AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — UCHealth and Aurora Science and Tech are partnering up to offer an opportunity for students to learn what a career in the field of medicine would look and feel like, with hands-on coursework in medicine at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.
They used Kool-Aid instead of blood and it was a classroom instead of an operating room. But it was a way of getting kids interested to work in the field of medicine.
“I would like to say it’s an exposure experience for students from UCHealth, getting a chance to learn how to stop a bleed, both with compression and with tourniquets,” Kryszelda Mendoza, AST high school director, said.
UCHealth recently invested $250,000 to create a brand new science and innovation lab at Aurora Science and Tech. Hands-on learning, internships, projects and studies are led by clinical teams from UCHealth.
“The goal for having a school like this is to provide experiences and educate students as to what you can do in the medical field.,” Mendoza said.
Eighth-grade students Adrian Rodriguez and Ivan Shigeta paid attention to the lectures and then applied pressure on the oozing Kool-Aid cuts.
“I enjoyed it because it helps me to learn survivor skills,” Rodriguez said.
But it wasn’t for everyone.
“I didn’t necessarily enjoy it, I felt like it was a necessity of things you need to learn, I feel like everyone should know how to do a tourniquet,” Shigeta said.
The idea is to expose the students to the possibilities of careers in medicine, there are more career paths out there than just those that lead to becoming a doctor or a nurse.
“We are looking at partnerships around some of the certification programs that we offer like phlebotomy and some of the tech level positions,” UC Health chief medical officer Dr. Jean Kutter said.
Preparing students to work in the medical field and perhaps, one day, to be medical leaders.
Source : https://kdvr.com/news/local/its-an-exposure-experience-uchealth-gives-students-hands-on-learning-opportunities/
