The Rotary Club partnered with health authorities post secondary institutions to get students interested in health care
The Quesnel Rotary Club teamed up with CNC, UNBC, Northern Health and the First Nations Health Authority to hold the first Adventures in Healthcare program in Quesnel.
Over several days high school students in grades 10 and 11 were given presentations and hands-on learning opportunities to get them interested in and excited about going into health care work.
“The types of students we go after are the ones who don’t know what they want to do yet, but they care,” said Tim Hall, Quesnel Rotary Club Vice President and chair of the Adventures in Healthcare program committee. “We expose them to various aspects in healthcare to spark an interest in them to pursue a career in healthcare.”
During the three days, students went to G.R. Baker Hospital and the CNC campus. Students got to see x-rays and ultrasounds, they used practice dummies that let them feel the position of a fetus in a pregnant person, they learned how to use ceiling lifts and suture and staple removal. In the final day they were given Naloxone training and dissected sheep brains.
“(We) keep this hands-on and interactive. Get the students involved and doing stuff. Because if you do it lecture-style, you lose them in 10 minutes,” Hall said. “And then we explain to them the educational pathways they need to take.”
With health care instructors and people currently working in the industry being involved, students were given the chance to ask questions about what working in the field is like and see a wide array of different paths in the system.
The Adventures in Healthcare program was started by the Prince George Rotary Club after the success in their Adventures in Forestry program. It started in 2017 with Ron Davis from the Prince George club being a large part of its beginning.
“Rotary is an international organization of about 1.4 million people and it’s been around for just over 100 years. It’s a service club in the community and the motto is service above self,” Davis explained. “Our club at Prince George-Yellowhead has always been community oriented and focused, much like the Rotary Club here in Quesnel. They have a strong connection with the school district and youth in high schools and that’s one of the reasons they started it this year.”
Davis said over the past eight years the program has been incredibly successful with around 70 per cent of students who participated have gone into post-secondary schooling for health related fields.
He recounted the names of many people who had gone through the program and the successes they’ve had, from getting degrees in nursing to going into psychology, to meeting their future partners through the program.
“There’s about 300 (alumni). I know a ton of them that are working at hospitals or working their way through schooling,” he said. “It’s just another way of community reinvesting for the kids today and hopefully the communities tomorrow.”
With low numbers of health care workers affecting the entire country and especially rural areas, Rotary Clubs wanted to do everything they can to be part of the solution. Hall said he has personally been without a family doctor for years and hopes the Adventures in Healthcare program continues to be a success.
“We need to do something and everybody’s kind of waiting for someone to do something and Rotary Club feels ‘well we better be the someone to do something,'” Hall said. “We need to invest the time and efoort and the resources into our youth and get them started and just give them the support and the encouragement and the opportunities for them to pursue a career.”
Quesnel is the fourth community to host the program with others being Terrace, Prince George and Fort St. John. Hall was excited to have Quesnel be the first host community to have First Nations involvement, including a traditional medicine workshop and presentations from the First Nations Health Authority.
“It was very important for us at the Rotary Club and I know also at the school district level to include First Nations into this at the ground level,” he said.
Hall said he’s already received positive feedback from the participants and the organizations who hosted the program and he’s looking forward to holding it in Quesnel again next spring.
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