Career research
Student volunteers attend exploration camp at YRMC
On Wednesday morning, a group of young students could be seen walking through the Emergency Department of Yuma Regional Medical Center.
Each year YRMC Volunteer Services Department offers the Health Care Career Camp designed to provide an opportunity to students who are interested in a potential health care career.
During the camp, students can engage in learning experiences meant to serve as a way to give students a peek at what certain health professionals do as well as offer hands-on demonstrations with simulation models.
Additionally, students also get the chance to interact with various health care professionals and ask questions.
This year, the career camp began Monday and concluded Friday. In order to participate in the camp, students were required to be a current and active student YRMC volunteer and had to commit to attending four days of the camp. Students were also required to apply and submit an essay on the significance of volunteering to become selected for the camp.
YRMC’s Health Care Career camp is free for volunteers. This year, a total of 20 students ranging in age from 15 to 22 participated.
According to Elizabeth Hammonds, YRMC director of volunteer services, the camp has been offered for many years. This year, the pool of students participating were either current students or graduates of Gila Ridge, Kofa, Cibola and San Luis high schools, she said.
“The biggest highlight is offering the students an op-
portunity to learn and to explore health careers,” she noted. “It’s an excellent opportunity for them to take advantage of. It really gives them an eye-opening view of different health careers that perhaps they haven’t heard of. I know every day they come in with an idea of what their career path will be.
“By the following day after they’ve heard other staff members speak and show passion in regards to their own chosen career, they start just having more of an open mind to other opportunities,” Hammonds added.
Omar Fierro, an 18-yearold camp participant who recently graduated from San Luis High school, said he initially became interested in pursuing a career in health care after he underwent kidney surgery at the age of 10. Now, he will be attending Arizona Western College in August.
Fierro endeavors to complete
the CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) program and to also eventually work as an EMT (emergency medical technician) or a paramedic. He has been volunteering at YRMC for three years.
“One of the key things that I have learned so far is whatever you like to do in the medical fields, pursue that goal and never give up,” he said during Wednesday’s session of the camp.
One of the best ways to get acquainted with a career in health care, Fierro noted, is to give one’s time.
“If people want to know what it’s like to be in the medical field, they can volunteer here at YRMC,” he said. “It’s a pretty fun experience with a lot of opportunities and the chance to meet a lot of people and make new friends.”
Fellow camper and 18-year-old Yesenia Lizarrha, who was the facilitator of Wednesday’s camp session, said she has been volunteering at YRMC for a year in the Emergency Department
and in the Corner Stork Café.
The recent Kofa High School graduate said she plans to attend AWC and then transfer to Northern Arizona University in her quest to become either an ER (emergency room) nurse or a pediatric nurse. Events in her past led her to the healthcare field, she noted.
“Ever since I got burn injuries, I have always been interested in the medical field,” Lizarrha said. “I thought why not volunteer here.”
YRMC EMS Coordinator Romeo Barcenas, who led Wednesday’s morning activities that covered careers in Emergency Services, noted that he had come full circle because he initially became interested in health care after participating in a similar program in his youth.
Ultimately, Barcenas said he hoped to show the students the many fields in healthcare, from working for a fire or police department in emergency medical
response situations.
“Medicine has many different sides to it,” he said. “Always have a second plan. You can want to be a doctor but there are other fields that will make you feel the same sanctification - maybe not the money - but the same type of services provided to the patient.”