Health Career Exploration Day Event Sponsored in Rock County
South Central WI AHEC and SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital-Janesville hosted a series of Health Careers Exploration Day events in Janesville throughout November and December 2016. The event provided many opportunities for 54 rural high school students to gain a better understanding of a career in health care in their own community. Students toured many departments on the SSM Health Janesville Medical Campus, including: Pharmacy, Cardiac/Pulmonary Rehabilitation, Radiation Oncology, Laboratory, Medical Imaging, Emergency Department, Sleep Center, Family Birth Center, Surgical Department, Inpatient Rehabilitation, and the Intensive Care Unit.
Students participated in roundtable discussions with professionals from many different departments on campus. The health care professionals shared their own paths to their current careers, provided academic advice, and answered questions from the students.
Students made the following statements regarding what they liked most about the event:
“seeing some new career choices that I didn’t know existed.”
“going behind the scenes.”
“hearing the different perspectives of various professionals.”
“this trip has definitely clarified that I would like to work in the medical field. Thank you for this opportunity.”
This event helped introduce the diverse career fields in health care that are available to high schools students with a focus on rural health care and its opportunities and challenges. Community partners that participated in this event were, Clinton High School, Evansville High School, Janesville Craig High School, Janesville Parker High School, Rock River Charter School, SSM Health, and South Central WI AHEC.