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A portion of Andrea's winning essay:
Throughout my childhood and high school career, I couldn’t seem to make
up my mind about what career path I wanted to choose. Although I always
knew I wanted a profession where I would be working with and helping
people, I had a difficult time narrowing it down from that broad
category. As my senior year in high school approached and it was time to
start applying to colleges, I started to feel the pressure to choose and
commit to a field. Due to a scheduling error my senior year of high
school, I became enrolled in Health Careers, a career technical program
offered to students that attended my school. Little did I know that the
two hours a day I would spend in the Health Careers class would come to
serve as the most powerful hours of my life. On my first day of class, I
anxiously drove to a local long term care facility which also housed the
classroom and lab for my health occupations class. Right away, we began
learning how to work with patients. We were educated on many important
health related ideas including HIPPA, how to approach a patient’s door,
how to properly don sterile gloves, mask, and gown, proper hand washing
techniques, ambulating, and vitals. We began practicing our newfound
skills on other students in the classroom. Eventually, we moved upstairs
onto the floors of the long term care facility for our first patient
interactions. We started off just visiting with the patients and worked
our way up to taking their vital signs. Not only did this class provide
me with an opportunity to learn the skills of a health related
profession, but guest speakers and required interviews introduced me to
a multitude of health professions. I came out of my interview with an OB
nurse with a fond new appreciation for what it takes to work in the
medical field. We also studied units on medical terminology and anatomy
to give students a taste of what schooling would be like for
undergraduates pursuing a medical degree. I loved every bit of what we
learned, but was nervous if I would be able to stomach the unpleasant
sights and smells that health professionals work with each day. When it
came time for our class to watch a live autopsy, I was petrified. After
finally finding the career field that seemed right for me, I didn’t want
to find out that I couldn’t handle it. The experience was life changing.
As I anxiously watched the procedure, I came to realize that not only
could I view it without feeling sick, but I was utterly fascinated by
the human body and what I saw. I decided then and there that no matter
what, I was going to study to become a health professional. In December,
we started the most rewarding part of the entire program – our
clinicals. Our teacher had set up something with the local hospital
that, for the rest of the year, twice a week, we would spend our two
hours of class time in the hospital or at various clinics around the
city instead, job shadowing and getting hands on experience in the
health field. After some research, I decided to request my internship in
respiratory therapy. Although I didn’t know much about the field, I did
know that respiratory therapists work with a variety of patients in all
areas of the hospital. It was the best way to get a taste of what it
would be like to work in any area of the hospital. Unfortunately, there
was only one student position available in this department. I was
interviewed and got the spot! While in the respiratory therapy
department, which was combined with the cardiopulmonary department at my
hospital,I was able to work with the same therapists each week. After observing
for a few weeks, the director of the department decided it was time for
me to “get my hands dirty.” Over the next five months, I truly was able
to experience work in a medical setting, which even furthered my
enthusiasm for the health field.
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