Students get handson experience at YRMC career camp
From listening to the simulated sounds of the heart to engaging in wellness activities, participants of the Yuma Regional Medical Center Health Care Career Camp got a chance to experience what it is like to work in the world of health care.
Every year, the YRMC Volunteer Services Department offers an exploration camp designed to provide an opportunity to students who are interested in a potential health care career.
The camp offers 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 the simulation models.
Students also get the chance to interact with various health care professionals and ask questions.
This year’s career camp began on July 17 and concluded on July 21. To participate in the camp, students were required to be a current and active student YRMC volunteer and they had to commit to attending four days of the camp.
Additionally, students were required to apply and submit an essay to become selected for the camp.
The Health Care Career Camp itself is free for volunteers. For the 2017 camp session, a total of 20 students participated ranging in age from 16 to 21.
“These are high school students through college,” said Elizabeth Hammonds, director of Volunteer Services at YRMC. “Typically we open it up for those age 15 years up to 21.”
According to Hammonds, the camp has been offered for close to a decade and is free of charge in order to involve as many students as possible who wish to pursue a career in health care.
“We want to make sure to allow every volunteer the opportunity to be involved in our health camp,” Hammonds noted. “Most volunteers that come in to work with us are interested in some type of health career. They don’t always know exactly what path to take, they just know that they want to take one in the medical field.”
Some campers, she added, may come into the camp with a career goal in mind.
“It’s interesting — sometimes they start off the camp knowing exactly what they want to do on Monday,” she said. “Come Thursday, at the end of the camp, they have changed their mind because they have been exposed to so many careers that they did not know anything about. It is pretty neat to be able to offer that and to really see their excitement to ask all the questions. It’s also neat to really just open their eyes to the fact that there are a lot of career opportunities in health care.”
She noted residents with the YRMC’s Family and Community Residency Program also get a chance to interact with the students during the camp and show them the path to become a doctor is “not always straightforward” as many doors of opportunity will open along the way. Moreover, she said, students get a chance to network with professionals and build connections.
Blás Gasca, a 16-year-old YRMC volunteer and participant of the camp, said the experience has shown him how many areas one can work within health care, such as within the border patrol and the fire department, as well learning about cardiology, a field he is interested in pursuing.
Initially, Gasca said he wished to become a doctor after he saw the care doctors gave to his younger sister who had health complications.
“I saw that and honestly they were kind of like heroes for me and really inspired me to help others,” he said.
For more information on YRMC Volunteer Services, visit https://www. yumaregional.org/ForThe-Community/Volunteer-With-YRMC/Volunteer-Opportunities or call 928-336-1105.