Cartersville Medical Center will help Bartow County Schools develop a medical sciences magnet program and serve as a classroom for its students, officials announced Monday.
CEO Chris Mosley said medical center officials are “extremely excited” to be the “health care sponsoring facility” for the county school system’s planned Center for Advanced Studies in Medical Sciences at Woodland High School.
Superintendent Phillip Page said the Bartow County School System is “equally enthusiastic about this collaboration coming to fruition.”
“This new magnet program will soon offer high school students valuable resources and hands-on educational experiences not found anywhere else, which will prove to be instrumental when pursuing post-secondary opportunities upon graduation,” Page said in a news release.
Woodland High Principal David Stephenson said the program “will provide our students an academic pathway that both prepares students for admissions to highly competitive colleges and universities and provides a clear connection and understanding of the ever-growing opportunities available to nurses, medical doctors, researchers and public health officials.”
Mosley said students in the program “can expect to experience an intense, behind-the-scenes look at what we do, through exposure to health care professionals and hospital departments.”
“Additionally, they will complete tours, practice hands-on health care simulations in our SIM lab, attend lectures presented by health care experts, and review evidence-based medical journal articles, among other opportunities,” he said.
School system officials plan to develop the program’s core curriculum based on recommendations from Cartersville Medical during the upcoming 2019-2020 school year, a news release stated.
Once complete, the specialized program will officially launch in August 2020 with the first group of ninth-grade students.
The program is exclusive to Bartow County because Cartersville Medical Center is not partnering with any other school district on a magnet program, officials said.
Mosley said the partnership will benefit both the medical center and school system.
“The school system, particularly Woodland High School, will have a sponsoring health care facility with resources, expertise and real-life experience opportunities,” Mosley said.
“The benefit to the hospital is our investment of time and talent, providing opportunities for the best and brightest students to obtain great experience and exposure so they may have a competitive advantage when applying to colleges and universities.
“It is our hope that these students will return to our community and be the future of health care in Bartow County,” Mosley said.
Cartersville Medical Center is a 119-bed hospital owned and operated by Hospital Corp. of America at 960 Joe Frank Harris Parkway, according to its website.
The medical center offers a chest pain center; certified primary stroke center; Level III trauma center; certified total joint program; inpatient diabetes program accredited by the Joint Commission; Breast Imaging Center at The Women’s Center accredited by the American College of Radiology; and advanced wound healing center which provides specialized treatment for chronic or non-healing wounds.
The Hope Center, a regional, Commission on Cancer-approved cancer treatment facility, is located on the hospital campus.
Admission to the magnet program will be open to any ninth-grader in any local school district, though preference will be given to those attending Bartow County schools, officials said.
It will be among three magnet programs the school system is developing for the 2020-2021 school year, including The Center for Advanced Science, Math and Technology Studies at Adairsville High School; and The Center for Advanced International Studies at Cass High School.
A selective admissions process, currently in development, will be based on grades, test scores, teacher recommendations, and interviews or auditions if applicable, officials previously said.
The system is encouraging prospective eighth-grade students to attend a magnet program open house this fall and complete the application process by December. Selected students will be notified by February.
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