MALONE — The Alice Hyde Medical Center in Malone hosted 12 students from across the North Country for MASH, or the Medical Academy of Science and Health, camp this week.
The program at Malone’s hospital provides high school students with firsthand and behind-the-scenes experiences in a health care setting, according to a press release from Alice Hyde, part of the University of Vermont Health Network.
A dozen students from schools across Franklin County and the surrounding area took part in this week’s camp, according to AHMC, and the event was organized through the Northern Area Health Education Center, gives young people who have expressed an interest in pursuing careers in health care the chance to observe a wide variety of clinical departments in action, and interact with experienced health care workers who have spent years caring for patients.
Middle and high school students from across the north country visited Alice Hyde Medical Center in Malone last week, where they spent an afternoon visiting with clinical departments throughout the hospital as part of a MASH camp organized through the Northern Area Health Education Center. Provided photo
“Anyone who’s interested in a career in health care at the high school level, we have to do everything we can to attract them and engage them and get them excited about it, so they pursue that interest,” Deb Beach, director of education at Alice Hyde, said in the release.
As hospitals and rural communities across the region continue to grapple with a nationwide health care workforce shortage, hospital leaders and educators see finding innovative ways to engage students with an interest in health care as a critical step in revitalizing career pipelines that will produce the next generation of health care workers.
Beach, who spent more than a decade as the nurse manager of Alice Hyde’s emergency department before taking on her current role, led a CPR training simulation for the student group in Alice Hyde’s Clinical Simulation Lab, according to AHMC.
Anant Bansal, a junior from Potsdam, performs chest compressions on a mannequin during a CPR training session for students participating in a MASH camp earlier last week at Alice Hyde Medical Center in Malone. Provided photo
The lab is home to three advanced clinical training mannequins which are capable of simulating a wide variety of routine and emergent clinical events from heart attacks and strokes to mother-baby medical issues and emergencies, the release said.
Students in this week’s camp were from high schools across the region, including Franklin Academy, Brushton-Moira, St. Regis Falls, Salmon River, Potsdam High School, A.A Kingston Middle School, and Northeastern Clinton Central.
“It is fantastic seeing a group of students so interested in what we do at Alice Hyde each day, and eager to jump in and get hands-on experience with things like CPR training,” Tina Andrews-Perry, coordinator of student and volunteer services at Alice Hyde, said in the release.
During the day-long MASH camp, students also visited the hospital’s emergency department, laboratory, pharmacy, cardiopulmonary services and cardiology departments, radiology, and inpatient rehabilitation clinics as well as meeting with member of Alice Hyde’s Patient and Family Experience team and a pediatric nurse, the release said.
Students listen as a member of UVM Health Network – Alice Hyde’s inpatient rehabilitation care team describes the department’s clinical operations and work with patients in conjunction with the hospital’s Swing Bed Program, an aspect of inpatient care that is unique to Critical Access Hospitals including Alice Hyde. Provided photo
“When I talk with these students, I hear that they aspire to help people, make a difference in their communities, and want to be inspired by the work they do each day,” Andrews-Perry said in the release, “That passion, compassion and drive to make a positive impact on those around us are the qualities that make incredible health care professionals and we are thrilled to be a part of their journey as they explore the many careers open to them.”
