CLARKSDALE – An opportunity to become a Certified Nurse Aid and successfully complete the CAN program at Coahoma Community College with special shadowing and mentoring from health care professionals is being offered by the Nurse Mentorship Academy, according to Dr. Martha Catlette, vice president of CCC Health Sciences.

“The Academy is sponsored by the Kellogg and Dreyfus Health Foundations and targets youth aged 18 to 24 who are not working or who are working below their potential,” says Catlette.

Participants must be high school graduates or the equivalent, meet criminal background requirements, drug testing clearance, as well as TABE testing and other requirements, she continues.

The eight-week program runs from mid-October to mid-December and will be repeated in January 2010.

Catlette says the program is coordinated by the Mississippi Office of Nursing Workforce and includes shadowing opportunities at Northwest Regional Medical Center, and mentoring by Delta State University baccalaureate degree nursing students.

Interested applicants should call 662-621-4687.