'The next generation of health care workers' gets behind -the-scenes look at Cleveland Clinic Avon

AVON — Students from Clearview and Avon Lake high schools donned clean room coveralls to get a behind-the-scenes look at operations at Cleveland Clinic Avon's campus Wednesday morning. Five students from each school spent most of their day touring the hospital, following a faux patient and fellow classmate's journey through admissions, to a makeshift operating room, to post-op and beyond as part of a student experience program at the hospital. Cleveland Clinic Avon President Dr. Rebecca Starck said the program aligns with the hospital's mission to connect with its community beyond just providing inpatient health care. "We've had a lot of networking with local school superintendents and obviously with the pandemic that put a halt to the ability for us to bring students in, various shadow experiences. As we started hearing more and more from the schools when things started opening back up we thought, 'We need to do something that's Avon-Hospital centric, almost an immersion program, if you will." Now, once a month students from high schools throughout the county spend about four hours tracing a simulation patient through the hospital's winding halls and departments, from the emergency department to radiology, surgery and beyond. "These students can basically be exposed to all of the different areas in the hospital. … The idea is that it's exposing them to all of the aspects of health care and they can go to the outpatient facility and understand what that looks like as well. Our goal is really to inspire the next generation of health care workers," she said. Clearview High School teacher Marie Ternes followed a handful of her career-based intervention students on Wednesday's tour. Any day her students can spend out of the classroom at a hands-on experience is a day well spent, she said. While she wished she could have brought more of her class on the tour, those chosen were juniors and seniors who'd expressed an interest in working in health care. "This is a great opportunity because generally when students think about health care they think nurse, doctor, sometimes they'll think about some of the technicians, ultrasound and radiology, but … it gets them exposed to those (other positions)," she said. The program also touched on the level of education required for many of the positions, as well as tuition reimbursement programs available — opportunities students may not be aware of. Nurse managers Sarah Barak and Jennifer Shaarda led a portion of the tour, discussing surgical preparations, sterilization, recovery and what various positions do throughout the process. There are jobs throughout the health care system for those with any level of education — from high school diplomas to medical degrees, Barak said. "We wouldn't be able to do what we do without environmental service, without nutritional services and support and it's just how we all work together and collaborate — people in the lab, I mean it all feeds into each other," she said. Two Avon Lake seniors were especially interested in Wednesday's program — as both plan to go into health care after graduation. Kendra Robert-Atsu, 17, said she's been interested in the medical field since childhood, including attending camps. But that interest has grown through her research for an advanced placement course, including looking at disparities between demographics in the medical field. "I thought it was very interesting," she said. "I never really looked at each individual job and prospects within the hospital." The trip opened her prospects for careers or internships while working toward her ultimate goal of a cardiothoracic surgeon or anesthesiologist. Her mother is an occupational therapist and has long told Kendra there are a lot of different roles in health care, she said, but seeing those roles at work was a new experience for her. Coryn Cummings, 17, agreed. Her ultimate goal is to work in neurosurgery, inspired by watching those who treated her mother when she was diagnosed with a stage 4 brain tumor after her breast cancer had metastasized. "I kind of looked up to those surgeons as a grace," she said. "I also took AP research and AP seminar and for seminar all of my projects were based on neuroscience … so I definitely grew my passion for all things neuro." She added, "It's nice to see more background roles and things that I could do for internships or anything out of high school and get experience in the field." Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.