CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A health care specialist with Charleston Area Medical Center says most students preparing for college or the workforce may only think of nurses or doctors when pursuing hospital careers.
“What a lot of people don’t think of are all the other professions that are in a hospital,” Tatem Grimm told MetroNews. Those other professions include accounting, respiratory therapist, imaging, surgical services, nursing support, house keeping support, culinary, human resources and much more.
CAMC employees were at the Charleston Civic Center Tuesday to teach high school students from Kanawha and Putnam counties about the different career paths.
“There was a lot of individual things that I didn’t realize were in the medical field that are here,” said Briana Herdman, a senior at Poca High School. “There’s a lot of branches to everything.”
Jaycob Phillips, another senior at Poca, said he learned a lot about the pharmaceutical field.
“A lot of the things that they have here gives you a different perspective on things, like pharmacy. I thought pharmacy was just filling pill bottles, but going to hospitals and different things — you can experiment with a lot of different stuff,” Phillips said.
Herdman said she wants to become an aquatic veterinarian or a nurse with plans to study biology at Marshall University in the fall. Phillips plans to attend the University of Charleston as part of the physicians assistant program.
CAMC is one of the largest employers in West Virginia, Grimm.
“We have about 7,000 employees. Not all of them are doctors or nurses. That’s only a fraction of our employees,” she said.
At Tuesday’s career fair, students learned about the different opportunities available, scholarships and what it takes to succeed in the program whether that be a certificate program, two or four year degree.