08/30/2024
Healthcare careers are always evolving as are the people that work in healthcare. Continuing healthcare education is there for all stages of the evolution in a person’s career. At Amarillo College, our Center for Continuing Healthcare Education Department provides training at the beginner’s level through the master’s level of healthcare. Our department enjoys helping diverse types of medical professionals maintain their licensure status.
We offer training for entry level healthcare positions such as Certified Nurse Aide, Telemetry Monitor Technician, Phlebotomy, EKG Technician, Mental Health Technician as well as Massage Therapist training. We also offer Medication Aide courses that will certify a certified nurse aide that is employed at a long-term care facility to administer medications to residents.
Upon completion of any of these types of training a student will receive a certificate of completion from Amarillo College and this certificate may secure a job in the workforce. For some of these types of training, there may be a national certification exam or a state licensure exam that the student may need to complete to become employed.
Our Continuing Healthcare Education department also hosts and offers conferences related to Continuing Education Units for various medical fields including nursing, social work, radiography and respiratory, among others. We work with various healthcare partners in our community and the Texas Panhandle region to provide conferences featuring new medical procedures, mental health, self-care routines, and social work topics such as human trafficking and elder or child abuse.
We love helping all students that may be interested in healthcare. No matter if a student is new out of high school or an empty nest parent looking to begin a new chapter in their own life, there is something for everyone in continuing healthcare. The medical field is full of steppingstone opportunities. For example, a student may begin a career as a Certified Nurse Aide and continue their education to complete an associate’s degree in nursing. Another student may decide to complete our Telemetry Technician course and continue to complete the EKG technician course. Currently, there is an increased need for phlebotomists in our community as well. Students who complete our phlebotomy course will take a national certification exam to be nationally certified phlebotomists. A phlebotomist may continue their education in a two-year degree program to become a medical laboratory technician which is just one more steppingstone. Many times, certified nurse aides work in facilities that may have a need for a mental health technician. Our mental health technicians are great assets to mental health facilities. Our instructors train mental health technicians to help patients deal with emotions as well as providing necessary medical care for psychologically troubled patients or geriatric patients. We also offer a 500-hour massage therapy program that takes two semesters to complete. This course is hands-on in order to train quality massage therapists. Once a student completes the program, they are eligible to sit for the state licensing exam.
There are so many avenues that healthcare careers can take. The Center for Continuing Healthcare Education department at Amarillo College values every potential or current student that walks in the door. Additionally, many nurses and massage therapists choose to come full circle and give back to the education world. They are great instructors. And we welcome all the help we can get. And we love to see our successful students come back to work for Amarillo College as instructors to teach any of these courses about which we have talked. It is also a wonderful way to make extra income as a side hustle.
