Cedar Rapids Washington students check in to hospital careers

This April, Cedar Rapids Washington HS students Cheyenne Wright, Kaitlynn Meyers, Sha'Bria Cyrus, Ashley Quaid and Jillian Beer found out that there's a healthy future in hospital careers. St. Lukes Hospital and Mercy Medical Center partnered with the Workplace Learning Connection to provide small group job shadows for 137 teens from 24 area high schools.

Both Mercy Medical Center and St. Lukes Hospital rallied their staff to support work-based learning for these students. Over 50 hospital staff volunteered to spend part of their day, each hosting a few teens, giving them an up-close and personal view of their department, the daily tasks they perform, the education and training required for their position, while most worked some hands-on learning into the experience as well.

At Mercy Medical, Cheyenne job shadowed part of the day in the Pharmacy, while Sha'Bria shadowed a nurse in the residential nursing Hallmar Center to learn the ropes of customer care and how to work with geriatric patients. Ashley and Jillian saw a more technical side of hospital health careers in the Cardiovascular Lab and the Pulmonary department. Kaitlynn followed a nurse through various departments, including the Mercy Birthplace.

At St. Lukes, Mercedes Miranda and Jordan Carr job shadowed in the Physical Therapy gym, learning about the various equipment therapists use with rehab patients and even getting a chance to see some PT work getting done with in-hospital clients.

C.R. Washington High School encourages their students to participate in job shadows with the Workplace Learning Connection, knowing that work-based learning as a valuable tool for post-high school planning and success. If you want to know more about the career exploration opportunities available to area school-aged students, log on to www.workplace-learning.org.