CVIT nursing assistant program gives local students a head start in healthcare

For Anjanette Bolinger, teaching the next generation of healthcare professionals is more than a job; it’s a full-circle commitment to the Globe-Miami community that raised her. A 1997 graduate of Miami High School, Bolinger started her own career in 1998 as a nursing assistant at Cobre Valley Regional Medical Center, eventually earning a master’s degree in nursing education. Today, she balances life as a nurse, wife, mother of two, full-time nursing instructor at Gila Community College and longtime educator for the CVIT Nursing Assistant Program.

Bolinger has taught CVIT students since 2012, guiding high school sophomores through seniors from the communities of Globe, Miami, San Carlos, Hayden, Ray and Superior  through the critical first steps of a nursing career. 

“CVIT gives students every tool they need to succeed,” she says, covering tuition, uniforms, books, and clinical placement. “We’re able to train them young and give them that solid foundation from the very beginning.”

Her enthusiasm is rooted in what she calls “old-fashioned nursing,” the high professional standards she learned early in her own career. 

“We teach them empathy, professionalism, and how to care for someone when they are at their most vulnerable,” Bolinger explains. “Those lessons follow them for life, whether they go into nursing or not.”

Students begin the semester-long program with classroom instruction and hands-on training in simulated hospital labs. Once they have mastered essential skills, they complete 40 hours of clinical experience split between long-term care and hospital settings. Upon finishing the course, students are eligible to take the state exam to become licensed nursing assistants, a credential that allows many of them to begin working immediately in healthcare.

Over her 12 years of teaching, Bolinger has watched former CVIT students become registered nurses, nurse practitioners and even physician assistants. Others return to share how the program helped them care for aging grandparents or navigate a family medical crisis.

“That’s what makes this program so important,” Bolinger says. “Whether they stay here or go off to college, CVIT gives them a start. It opens doors, and sometimes, it brings them right back home.”