Meeting many of its students’ desires to enter the medical field after college, Oxford High School is offering a course that will teach students the basics of the medical field and patient care, all while adding some beef to students’ resumes and college applications.

Titled “Medical Foundations,” the course goes over 12 basics of medicine. This includes career readiness, patient care, some anatomy and physiology, a dissection, ethics and more. The class is available to students of sophomore class standing or higher, with biology as a prerequisite.

“I think it’s really going to benefit our students not only with the content, but with the accessibility with the way the program works and (that these student can) get this opportunity to take these classes because we have (seen) a lot of interest in the medical field from our students here in Oxford,” said Janelle Lie, the course’s teacher while making a presentation on the class to the Board of Education on Aug 28.

Students can leave the class knowing how to take a temperature, take blood pressure, observe heart rate, use technology to document the care a patient receives and more.

Coupled with quizzes, tests, presentation and labs, this course will leave students with a NCHSE (National Consortium for Health Science Education) certification, which is something students can include on a resume and would look good on college applications.

“We want students to be able to perform what they’re learning,” Lie said. “So, it’s not necessarily about can (they) circle the right answer on a test, but can (they) show you that (they) can actually do it.”

Lie is looking forward to this semester’s diverse group of students and hopes students each semester can draw on their gender, race, religious, socioeconomic status and other life experiences to create a richer learning environment and compelling discussions for the everyone in the course.

“Having (diverse students) in our classes will improve the experience for everyone, because they’re going to bring those unique perspectives to our class,” she said.

The course is offered in both the fall and winter as two parts of a health sciences credit.