How to Grow your Passion for Healthcare as a Teen
Today, women have generated 80% of the overall growth in health care since the beginning of the 20th century (Day & Christnacht, 2019).
This is so important and shows that women are at the forefront of our world’s health care endeavors. The future of medicine and healthcare seems to be in the hands of women and that’s an amazing thing. Women are becoming more empowered and involved in STEM, as they pursue science degrees and full-time health care jobs.
For young women trying to prepare themselves for a health care career, it can seem overwhelming to try to gain any experience as a teenager. It can be daunting to consider a health care career while having no exposure in it, exposure you most likely won’t receive until college.
Here are a few opportunities for teens aspiring to enter a medical or health care field.
CAMPS
As a high schooler, hospitals, offices, and clinics may not want someone underage working or volunteering in their place of work. This is usually due to liability issues. One way to get around this obstacle is to attend camps involving the field you wish to pursue. Many universities offer summer camps that involve medicine or health care fields! Here are a couple below, but make sure you check with the universities close to you, to see if they offer any summer programs or camps for you to attend.
Through partnering with the Harrison School of Pharmacy, Auburn Youth Programs offer a summer camp for rising 11th and 12th graders as well as upcoming college freshmen who are interested in pharmacy. At this camp, you will get to learn in a hands-on setting through computational labs, visiting local pharmacies, and learning from upcoming practitioners. This camp is a great way to learn more about the pharmacy profession.
This program allows you to spend four weeks at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine as a high school junior or senior. Through this camp that’s modeled after actual Penn Medicine classes, you’ll be able to see what it’s like as a student in med school at Penn! You’ll also learn skills such as suturing, drawing blood, and much more. This program exposes you to a hands-on method that most people don’t get until medical school or future internships.
Moving away from human medicine, one thing that’s offered is veterinary medicine camps! This camp allows you to live on campus for a week while you learn more about the veterinary medicine field. During this camp, you will get to learn with veterinary students and professors as you partake in mock classes and labs. Through this camp not only do you get hands-on experience, but you also get to participate in a community service project during your week at the camp.
These are just three examples but the opportunities are out there if you search for them. Completing a simple google search should come up with thousands of responses on summer camps or programs offered in your area. Even if you aren’t interested in the three fields above, there are probably still opportunities to attend a camp for the career you are passionate about!
INTERNSHIPS
Though it’s important to realize that internship opportunities for high schoolers may be less abundant, it is still important to look out for them. If you are interested in veterinary medicine, bring a resume to your local veterinary office and drop it off! Ask to speak to one of the veterinarians working that day, and explain to him or her what you are looking for and give them a resume. If they are open to having a student shadowing, they will keep you in mind.
In addition, there are plenty of internships that are available for students at hospitals. These are not always available locally but they can offer experiences that you would not get otherwise as a student. One example of an internship that’s provided is the high school summer internship offered at the Cincinnati Children’s Hosptial. This is an eight week paid internship for graduating high school seniors. You will be able to see what working in a hospital is like, and gain experience that will impact you.
Expand Your Knowledge!
Lastly, the best way to learn more about your field is to expose yourself to it. If you’re interested in becoming a dermatologist, there are numerous tv shows, academic journals, and education youtube channels you have access to. There are plenty of shows about veterinarians as well, that show their daily lives at the clinic. What I’m saying, basically, is that technology has offered you a plethora of resources for you to become acquainted with. Use them! Camps and internships aren’t always accessible to everyone and that’s okay. But, in your own free time, you can certainly read and watch things online that give you a more comprehensive view of your future in health care.
