A former nurse turned teacher has spent the last 14 years preparing Brownwood High School students for what awaits them if they choose a career in Health Science.
Annalyn Deen teaches Health Science Theory, which includes Medical Terminology, to sophomores, Health Science Theory Clinical to juniors, and a Certified Nursing Assistant class to seniors.
“The class for the juniors that want to go into the Health Science field, they get to go out in the community and wear scrubs and shadow health care professionals,” Deen said. “The CNA class is for seniors who are interested in becoming nurses getting that base CNA layer in.”
Regarding which class she enjoys most, Deen said, “I don’t know if I could choose a most favorite. I like taking the kids out in the community and letting them interact with health care providers, seeing them decide if ‘yes, this is what I want to be or no thank you, I don’t want to do that for sure.’ That’s always entertaining. I love seeing the CNA students be successful in obtaining that certification when they’re not so sure they can do it. Seeing them succeed at the end is really nice.”
Deen also oversees HOSA – Health Occupations Students of America – which is a “student-led organization for all students from freshman to senior year,” Deen said. “It’s there to help support them and guide them in the health science path they’re interested in.”
Deen has spent her entire teaching career at Brownwood High School after working as a nurse in labor and delivery at Brownwood Regional Medical Center.
Regarding the decision to change careers, Deen said, “I became the mentor teacher on my unit in labor and delivery. We’d start teaching all the new incoming nurses orientating and doing those type things and that stirred the pot toward teaching. Then it was a leap of faith of that led me to teach at the high school level. My mom told me, ‘yes you can do this, this is something you can do and be very good at.’”
Deen added it didn’t take her long to adjust to the teaching field.
“In nursing we have to teach a lot to our patients on how to take care of themselves when they go home and different things,” Deen said, “so it naturally came to me, and my parents were teachers so it was really a pretty easy bridge for me.”
Deen is originally from Goldthwaite and graduated from Bangs, then attended Texas Tech and obtained a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She earned her teaching certificate during her first year at Brownwood High, and in 2020 she obtained a Masters of Education in Nursing from Western Governors University.
“The most rewarding part of teaching for me is student successes, whether it’s immediate and seeing them succeed in the classroom or obtain that certification, or post graduate when they come back and tell me they finally got it, I got my degree and I’m a nurse or a doctor,” Deen said. “Those things are pretty awesome to hear about.”
As for the role she plays in the lives of teenagers, especially serving as a gatekeeper to a potential career in the medical field, Deen said, “That’s really important and it really keeps me going. A lot of times you’ll hear teachers are hitting a lull after doing it for a while, and then one student will pop up and they’ll find you out of the blue and say I didn’t believe in myself but you believed in me and you’re the reason I am where I am. That’s very meaningful.”
Looking ahead to the future, what excites Deen about teaching is, “Seeing new faces and knowing there are students out there in the health care industry who are going to be successful because of the base layer and foundation I’m laying in high school.”
She and her husband Cody have three children, sons Hayden and Hudson and daughter Hannah.
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BrownwoodNews.com will highlight one Brown County educator per day in the month of July, based on nominations received on our Facebook page, for our Teacher Feature series.