CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Over 1,200 area high school students are being introduced to healthcare career paths beyond just doctors and nurses– from clerical to technical opportunities to much more.
Charleston Area Medical Center was host to its 7th annual Healthcare Career Showcase Wednesday for more than 35 high schools from around the region, as well as area colleges and higher learning institutions.
It was a chance for representatives from over 55 CAMC departments to talk to the students about those career opportunities and provide them with the relevant resources pertaining to them.
CAMC Talent Acquisition Specialist Brianna Chin said the students are introduced to the careers and then encouraged to get started on the path towards those jobs that very same day.
“Students can explore the vast opportunities available to them at a hospital, and after they’ve explored all of those opportunities they can stop by the booths of the colleges and universities to see what opportunities are available to them there,” said Chin.
There were several West Virginia higher education institutions on-hand Wednesday offering the academic programs needed for many of the hospital jobs.
Walking from booth to booth at the large event, which was held at the Charleston Colosseum and Convention Center, students learned about the vast majority of clinical careers as well as those that are non-clinical.
Chin said this wide-range of career opportunities includes IT, security, supply chain, accounting, clerical, law, and many more.
“We have nutrition services, dietary, linin, housekeeping, all of the way up to respiratory therapists, nursing, anything that you can think of that’s in a hospital,” she said.
Students were provided with a “road map” explaining everything needed to work in a particular career field, including education requirements, licensures, certifications, and what schools offer what.
Two 11th grade St. Albans High School students at Wednesday’s career showcase, Macie Reed and Ali Long, already had a healthcare career path in mind, and are both currently attending Ben Franklin Career Center for Medical Assisting. Reed said why she chose this career path.
“I chose it because I like to help people and I just felt like it would be a really good career path for me to go down,” said Reed.
While they felt certain the medical field is where their future lies, Long said it was still important for them to be there to see all of the opportunities available to them within the medical field they could pursue, as well it being an important event for all of the students to attend.
“It gives you an idea of what you may like and what schools you can apply to to get the education you want,” she said.
Long said it’s still a good event to participate in even if many students may be on the fence about considering the medical field at all.
“Even if you don’t end up going to any of these colleges or any of these careers, you still have an idea of what you would like and what you wouldn’t like,” Long said.
Chin said CAMC receives positive feedback for the event every year from high school guidance counselors as well as from college administration, who claim the event even helps with increasing their enrollment numbers.
She said it works because it recognizes the importance and impact of laying out all of the clinical and non-clinical medical field opportunities before the students prior to their high school graduation.
“There are students who aren’t interested in being a nurse or being a doctor, but they may be interested in IT or in marketing, or if they are interested in that clinical side of things but they are not quite interested in nursing, then there are respiratory therapists, I mean, the opportunities are endless for them,” Chin said.
She said they’ve even now made the event a contest where the students are able to vote for their favorite unique and most interactive booth which the CAMC representatives are encouraged to create.