During the camp, students can explore future health care professions such as nursing, physicians, research scientists, and exercise science specialists.
INDIANAPOLIS – Reya Dukes is an upcoming senior at Pike High School and dreams of taking up nursing. She loves how the human body works.
“I think it’s just intriguing, you know, how we can do all these things and do all these tasks and why not know why,” Dukes said. “And you’re helping people in the process, so it’s just cool.”
Dukes joined other high school students in central Indiana this week at a health care camp at Marian University. The camp allows high school students to explore future health care professions such as nursing, physicians, research scientists, and exercise and sports science specialists.
Students gained hands-on experience in a hospital-like environment, with rooms resembling doctors’ offices, an emergency room, and more.
“I try to take the opportunity I get and just go with it,” Dukes said.
On Thursday, students watched a medical simulation of a cardiac arrest patient.
“When I first saw it, I thought, ‘Wow, this is a lot!’ But it’s pretty fun to watch, that’s what the doctors are dealing with,” said Leon Baumer, a prospective senior at Noblesville High School.
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This is the second annual Healthcare Camp at Marian University.
“We pitched to the Tom Wood Family Foundation two years ago as we struggled to increase the number of diverse students, those who come from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds in the health professions, especially our medical school and our nursing school, said Clint Whitson, assistant dean of student affairs at Marian University. “We believe that the pool of candidates we are trying to attract is too small, so we want to do our part to build our own pool here locally.”
Whitson said students never sit for more than 30 minutes during camp.
“I took notes in all the sessions I could,” Dukes said.
“It’s really cool to see different kinds of medical careers,” Baumer said. “As if I never knew there was an endocrinologist and the difference between an osteopathic way of medicine and allopathic medicine. I never thought of that.”
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Students were also required to perform clinical skills such as splinting broken bones or assisting with basic diagnostic sports medicine exams.
“We’re learning about asthma today and mental health other days,” Dukes said. “They’ve helped us learn more about suicide prevention because it’s an area of health care that needs to be talked about more. There are so many different aspects of health care that aren’t talked about, different areas that people don’t know about, so they just went deeper into that.”
The camp lasts until Friday.
“I’m a little sad that it’s coming to an end, but with that I can use and hopefully apply the information I’ve learned to say, ‘Okay, is this what I really want to do,'” Baumer said.
One day, these teens could be America’s future nurses and doctors.