Deb Gross, an Advance Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) at Providence Centralia Hospital, goes over x-rays with a young girl as Meeghan Peters, a junior at Toledo High School, looks on at the hospital's emergency department on Wednesday morning.
Deb Gross, an APRN at Providence Centralia Hospital, applies a digital block — a numbing procedure to a finger — for a young girl who injured her finger as Meeghan Peters, a junior at Toledo High School, looks on during Mentor Day at the hospital on Wednesday.
Meeghan Peters, left, a junior at Toledo High School, goes over x-rays with Deb Gross, an APRN, during Mentor Day at Providence Centralia Hospital on Wednesday morning.
Meeghan Peters, a junior at Toledo High School, follows Deb Gross, an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) at Providence Centralia Hospital, during Mentor Day at the hospital on Wednesday.
Faith Frye, a senior at Napavine High School, looks on as Randi Bieker, an RN at Centralia Providence Hospital, takes a blood pressure reading of a patient complaining of migraines on Wednesday morning.
Instead of sitting in a classroom listening to a lecture, 13 local high school students had the opportunity to shadow medical professionals as they treated patients at Providence Centralia Hospital on Thursday.
“There is such a huge difference between classroom learning and hands-on learning,” said Cathleen Vodjansky-Ward, the assistant director of the TRiO program at Centralia College and one of the partners in the job shadow program.
For the first time, all the students were female, hospital Administrator Jill Cooper said.
“That is amazing to me,” Cooper said. “We have a group of intelligent and ambitious young women.”
As they head into the medical field, Cooper hopes they will come to work in the hospital.
Throughout the day, the young women had the opportunity to interact with people who have already accomplished many of the early goals they’ve set for themselves.
“Nursing is a field where a good instructor and good mentors can make the difference,” mentor and registered nurse Randi Bieker said. “I also want to be helpful to the next generation (of nurses).”
Napavine High School senior Faith Frye experienced firsthand what Bieker does each day. She knew from a young age she wanted to be a nurse because she has had health problems throughout her life.
“It made me want to help people with similar and different medical problems,” Frye said.
She watched as Bieker took care of a young woman who came into the emergency department. Bieker asked her question after question about her problems, but it never felt like she was berating the woman. Her voice remained low and comforting throughout the interaction, no sharp inflections or hard breaths. Bieker hoped to show Frye how rewarding nursing can be.
“You could be there for someone’s first breath or someone’s last,” Bieker said.
Next year, Frye will attend Centralia College where she will study nursing to become a prenatal nurse.
“I just like helping babies,” she said.
Also in the emergency department, W.F. West High School junior Zi Chen was able to shadow Dr. Monica Falconer as she treated her patients. In a few slow moments, the pair talked about how to become a doctor and what it is like to do so.
“I’ve known ever since I was little I wanted to be a doctor,” Chen said. “I really like how we can help people when they need it.”
For her mentor, Falconer, it is a chance to teach and help shape future doctors.
“I enjoy that I can share my enthusiasm for what I do with someone who may enjoy it,” she said.
At first, these job shadow opportunities were going to be part of a larger job fair, Cooper said. But it was going to be during flu season, making it irresponsible to have high school students in the hospital at that time, Cooper said.
The hospital has worked with Centralia College to offer this program the last three years.
All the students have passed background checks, have all the same vaccines as staff members and have signed confidentiality agreements so they can interact with patients.
