April 20, 2007

Cultivating Future Caregivers

Illini campus programs help students choose career path

SILVIS, ILLINOIS - There’s motive behind the internship that landed student Kortney Welch a job in the  Illini Campus Laboratory before she even graduates.

“There aren’t many medical technologists out there,” said Janet Stensrud, Director of Laboratory and Radiology Services at the Genesis Medical Center, Illini Campus. “There’s a 14 percent vacancy rate for medical technologists, and 72 percent of the lab workforce is over age 40. Between now and 2010, there will be a need for 13,200 new medical technologists or medical lab technicians each year, but the nation averages only 5,000 graduates per year.”

Those statistics led to a program at the Illini Campus that allowed Welch of Keithsburg, Ill., to attend Illinois State University and serve her fourth year of medical technologist training doing a clinical rotation locally in the hospital’s lab. Medical technologist Irlene Higdon has played a key role in mentoring students.

“A student can experience clinical lab science; study close to home at Illinois State University; do their internship here in the Quad Cities; and work at Genesis in the future,” Stensrud said.

Welch is grateful for the experience. “A lot of students graduate without a job, but I’m already an employed college student working in what I wanted to do,” she said.

She began her internship in August 2006 and earlier this year finished her rotations in areas ranging from microbiology to hematology at the Illini Campus lab. Still a student, she was hired to fill in for lab staff who are on vacation. After graduation, she will move into a full-time medical technologist position. “Working in a lab, we get to see firsthand the results of certain tests that help doctors find the answers to what is wrong with their patients,” Welch said. “It’s rewarding to share those results.”

National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week is April 22-28, and Stensrud is proud that 90 percent of Illini Campus Laboratory staff are certified medical technologists or medical lab technicians. Even the majority of the lab support techs have graduated from medical assistant school or has their phlebotomy certification. “That’s not true of all laboratories,” she said, adding that the internship program also benefits her lab staff. “Helping Kortney with her clinical rotations keeps us up-to-date as well.”

Teen Explorer program

To help perpetuate the flow of students into health care, the Illini Campus also hosts a Teen Explorer Program that introduces high school students to a wide range of health care fields. The program is through the Boy Scouts.

“It gives our staff a chance to share what they do for a living in hopes that one of these students might follow in their footsteps and choose a career in health care,” said Terry Masek, Director of Human Resources at the Illini Campus. “We try to make the sessions as interactive as possible.

Students might get into the back of an ambulance; go into the Operating Room and feel how heavy an artificial hip is; do breathing exercises in the Cardio-Pulmonary Department; or see x-rays of broken legs and tumors. We customize it as much as we can, depending on what their areas of interest are.”

The program introduces the students to the wide gamut of health care fields, including some that they may not have heard much about like echocardiography or MRI technology. Sometimes seniors then take advantage of scholarship opportunities offered at Illini.

“We hope to enlighten high schoolers and guide them on a true career path,” said Masek, adding that Dr. James Lindley, a family practice physician with Genesis Health Group, Silvis, was once an Explorer student.

“For example, if they want to become a nurse but discover they become squeamish in an O.R. setting then maybe that’s not the best path for them. We feel that if we make it a positive experience for students, it may help our long-term recruiting efforts.”

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