Approximately 80 rural high school students interested in careers in the health field took over classrooms at St. Peter's College in Muenster on October 10.
The students, who are enrolled at 21 high schools in the Horizon School Division (HSD), were attending Health Link, a day of speeches and workshops organized by the HSD, the Saskatoon Health Region (SHR) and St. Peter's College (SPC).
The one-day hands-on event gave the Grade 10, 11 and 12 students who have already expressed interest in a career in the health field the chance to explore potential careers in nursing, therapies, medical diagnostics and mental health and addictions.
Workshops and information sessions were held exploring areas like home care nursing, ultrasound technology and addictions counselling throughout the day. A general welcome and physician panel was also part of the events.
This is the first time the SHR has helped coordinate an event of this kind in the rural area, noted Alysha Garrett, the student program consultant with the SHR.
They've partnered with schools to bring this day of workshops and information to students in Saskatoon twice before, Garrett said. The SHR then wanted an opportunity for rural students to get this information as well, which is how the partnership with the HSD and SPC came about.
The day not only attracted rural students, it also featured many rural SHR staff as instructors and speakers. Dr. Crystal Litwin of Wynyard and Dr. Morris Markentin of Rosthern, for example, were members of a physician panel who talked to the students about why they got into health care and what their work is like.
During the official welcome to students, Bonnie Blakely, vice president of people strategies with the SHR, used a familiar technology to get students to answer the question of "what do you want to be when you grow up?"
Speech therapy and physiotherapy topped the list of attractive options for students.
Blakely then spoke about how that question is answered differently at different stages in a child's development.
She asked children in Grade 2 what they wanted to be, she smiled, and most answered that they wanted to be a vehicle of some kind, like a fire truck, or things like a ballerina.
Grade 9 students she talked to told her they wanted to be "rich" and thought they could get that way by perhaps playing video games well, or following in their parents' footsteps in careers like dentistry.
She then asked her university-aged son, who is studying physiotherapy, how he ended up in the health field, when he likely once wanted to be a fire truck as well.
Her son told her, Blakely said, that when he realized he wasn't going to be a soccer superstar or win the lottery, he wanted a career where he could make a difference. So he turned to the health field.
In health care, "you may never be rich, but you will make a difference to your community and the families you serve," Blakely said.
For their part, the HSD was "pleased to partner in making this day possible," stated Marc Danylchuk in his opening remarks.
Everyone is impacted by the health care system, he told the students, and by choosing to enter the health field as professionals, "you will always be part of a team that cares for and helps others."
Students today have so many paths to choose from, he noted, but entering into post-secondary education in the health care field "can lead to an amazingly gratifying career with (many) opportunities."
Some of those opportunities can actually be found within the education system, he noted, adding that the HSD is continuing to look for professionals in areas like speech pathology.
