Students get glimpse of health care careers at 'Heroes' camp

Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College Professor Ken McKenney shows a group of Warren East freshmen and sophomores how to intubate and insert a breathing tube on a test dummy in the SKYCTC respiratory therapy lab during the Future Health Care Hero camp on Friday. Photos by Grace Ramey/grace.ramey@bgdailynews.com 

By IZZY LANUZA izzy.lanuza@bgdailynews.com 

River Himschoot, a junior at Franklin Simpson High School, dreams of being a surgical technician and was able to receive a glimpse of her future career at Bowling Green’s Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College on Friday.

SKYCTC hosted two “Future Health Care Hero” camps. They invited high school freshmen and sophomores to experience firsthand what to expect when entering an allied health or nursing program.

“Students know doctors and physical therapists but they don’t understand respiratory therapy, radiography, surgical technology,” said Dr. Angela Harlan, dean of Allied Health and Nursing. “A lot of them know nursing, which we have too, so it’s kind of just to get the word out about our programs, and to also help them understand the benefit of taking that dual credit in high school.”

Featured programs at the event were nursing, radiology, respiratory, therapy, surgical technologies and medical laboratory technology.

“I think students have really enjoyed it. I think they’ve been able to truly see and really connect to some of these programs that I don’t think they would have realized if they hadn’t come to the camp,” Harlan said.

Students participated in hands-on activities within each program. They got to practice taking each other’s blood pressure and using medical machinery such as a ventilator.

“I’m looking into being a surgical tech when I go to college, I am really thinking about going to SKYCTC. So when I saw that we were going to be doing all these things, I was interested,” Hipshot said.

Students also learned the requirements needed to apply to each program, along with how to obtain these prerequisites while still in high school.

“We targeted freshmen or sophomore students so that we can teach them about dual credits that they can take while they’re still in high school. So that they can actually apply to our Allied Health programs quicker straight out of high school instead of coming in and taking a year of general education,” Harlan said.

Many students have already started taking dual credit courses.

“I’ve taken a couple dual credit classes and I plan on taking more,” Himschoot said.

This is the first year that SKYCTC has hosted the camp. It received a $200,000 grant from the College of Postsecondary Education. Around $15,000 was used to host the “Future Health Care Hero” camps.

The rest of the grant went toward an emergency fund for students, the hiring of a dual credit Allied Health and Nursing Advisor, and program tutors.

—For more information, see https://southcentral.kctcs.edu.