(Spirit Lake)– The Junior Volunteer Program will once again be held this summer at Lakes Regional Healthcare. Jennifer Gustafson, Vice President of Marketing and Retail Services at LRH, says it’s geared toward young people who may have an interest in going into a healthcare-related field…
“It’s not a shadowing type of experience, it’s more of a doing type of experience. You’re working right alongside the nurses, the physicians, the surgeons, everything. Really understanding what it’s like to work in healthcare. So for example, if you are an ER Junior Volunteer you basically assist the physicians, paramedics, nurses. You disinfect and change the rooms after a patient is discharged; you offer items to patients, you transport them, you re-stock supplies, you can go on ambulance calls. You can basically do anything that you don’t need any special education for.”
Gustafson says the program also involves the surgery area…
“The way they handle it in surgery is one week, you can of switch off every other week. One week you call and escort surgery patients into the surgery center, you turn over the surgery pre-op rooms, you kind of do the same things you do in ER but in the Surgery Department, but then in the opposite weeks you usually are in surgeries basically observing. It’s a really great opportunity for people that are interested in healthcare to see if they really do want to pursue healthcare. You have to be 16 years old by June 1st in order to be considered for the program, but you can otherwise be in high school or in college.”
Gustafson adds the program has seen a lot of success over the years…
“We’ve been doing this now, I think this will be our 11th summer that we’re doing this, and we have a lot of Junior Volunteers that have obviously been here before this and they have become nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, physicians, and more. We have a lot of them that are willing to talk to the new crop of Junior Volunteers to give them advice on how to go about entering the career. It’s a great networking opportunity as well.”
Up to 21 junior volunteers will be selected for the ER portion of the program and is limited to 5 on the surgery side.
The Junior Volunteer Program at LRH will run from June 1st through July 25th. Those selected will undergo an orientation and health assessment. An application and parental consent form can be found at lakeshealth.org/volunteer and must be submitted by April 17th.
