Wednesday, May 29, 2002
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Wednesday, May 29, 2002 |
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Hospital partnership gives students hands-on experience in health-care occupations
When Barbara Phillips, RN, was hired to develop health occupations courses at Starr's Mill High School three years ago, she was determined to give her students a realistic overview of the industry, including the various careers that are available in the field. Now, through a partnership between the school and Fayette Community Hospital, students are not just learning about healthcare jobs, they are experiencing them first-hand. For two hours, two days a week, third-year students, both juniors and seniors, in Phillips' Health Occupations III course journey to the hospital to job-shadow employees and learn about different health related occupations. Every three weeks students are assigned to a different area of the hospital and are paired with bedside professionals who not only explain their job roles but also allow the students to follow them through their normal work routine. "The goal of this program is to expose students to all aspects of healthcare, to help them see that healthcare offers numerous choices such as nursing, physical therapy, respiratory therapy, information systems, etc. The goal is to show health occupations 360 degrees," said Phillips. The clinical component of the program supplements the didactic learning of the classroom. Students take what they learn in class and see how it is applied in an actual healthcare setting. As part of the program, students are required to keep a journal so that they can reflect on their experiences and discuss them in class. "The first time I went to the hospital and saw blood it made me feel sick but I quickly got over it. Now I know that I want to help people; I want to help save lives," said senior Brandi Wise, who plans to pursue a career as a surgical technician after graduation. By participating in the program, students are learning that it takes many different people working together to provide quality healthcare to the community. Senior Christine Gisler says that prior to the program she never realized the number of people who are involved in a patient's care. "The experiences at the hospital have helped me realize the true meaning of teamwork and the hard work of healthcare providers," she added. Not only is the job shadowing program helping students learn about the different careers in healthcare by giving them a realistic overview, it is also aiding them in deciding whether a health occupations career is the right choice for them. Some students admit that by participating in the program they have ruled out careers that they probably would have pursued otherwise. "I like going to the hospital. There are some areas that I don't like and this experience has helped me to see that. I'm not sure about my career yet, but I'm thinking of something that has to do with the hospital," said junior Shelby Marr. The students are not the only ones benefiting from the school's partnership with the hospital, so are the hospital's staff. Cathy Churbock, RN, MSN, CCRN, staff educator at Fayette Community Hospital and coordinator of the job-shadowing program, says that the staff finds it exciting to see the fresh, young perspective of the students. "Their enthusiasm and innocence really makes the staff feel important because the students are just in awe with seeing what all they do to take care of our patients," explained Churbock. Another plus for the hospital is that it is identifying potential future healthcare workers. According to Churbock, a nursing shortage is already effecting the healthcare industry and recruiting people into the field is essential. "We need healthcare workers and we need to recruit our youth into these positions. We are a community hospital and we want to be able to pull from the community for our staffing needs," said Churbock. Due to its success, both Phillips and Churbock say they plan to continue the job-shadowing program next year. Phillips says it has been a valuable component to the health occupations curriculum. "The biggest benefit is that it puts students into real life situations. We can talk about various jobs and situations in class but what we learn has more impact if we can literally experience it," Phillips added.
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