Health care workers of tomorrow visit MCH
<p>Students see a demonstration of the machine that performs CAT scans at the Mineral Community Hospital.</p>
SUPERIOR – The potential next generation of health care workers took a tour of the Mineral Community Hospital last week to see what they may be in for if they decide to pursue a career in a growing field that needs qualified employees.
Mostly comprised of sophomores from Superior, St. Regis and Alberton high schools, students donned scrubs before entering the operating room, CAT scanned a turkey and participated in a variety of other activities designed to introduce them to the experience of working in a hospital.
Organized through the University of Montana’s Research and Explore Awesome Careers in Healthcare (REACH) program, the event served as a way to recruit students who have expressed an interest in health care. REACH Coordinator Martha Robertson said the program gives students an opportunity to see the wide variety of possibilities of working in health care.
“This gives students hands on exposure to health care fields,” Robertson said. “They break up into teams and go to all the various departments and get to try their hands on the equipment and various materials. They get to talk with the professionals who tell them about the different career pathways so they know what type of education they need.”
Robertson said, in the future, there would be a critical need for qualified individuals to take health care positions. She said, because the field is constantly expanding and technology is consistently improving, the opportunities for employment in health care is consistently growing.
“Currently, there are annually 1,300 jobs opening just in the state of Montana in health care fields,” Robertson said. “We don’t have enough youth in our state to fill those positions. We want them (students) to discover that even if they don’t want the blood and guts, they can go into other fields like administration or food service or public relations. Thirty percent of the jobs in this hospital have nothing to do with direct patient care.”
According to Robertson, because the health care field is growing at such an advanced rate, she predicted many positions that could become available have yet to be created.
“Close to 40 percent of the jobs that will be available don’t even exist yet,” Robertson said. “Technology is moving so fast that we don’t even know the current path things will take.”