Image Caption: Adena Health System has been hiring many Pickaway-Ross students. Above, from left, are Jasmine Crocker and Carmen Barr, who are in Catherine McVicker’s Allied Health program, and Alicen Davis, who is in Tammy Tipton’s program.
If Carmen Barr wasn’t pursuing a career in nursing, she could teach a master class on time management.
The 18-year-old Allied Health senior has earned all 35 industry credentials available through instructor Catherine McVicker’s course. She has done so while completing her academic classes, working multiple jobs and taking Pickaway-Ross Adult Education’s EMT-Basic course.
Carmen, whose home school is Unioto, decided to go into health care after considering careers in medicine or law.
“During COVID was when I started to research what being an attorney is like and I was like, you know, I don't know if this is actually for me.”
She said she watched some videos on YouTube that explained what lawyers do.
“And I was like, yeah, not for me, but the medical field is something that's always come natural to me,” Carmen said.
Her mom is a nurse pursuing a doctorate in nursing leadership, her father is a clinical research associate and her stepmom is a physical therapist assistant.
While her mom, who lives in California, promoted the financial benefits of nursing, Carmen said she loves helping others.
She is a patient care assistant at Adena Health System, alternating three- and two-day weeks there and picking up shifts at Traditions, a nursing home, on the weekends.
“Traditions was my first health-care job. And I actually leave work every shift feeling, you know, gratified, knowing that I'm helping people and I'm providing the best care to people who need it.”
On Monday and Wednesday evenings she is in the Adult Education EMT-Basic class at the Industrial Drive campus. By the end of the month, she will have graduated from Unioto, completed Allied Health and EMT-Basic. She also is a certified phlebotomist.
“Carmen has always been eager to learn,” McVicker said. “She is excited to perform the skills she acquired in the classroom. It is exciting to see my students get started on their career path.”
But Carmen isn’t finished with her education. She has applied to Shawnee State and Columbus State and after a year at Adena, she will be eligible for tuition reimbursement.
“My end goal is to be a nurse practitioner and either focus on emergency care or pediatrics. I'm not sure yet. But that's why I'm taking EMT, because I want to be a tech in the ER,” Carmen said. “I'm also thinking about getting my paramedic and then to get my RN, but I haven't really made that decision yet.”
Regardless of her decisions, she said she knows Pickaway-Ross put her on the right path.
“My stepmom, she would always tell me ‘When you work in health care, you take on the mantle of caregiver.’ And I didn't really know what she meant by that until I started working in health care and I started feeling, like, love toward my patients and knowing that I'm playing a role in this hospital system.”