Medical Careers Students Learn Through Experience at Wrentham Developmental Center

Sophomores enrolled in the Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School medical careers program are halfway through their experiential clinical learning at the Wrentham Developmental Center (WDC), a state-run, residential facility for developmentally disabled adults located at 131 Emerald St., Wrentham.

The 10th grade students began visiting Wrentham Developmental Center in February, making the trip every Wednesday and Thursday during their career technical week. The students will conclude their biweekly visits in June. Annually, each medical careers sophomore class participates in these clinical visits.

The partnership between the Tri-County Medical Careers program and Wrentham Developmental Center was formed as a result of one of the school’s medical careers instructor’s longstanding volunteerism at Wrentham Developmental Center. Wrentham Developmental Center provides therapeutic and educational programs to residents and also has a hospital on campus, offering learning opportunities to Tri-County students.

“The students learn to appreciate the residents and staff while increasing their health care skills. In some areas of the center, residents especially benefit from the increased assistance that students are able to provide. Water therapy is a highly effective activity, and with students assisting, more residents have the opportunity to benefit from this,” said Tri-County medical careers instructor Suzanne Dodakian, RN, BSN.

During clinical learning, medical careers sophomores are oriented to and assist with the care of individual residents of Wrentham Developmental Center. All of the care provided is highly supervised by Wrentham Developmental Center staff and Tri-County instructors.

“I have attended orientation three times with students and with each experience, I am in awe of the individualized and skilled care that residents of WDC receive,” said Tri-County medical careers instructor Paula Hutchinson. Each resident has assistive devices that have been designed for their unique needs. Each resident is treated with care and respect. Regardless of a resident’s challenges, their dignity and self-esteem are maintained.”

Tri-County students are responsible for providing assistance with support for activities of daily living and educational and therapeutic activities.

“I helped with feeding, ambulating, and communicating. I know I made the individual I work with laugh and smile a lot,” said sophomore Emily Spillane of Franklin.

In addition to assisting residents with their day-to-day activities, student receive mobility and orientation training at the Wrentham Developmental Center campus. During this exercise, students are blindfolded and use a vision guide to navigate the campus to gain first-hand experience of what it is like to be a vision-impaired resident at Wrentham Developmental Center.  

“It was an enlightening experience to be in the shoes of the visually impaired,” sophomore Andrew DuPlessis of N. Attleboro said after the experience.
In addition to experiential learning at Wrentham Developmental Center, students also participate in learning opportunities in various healthcare settings. During the course of their studies, students become certified nursing assistants, home health aides and are certified in first aid, CPR/AED and OSHA. They also receive all of the training requirements needed to become EMT’s, pharmacy technicians, Alzheimer’s caregivers and medical assistants. The Tri-County medical careers program is also certified by the Department of Public Health.