MUSCATINE, Iowa — Roughly 70 Muscatine High School students got a peek at what working in a hospital is like.
On Friday, Feb. 10, they got to tour UnityPoint Health - Trinity Muscatine, pick health care professionals' brains and learn hands-on skills like CPR.
"They were talking with actual experts in that field. So they talked with nurses, they talked with NPs and PAs, and we had some MDs, and DOs as well as a radiology section," Advanced Care Planning Coordinator Tyler Baars said.
Sophomore Malik Perkins thinks he either wants to go into radiology or pharmacy.
"Well, today opened up the vast opportunities and options that I have in those fields," Perkins said. "The pay wages, I learned more about that and that was pretty interesting. I expected it to be a lot less, honestly."
Malik had not learned CPR until today, but he, along with other students, got over 20 minutes of practice. They also learned about inserting IVs and using an AED.
This program is part of the school's plan to facilitate learning outside of the classroom.
"Well, you could talk about a lot of things in the classroom, and what things are like," Muscatine School Counselor Brandon Welsch said. "But until you're in the actual job site and you get an opportunity to talk to those people in the job site, it's really hard to determine what exactly that profession is."
Having high school students visit is beneficial for UnityPoint Health because they hope it plants the seed for the students to come back once they graduate med school.
School counselors said there are a lot of students interested in mental health or physical therapy, and that Muscatine High School is working with UnityPoint Heath on future programs for those areas.
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