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Teen of the Week: Parkersburg High School graduate Isabella Haynes eager to study nursing at WVU

By Tyler Bennett 4 min read

PARKERSBURG -- Parkersburg High School graduate Isabella Haynes always finds herself busy throughout the day, either studying for her upcoming certified nursing assistant exam, taking college courses, or being a lifeguard and swimming coach at the Parkersburg Country Club during the summer.

Haynes' plate was even more filled when she was a student at PHS, taking multiple AP classes throughout her time at Parkersburg High while taking courses at West Virginia University at Parkersburg, earning 36 college credit hours at both. She was a member of the Big Reds swim team for three years.

Haynes also was one of the speakers as salutatorian during her class's graduation in the spring.

Haynes also took classes in the therapeutic services program at the Wood County Tech Center, including being a member of the advisory board and the quality control manager as well.

In the program, Haynes had to do 120 hours of clinical activities at the Tech Center. She split 55 hours in a clinical setting and 65 hours in the classroom.

Not only practicing on mannequins and other supplies at the Tech Center, Haynes also got in-person experience working at Ohio Valley Health Care.

Haynes almost didn't get the required amount of hours to take the CNA exams, being three hours short as one of her classmates tested positive for COVID in the final weeks of school.

Returning for clinical studies after being placed in a quarantine period, Haynes was able to get the hours needed on the final day of school.

"One of our girls tested positive, so we got pulled out. We made up our hours on the last day of school, we went and did clinicals," Haynes said. "Because we need three more hours. They let us come back on our last day after the quarantine period was over. So we got to finish, which was good."

Since graduating, Haynes has been preparing for her CNA exam that she plans to take on July 2.

The CNA exam is separated into two sections: the written exam and the clinical skills test. The written portion uses a multiple-choice format of nursing concepts. Haynes will have 90 minutes to complete 60 questions.

Haynes will then take a clinical skills test and perform four nursing duties in 30 minutes in front of an evaluator.

Haynes said earning her certification will not help in college, but more if she is looking for a place to work. As it will allow her to work as CNA in a nursing home or could work as a patient care tech in a hospital.

"I'll get a certification, it wouldn't help me at WVU, but it will help me in the medical aspect of things because it will let me start working," Haynes said. "It will help me in the future during school if I want to work at the hospital while I'm going to nursing school. It will also introduce me to the atmosphere and I can see all the nurses there. So open opportunities right there."

She will attending West Virginia University in the fall after being accepted into the direct admission nursing program.

Haynes said some of the favorite aspects of WVU is it is close to Parkersburg, but still far away, the size of the campus and the university's medical program.

"I liked it that's it's close to home, but still far away. I went and toured the campus, and it's much smaller than you think it is. I liked that it's a smaller community," Haynes said. "I hear so many good things about their nursing program, and I love they're whole medical campus part. It's so innovative, and I'm so excited to start it."

Starting swimming in her freshman year, Haynes was a member of both the Big Reds and Parkersburg Sharks Swim Team for the past three years.

The Sharks is a competitive club that competes in both YMCA and USA competitions year-round.

With too many unknowns about the upcoming season going into senior year last winter, Haynes decided to sit out her final year of swimming at PHS.

"I started freshman year for PHS that winter, and then I started for the Sharks swim team too. I started senior year swimming, and then we weren't going to have meets or anything. There were too many unknowns, so I just quit," Haynes said.

Haynes is still involved with swimming, however, as she works as a lifeguard in the summer for the Parkersburg Country Club. In addition she is a coach for the club's competitive swim team that competes throughout the Ohio Valley during the summer and giving swimming lessons.

Tyler Bennett can be reached at tbennett@newsandsentinel.com

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