program similar to the one at the Adult School. She says, “So I went through a program just like this, we teach you exactly what you need to know for this job and I was able to get a license, support my family, buy a home, have a car, and do all these things by going through an adult school program. When I finished the program, I didn’t owe anybody any money, no student loans, none of that stuff. So it was a great start for me.”

Glaspie says that once students graduate from the program, they can still go to college to further their education. She says, “You can go take classes online, or you can go physically sit in the classroom, but you have the ability to work and make enough money to live, not just barely get by, but you’re making enough to where you’re going to be considered part of the middle class. So if you finish our program, you can make from $25 an hour to $35 an hour.”

The Adult School principal, Tami Olson, says that the school has a program for everyone and that everyone should follow their heart, no matter what.

“My one piece of advice is to follow whatever their passion is and not try to look for a college or find a job, just for the sake of that’s what other people want them to do or that’s what they feel they have to do. Whatever they’re passionate about, follow that passion, and if that be the tradeschool or going straight into the workforce or training for the workforce or going to college, whatever that may be, follow their passion,” Olson says.

For anyone who is interested or has any questions, the school phone is  (559) 730-7646, and the website is The VUSD Adult School

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