WHEELING — Wheeling Park High School has retooled its class in sports medicine and athletic training, and is now offering an overall introduction to medicine class.

Instruction begins this fall. About 25 students have signed up for the fall semester of the introduction to medicine class, while about that many also enrolled for the second offering during the spring semester, according to teacher Jennifer Hempelmann.

Hempelmann in recent years at WPHS taught anatomy practicum — a course focusing on sports medicine and athletic training practices.

The course, however, wasn’t particularly popular with students. She reported just four students enrolled last year.

“The course was designed around students who wanted to be athletic trainers, and the interest isn’t there anymore,” Hempelmann said. “We had very few students taking it, so I approached my department and the administrative principal about switching gears and making it open to all medical fields instead of just sports medicine and athletic training.

“I’m hoping to design it around students who are interested in either med school, nursing or veterinary school — anything related to the medical field — just so they can have a taste of what medicine is.”

She noted it was about three years ago that WPHS eliminated the nursing program at the school. It covered medical terminology and nursing skills.

“Now we have nothing, so we really don’t have anything anymore for students going into medicine,” she said.

Hempelmann plans to provide instruction in how to document patient encounters, how to take vital signs and provide a basic overview to medical careers.

“I also have to cover some of the other various avenues they can go into and what fields are available if they don’t know quite where they want to go,” she continued. “What would nursing entail? What is a physician’s assistant? Or the different fields they could go into?”

Hempelmann said she will do “about a week” on topics focussing on athletic training and sports medicine, “but it will not be in depth like it was.”

The course is all brand new, and Hempelmann sees teaching the class “being trial and error” during the first year.

She foresees additional medical-related classes if the administration is open to it, and no additional budget cuts have to occur.

Hempelmann has a degree as a physician’s assistant from Duquesne University, and worked six years in the profession.

She also has a degree in education from West Liberty University.

“I would like to incorporate some of that experience into the courses,” she added.

The introduction to medicine class is presently an elective at WPHS. Hempelman hopes to elevate its standing to become a dual credit option, where students can earn both high school and college credits for completing the class.

If successful, she sees the class as becoming a “College at Park” option in the future through WLU, as she is certified to teach college-level classes.

“I’m hoping to get more students interested in the medical field — particularly females. Females are underrepresented in STEM fields,” Hempelmann said. “That’s a goal of mine, and what I wrote my master’s thesis on.”