High school inside hospital readies students for healthcare careers

Dr. Akram Boutros, CEO of MetroHealth, was speaking to a group of 11th graders on a hospital field trip several years ago when one student asked how he got his job. He asked them to guess. “Luck?” one student ventured. “The concept of a career was foreign to them,” he recalled in a recent interview in his office. In most Cleveland counties, the employment rate is higher than the national average. “They’re not exposed to many opportunities and don’t know how to get to opportunities.”

That exchange inspired him to propose locating a public high school on MetroHealth’s campus, so students could interact with all types of hospital professionals and do internships. He knew of no other hospitals in the country that had done this.

The project was part of his public safety-net hospital’s broader commitment to improving the community’s health by addressing social factors including education and job opportunities.

After he proposed it, “every objection you can think of, we heard,” Boutros said with a wry smile, recalling warnings about siphoning money away from healthcare and the risks of teenagers interacting with adults.

Boutros pushed ahead anyway. In partnership with MetroHealth, the Cleveland public school system opened the Lincoln-West School of Science and Health in 2015, less than a mile from the hospital in a heavily minority, lower-income neighborhood on Cleveland’s west side. In 2016, the hospital converted a corridor of nursing education rooms into classrooms for Lincoln-West students.

Now, 105 juniors and seniors, nearly half of whom are English-language learners, take all their classes at the in-hospital campus, just off the hospital’s main lobby. They shadow and are mentored by physicians, nurses, therapists, IT specialists, attorneys, fundraisers, supply chain leaders, electricians and other hospital staffers. During their senior year, they do an internship in a hospital department, concluding with a “senior capstone” project presentation.

Freshman and sophomores study at the high school’s other campus, visiting the hospital monthly for career talks.

In traditional high schools, you can tell students that they can be this or that, but it doesn’t feel real to them. Having conversations with professionals makes it real and attainable.”

Michelle Hughes, Principal Lincoln-West High School (above) with student Zachariya Abdullah

Teachers create projects on healthcare issues, such as Native American healthcare access. There’s a “white coat” ceremony when students begin mentorships. The school and hospital are now fundraising for a $250,000 student chemistry lab at the MetroHealth campus. This past June, 95% of the school’s first class of 20 graduated, with all of them going on to college and many preparing for healthcare careers.

“I didn’t know anyone working in healthcare,” said Zachariya Abdullah, a 16-year-old junior who came to the U.S. from Iraq. He was beaming because he had received his U.S. citizenship just before being interviewed for this article. “I wanted to become a nurse, and being here at this school gives me lots of opportunities and experience to join the medical field.” Michelle Hughes, Lincoln-West’s principal, said her students benefit from regular contact with MetroHealth professionals. “In traditional high schools, you can tell students that they can be this or that, but it doesn’t feel real to them. Having conversations with professionals makes it real and attainable.” She added that MetroHealth staff are enthusiastic about working with the students, and the school often gets more volunteers than it needs.

When classes end for the day, the students are quiet and orderly in the hallway, unlike in typical high schools. “It’s like night and day between here and the other campus,” Hughes said. “Working with professionals sets high expectations.”

Eric Gordon, the Cleveland schools superintendent, said Lincoln-West’s in-hospital campus is part of his system’s broader effort to partner with business, research and healthcare organization to provide students with a career orientation.

Another public high school, the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine, has students doing internships with physicians and scientists at the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University.

Gordon said he really enjoyed watching Lincoln-West students go through the same training MetroHealth medical professionals receive in examining a mechanical patient, observing how they responded when the “patient” moaned.

“Not only has Dr. Boutros championed this great opportunity, but all the people who work with him see these kids as their kids and are making sure they succeed,” Gordon said.

In the longer term, the on-campus school could directly benefit MetroHealth. “It’s part of our workforce development strategy,” said Tiffany Short, the system’s director of culture and organizational effectiveness. “Those students hopefully will come work for us.”

Boutros hopes the Lincoln-West experience will inspire similar partnerships. “I urge every anchor institution to do this,” he said. “The staff loves it, you are collectively improving lives, and you are creating lifelong customers.”