Area high school students learn healthcare through real-world applications

By Rebecca Bell
Dean of Community Relations & Special Events

When the F. Marie Hall SimLife Center at Midland College was built in spring 2012, it was seen as a collaborative learning environment for Midland College students, Texas Tech University Health Sciences students and Midland Memorial Hospital employees; however, a younger group of students is also participating in classes at the Center.

Through a partnership between the Area Health Education Consortium and Midland Memorial Hospital, Permian Basin high school students have the opportunity to gets hands-on training in various health careers.  The program, entitled Youth Health Services Corps, allows high school students an opportunity to attend extracurricular classes, seminars and workshops, as well as shadow healthcare professionals.

On Thursday, July 26, the high school students were special guests at the F. Marie Hall SimLife Center at Midland College and participated in various medical training scenarios, including a simulated exercise involving a patient having a seizure.

Center Director Lea Keesee programmed one of the Center’s sophisticated manikins to exhibit neurological symptoms, and the high school students made bedside observations and reported the symptoms to Keesee and Kim Kincaid, executive secretary of PCS Administration for Midland Memorial Hospital.  After going through the exercise, students were given the opportunity to “debrief” with Keesee in one of the Center’s conference areas.

“This was really awesome!” said 15-year-old Amanda Bell, a sophomore at Greenwood High School.  “The manikin patients were so life-like—their eyes blinked, they breathed, and they spoke to us about how they were feeling.  One of our manikin patients even started to shake his left hand and arm when he was seizing.  Going through the simulated exercise helped me realize the importance of making sound assessments.  I think this experience will help me properly react when I am put in similar situations in real life.  My goal is to be a medical doctor, so this was a great learning experience for me.”

Standing from left to right are Youth Health Services Corps students and mentors:  Yara Carrasco, Midland High School 12th-grader; Alexandra Rodriguez, Odessa High School 10th-grader; Amanda Bell, Greenwood High School 10th-grader; Kim Kincaid, Midland Memorial Hospital executive secretary of PCS Administration; and Lea Keesee, director of the F. Marie Hall SimLife Center at Midland College