WYTHEVILLE, Va – There is a healthcare shortage all across the United States, but high school students in Grayson County, Carroll County, and Galax City Schools, they have an opportunity to learn about the healthcare industry.
“This is the Twin County Healthcare Excellence Program,” said Rebecca Fisher with the Mount Rodgers Regional Partnership. “We spend each week at different places allowing the students to explore different areas of healthcare.”
In high school, many students are starting to think about their future, and the Twin County Healthcare Excellence Program has helped students over the past two years learn more about the world of medicine.
“It’s a competitive program where students actually apply to participate in their sophomore year,” Fisher said.
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Fisher noted the program is designed to spark interest in healthcare for young people to help fill the jobs needed in the area.
“Students think they want to go into healthcare, and a lot of the time they hear nursing, doctor; they don’t realize all the opportunities that are available to them,” Fisher said.
Every Friday for eight weeks, students get hands-on experience in a different field in medicine.
“We get hands-on stuff. At school, we don’t get to do that that much,” said Abbie Barkley, a student in the program.
“My favorite day was the emergency services day,” said Yeili Urbana, another student in the program. “We got to learn a lot of things like stopping blood, gunshot wounds, lacerations; we used a tourniquet,”
“I want to go into labor and delivery,” added Reyna Velesquez. “That was really cool, and just watching them do that just made me more interested in wanting to go into that.”
The students said this program has helped them start to decide on possible future career paths.
