News Photo by Mike Gonzalez MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena nurse Mackenzie Precord, left, measures the blood pressure of Jamie Tolin, a technician under training, in a demonstration at the hospital on Thursday.

ALPENA — MyMichigan Health, the Midland-based owner of Alpena’s hospital, is looking into online school programs to partner with for medical assistance roles.

Colleen Markel, system director of workforce development and volunteer services at MyMichigan Health, said the program would give students in rural areas the opportunity to obtain a degree in medical assistance and, afterward, start a job with MyMichigan.

The program would consist of virtual lectures and modules. Through the partnership with MyMichigan Health, students would be given the chance to work one day a week in a MyMichigan clinic and practice their skills.

“They’d give patient support assistance at a surrounding clinic and get to know the other workers, along with the patients,” Markel said. “The rest of the week, students would go to school, but they can pick a day that works for them to work down at the clinic. We require eight hours a week, and it’s all paid work.”

Some of the tasks in a medical assistance role are getting vital signs from patients, hearing what the main issue is, reviewing the medical history of the person, and checking for any updates in health, medication, or other things that may be important for a doctor to know.

At the moment, a program called Grow Our Own is already in place with a partnership between MyMichigan Health and Mid Michigan College in the Mount Pleasant area.

The program does everything the planned online program is set to do, but students physically go to classes and labs rather than virtually attend.

“We also help with assistance in tuition for the program,” Markel said. “MyMichigan pays a portion of tuition up front and the student needs to get the rest. We also have students apply for financial aid in the case that they might get a scholarship or other money to help out.”

In August, MyMichigan Health announced the launch of a Grow Our Own Phlebotomy training program that started in October. It gave students the responsibility of drawing blood, labeling samples for the correct department, and more.

Mike Erickson, MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena president, said that a Grow Our Own medical assistance program is getting ready to launch soon, with the first couple of students ready to go through it.

“There’s just not a program that’s local,” Erickson said. “We’re competing against everybody for these finite resources. We’ve got to figure out how we do things differently. That means to recruit local, train local, so we can keep local.”

He also said the health organization has a high school diploma or GED requirement before hiring, but that it also provides a GED program, in which people are hired and paid while they obtain their diploma.

Markel said the virtual program is only in the beginning stages of development, with no set time for launching, but she said making a decision is leadership’s top priority.

“The most important thing to us is giving the best care to patients,” Markel said. “Patients are our north star, and we want anyone to come into our programs that is passionate about helping others.”