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 For Immediate Release
January 26, 2007
Students Explore Health Care Careers at Mercy
Oklahoma City — More than 600 high school students
explored health care careers today at Mercy. The popular Mercy Health
Career Exploration Day, now in its fifth year, gave area students a
chance to learn about a wide variety of job opportunities.
“Students often think that a career in health care
is limited to being a doctor or a nurse, but there are so many
opportunities in health care today,” said Kerri Beasley, RN, Mercy
recruitment coordinator. “This event isn’t a lecture or some boring
intro into health care; this is an exciting hands-on experience for
students to see what they would get to do in a health care career. We
don’t just tell them about it, they get to see it up close.”
 Students couldn’t agree more.
“I got to actually touch a real pig’s lung,” said
Melissa Banks, a junior at Yukon High School. “Six years ago I decided I
wanted to be a nurse. Today is going to give me a lot of hands-on. I
didn’t know that we’d get to do so much.”
For both Tia Bishop and Lindsey McGehee, seniors at
Putnam City North, today was a day to see what’s available. Both have
already decided on careers in the medical field, but narrowing it down
is the dilemma.
“I’m here to look at all the different options,”
said Bishop.
Whether it was actual hands-on experience or getting
a chance to talk to real-life health care professionals, the career day
provided students with lots of information. “I’m here to try and figure
out what field of medicine I want to go into,” said Brenda Luttrell, a
junior at Mount St. Mary’s. “I used to want to be a doctor but I want to
have lots of kids some day so I don’t want to go to school forever. But
I know I want to do something in the medical field.”
Studies have shown that the level of health care
awareness among youth today is low. In order to educate students, Mercy
provided the exploration day to the following high schools: Students
from the following high schools are planning to attend: Chandler,
Choctaw, Crescent, Edmond Memorial, Edmond North, Edmond Santa Fe,
Emerson, Harrah, Luther, Millwood, Mount St. Mary’s, Norman North,
Northeast Academy, Putnam City, Putnam City North and Yukon. Also in
attendance: Chisholm Trail Technology Center, Eastern Oklahoma County
Technology Center and Francis Tuttle.
Students didn’t just receive lots of information.
They also talked one-on-one with a radiology technician, pharmacist,
physical therapist, nurse, respiratory therapist, medical technologist
and many more professionals.
“We want students to see the range of what is
available in health care, everything from patient care to the very high
tech,” said Cathy Withiam, Mercy’s vice president of human resources.
“Many students found the experience invaluable because they were able to
see firsthand how numerous the opportunities are in health care. Some
students who were thinking about another career decided on health care
by the day’s end.”
Students also talked with representatives from local
institutions that provide health care education including: Francis
Tuttle, Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City, Rose State College,
Southwestern Oklahoma State University, University of Central Oklahoma
and The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. For more
information on career opportunities at Mercy, go to
www.mercycareers.net.
“Today, students got a taste of what it would be
like to save someone’s life by using shock paddles on a dummy,” Beasley
said. “They also got to see how an actual scope is used to see inside a
stomach. We had dozens of booths for students to explore.”
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