Almost 150 Hall County high school students experienced different ways they could help their community with a career in healthcare at the inaugural Health Careers Symposium at the Gainesville campus of the Northeast Georgia Medical Center.
The health-science students were able to tour departments in the hospital, see demonstrations of high tech equipment and speak to representatives from the field to learn more about each one.
"This is amazing! I really, really love this. It helps me figure out what I want to do in the future," said Joshua Lopez, a Johnson high school junior after a short session learning about Labor and Delivery and NICU. "At first, I was really liking radiology. But now I actually kind of want to do labor and delivery, helping women with their babies and stuff."
Students touring departments were able to engage with a simulator in the simulation lab. The robot is able to simulate breathing, a pulse and even pregnancy and birth.
"We can see how the mannequins react to things, how they sweat, you can feel the pulse, they're basically like real people, which is really cool," said senior Alondra Rondan. "I knew they had real mannequins but I didn't know they worked like this and kind of makes me think, oh wow, we can help better how we live and things like that."
Other tours included the pharmacy, radiology and imaging and the emergency department.
The symposium was in its first year at NGMC, however it is coordinated by Foothills Area Health Education Center (AHEC) which has put on several symposiums elsewhere in the area.
"All of these students are in Hall Count public high schools and they're in health science classes," said Teresa Davis, Health Careers Coordinator for Foothills AHEC. "I'm passionate about it because very, very few students have guidance in choosing a career... so this is one of the ways we can explore what they think they want to do."
Click through some photos from the symposium are in the gallery above.
