HealthForce Minnesota 2010 News Archive
Riverland, Healthcare on Display
Trey Mewes
As Kristin Graff walked through the Riverland Community College classroom, she fixed prospective students’ posture, told them where to place their hands, and helped students work each other’s muscles. Graff, a massage therapy instructor at Riverland, was explaining the finer points of giving chair massages. She and other instructors showed adults ready to go back to school what sort of health careers are available through Riverland’s first annual Scrubs Camp.“It’s awesome,” Graff said. “Everybody has such a misconception about how we do things. To give these people a little taste of that is really neat.”
This is the first time Riverland hosted a Scrubs Camp, in partnership with HealthForce Minnesota and Workforce Development. The three-day camp gives participants a wide range of careers to look at through 1 1/2 hour seminars for jobs ranging from respiratory therapy to health unit coordinator, from biotechnician to forensic science specialist and healthcare interpreter.
“(Participants) get a little bit of everything so they can see if that’s what they want to do,” said Wanda Stanska, Riverland training and development coordinator. That’s what appealed to adult learners like Debbie Holbrook and Brianna Mandery.“I was interested in the medical field, but I’m slightly undecided,” Mandery said. As Mandery learned how to properly give a chair massage (the secret is using your legs instead of your arms, moving your body with the motions), Holbrook relaxed and listened to instructions, letting Mandery know how she was doing.
“It’s getting a lot of information in a little bit of time,” Holbrook said.
Each seminar offered information about what a particular job does and where people can learn how to do it. Several seminars were lead by specialists from outside Riverland, like Tammy Schultz, of Mayo Medical Center, who lead the Respiratory Therapy session.Prospective students seemed to appreciate all of Riverland’s efforts. Jamie Chandee, one of the participants said it was helpful to her since she wanted to be in the medical field.
“I wanted to experience the fields that I may go into,” she said.
Although about 60 participants were signed up, all of them prospective Riverland students, there were many drops on the first day. Anyone who wishes to participate may e-mail Kris Bartley at kris.bartley@riverland.edu or call507-433-0612.
May 25, 2011
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Riverland Community College, Workforce Development, Inc. and HealthForce Minnesota Sponsor Adult Scrubs Camp 2011
Riverland Community College in cooperation with Workforce Development, Inc and HealthForce Minnesota will conduct an Adult Scrubs Camp for approximately 60 participants from the surrounding southeastern Minnesota area Tuesday through Thursday. The free 3-day Adult Scrubs camp immerses participants into the world of healthcare and focuses on skill building for those thinking about career opportunities in the healthcare environment.
Classroom presentations and hands on activities give participants knowledge of job tasks and duties in each health area. Attendees choose from 18 different health careers including massage therapy, medical administrative assistant, respiratory therapy, forensic science, radiography, surgical technology, certified medical assistant, biotechnology, mental and social human services, home health aide/nursing assistant, healthcare interpreters, EMT/paramedic, pharmacy technology, health information technology, health unit coordinator, nursing, goal setting and interview skills and job search.
Coordinated by Riverland Community College’s training & development division, the Scrubs event is sponsored by Riverland Community College, Workforce Development Inc. and HealthForce Minnesota.
Who:
60 participants from the southern Minnesota area
What:
2011 Adult SCRUBS Camp
When:
Tuesday, May 24 through Thursday May 26, 2011; 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.
Where:
Riverland Community College, West Building
1900 8th Avenue NW
Austin, MN 55912
On-Site Contact: Wanda Staska (507) 383-0172
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Contact: James Douglass, Director of Communications, Riverland Community College: (507) 433-0611, (507) 440-5112 cell phone, (507) 433-0629 fax, james.douglass@riverland.edu
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STEM Summit
Held in Rochester, Minnesota
About 700 middle and high school students enjoyed the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Summit held on November 4, 2008, at the Rochester Community and Technical College in Rochester, Minnesota. Activities included interactive science exhibits, demonstrations and the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Mobile Science Lab.
The goal of the STEM Summit and the Rochester Chamber of Commerce Workforce 2020 program is to excite students about science so they are inspired to enter technical fields and become scientists, physicians and engineers.
Guy Finne, Mayo Clinic (center), Jane Foote, HealthForce MN executive director (center right), and others take part in the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Mobile Science Lab.
Students at the STEM Summit watch the ribbon cutting ceremony of the Mobile Science Lab.
Southeast Service Cooperative, Mayo Clinic and HealthForce Minnesota partner to offer the Mobile Science Lab to teachers around the state.
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Scrubs Camp lets teens eye health careers
Students learned how to insert an IV into a mock arm during instruction time as part of the Scrubs Camp.
Original image By Elizabeth Flores, copyright Star Tribune
The teenagers in maroon scrubs and ID badges surrounded the patient who lay, blinking his eyes, on the gurney.
"He's going to make it or not depending on what you guys do today," their instructor bellowed.
The patient, SimMan, was a highly lifelike dummy used to train aspiring health care workers how to treat medical emergencies.
On Tuesday his fate was in the hands of about 70 high school students from Minneapolis and St. Paul. They came to the Augsburg College campus in Minneapolis this week to participate in the first-ever urban version of Scrubs Camp.
Organizers say their mission is twofold: to encourage more students to consider health care careers and to expose them to college life.
HealthForce Minnesota, a coalition of education, industry and community partners created to swell the ranks of health care workers, started Scrubs Camp two years ago at Winona State University.
This year, HealthForce teamed up with the Cedar-Riverside Partnership, a neighborhood coalition, to offer the camp to inner-city kids.
"We're trying to shape their notion of a future," said Paul Pribbenow, president of Augsburg and chairman of the Cedar-Riverside Partnership. "It's an intensive opportunity to begin to imagine yourselves being able to follow a certain path to a job."
Since Sunday the students have been living in the residence halls, dining in the cafeteria and attending classes. Sessions included "DNA in Action" and "Anatomy in Clay."
The campers also toured the University of Minnesota campus and traveled to Fort Snelling State Park, where they learned about performing first aid in the wilderness.
Mohamed Mohamed, 15, who lives in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, said before he attended the camp, he was thinking about becoming an engineer. After seeing the College of Biological Sciences building at the university, however, he's changed his mind. He says he's now contemplating a health career.
Mohamed, a Somali refugee who would be the first in his family to go to college, was one of about 20 to 25 students from the neighborhood who signed up for the camp. The Cedar-Riverside area is home to thousands of East African immigrants, mainly Somali refugees and their children.
Steering kids on right path
Helping area youths stay out of trouble and secure their future was one of the main goals Cedar-Riverside Partnership leaders had when they approached HealthForce Minnesota about starting Scrubs Camp at Augsburg.
Partnership leaders, concerned about young people dropping out of high school or getting caught up in gangs, wanted to find a way to get more neighborhood youth on a successful and safe path. Augsburg officials offered to pay the camp fee for students living in the neighborhood.
Pribbenow said he was pleased with the number of neighborhood youths involved in the camp this year.
"We know a lot of it is getting that first experience," he said. "They'll go back and tell their friends. A lot of it is knowing you have to build that trust with the families in the neighborhood. This is a long-term commitment."
Several of the campers came from the Brian Coyle Center's youth programs, said the center's youth director, Abdirahman Mukhtar.
So many of the kids would be the first ones in their family to attend college, he said.
"Here, they're learning about their options for higher education," he said.
Back in the nursing simulation class, the campers frantically worked to revive SimMan, who, they learned, had suffered a heart attack. They checked his pulse, gave him oxygen, inserted a breathing tube down his throat and administered CPR.
When the nearby heart monitor showed his heart rate was back to normal, the students exhaled. One girl clapped.
"Congratulations," their instructor, Ron Flannigan, told them. "You saved a life today."
Allie Shah • 612-673-4488
Original article copyright Star Tribune.
Shah, Allie. “Scrubs Camp lets teens eye health careers”
4 Aug 2010.
“Scrubs Camp” at Whitewater State Park
WHITEWATER STATE PARK, Minn. (KTTC-DT) -- High schoolers from across Minnesota are getting a different look at medicine, and that could impact patients everyone.
"Herbal medicine, we're looking at plants for healing," says Paul Red Elk, a native American healer.
He is one of many educators at Healthforce Minnesota's 3rd annual "Scrubs Camp", welcoming 81 high school students from Minnesota, who are interested in pursuing medicine.
Students spend the week at Winona State University and Whitewater State Park learning about indoor and outdoor medical treatment.
Executive Director, Jane Foote says that's especially important in Minnesota.
"A lot of the jobs in our Minnesota economy are within the healthcare sector, so my job is to connect the educational providers for healthcare careers with the employers, so that we have the right number of people to serve us when we get sick and to keep us healthy," says Foote.
The camp wraps up Friday.
Original article copyright KTTC.
KTTC News. “‘Scrubs Camp’ at Whitewater State Park”
5 Aug 2010.
Camp encourages jobs in health field
McClatchy News Service
ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Thinking about a career in health care? Head on over to the first Adult Scrubs Camp at St. Cloud Technical and Community College to find out which career is right for you. The four-day camp in May will introduce participants to a variety of health careers through more than 20 workshops, with CPR/first aid training and certification available.
“Health care is one area where we are still seeing a small growth, but the biggest concern with health care is in the near future when the baby boomers retire,” said Wayne Anderson, business services specialist at Minnesota Job Service.
Explore careers at the camp in nursing; imaging; chiropractic and massage therapy; physical, occupational and speech therapy; emergency medicine; cardiovascular technology; clinical laboratory; pharmacy; dentistry; veterinary technology; and health information technology.
A similar event last year in Rochester sparked the idea, Anderson said.
The camp will run from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. May 17-20, but participants do not have attend all four days.
There is space for 80 participants, and a little more than half of the openings had been filled as of Monday.
“We’d like people to attend all four of the days. We prefer people come to the whole camp because there are different offerings each day,” Anderson said.
“One of the things that we’re hoping everyone will do is get CPR/first aid certified, so that’s being offered every day.”
Ten of the 20 fastest-growing occupations are health-care related, and health care will generate 3.2 million new wage and salary jobs between 2008 and 2018 -- more than any other industry -- according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
“We also have a kind of a mobile simulation van, a 64-foot semitrailer, at the camp in which there will be a heart attack simulation — what to do in case you are in a situation where somebody has a heart attack -- and there’s going to be a childbirth simulation,” he said.
Original article copyright Post-Bulletin.
McClatchy News Service. “Camp encourages jobs in health field”
3 May 2010.
Medford students get down to the basics
Medford students Matias Guerrero, Chelsea Morgan and Ben Choudek prepare their DNA to be sent to the Mayo Clinic for sequencing.
Original image By Briana Gehring, copyright Owatonna People’s press
MEDFORD — PCR machines, incubators and centrifuges stood around the room. Samples of human DNA were brought out of the refrigerator at one station and samples of plant DNA sat at another. Then, the bell rang and students poured in.
“Not many people get to experience using this. It’s cool we get to experience it,” said David Deneui, a student in agriculture teacher Chris Ovrebo’s class at Medford High School.
Thanks to an effort by the Mayo Clinic, Southeastern Service Cooperative and HealthForce Minnesota, Medford plant science and greenhouse management students got access to some high quality equipment this past week. The program lends out a mobile lab to teachers that complete the required training, and Ovrebo completed it last summer.
“I want to say thanks to Mayo. That’s a lot of expensive equipment, and things tend to get broken with students handling them,” said Kevin Young, a student in the class.
The training was a week of introduction to the equipment — learning how to use it properly and learning some experiments that can be done. Actually, there are two classes that focus on teachers. One is geared for science teachers and the other focuses on science in agriculture.
Ovrebo considers this great real-life experience for the kids. Normally, the class is busy learning about plants, how to grow them and how to run a greenhouse. The classes keep a greenhouse at the school in which students nurture plants for a plant sale at the end of the year. The mobile lab allows them to see the science side of agriculture.
“The jobs they’re getting exposed to are in pretty high demand,” Ovrebo said.
The school only gets the equipment for a week before it has to pass it on to the next school. The class did four experiments in that time. The first experiment was just to introduce them to the equipment and what they’d see when they took DNA from plants.
The next experiment meant the students gave their own DNA for the experiment. The idea was to take DNA from their cheeks using Gatorade. Then the students took a bit of their DNA and prepared it to be sent to Mayo Clinic. If everything goes right, they will get a sequence of their DNA back in a couple of weeks.
“Everything needs to be sterilized for each thing,” said student Ben Choudek.
The other two experiments dealt with consumer products. The class tested three samples of plant material to see if they were modified. Two samples were supposed to be genetically modified and one wasn’t. The samples were of cornmeal and papaya from two separate locations. The other experiment used goat cheese. The students look to see if there is actually cow milk used in goat cheese. Putting cow milk in goat cheese actually makes it cheaper to produce.
“You need the equipment to do these experiments, but there are not enough relevant experiments to justify buying this expensive equipment,” Ovrebo said.
The students and teachers are excited about the opportunity. The program provides all the big equipment needed plus all the disposable materials. They create lesson plans that take between 50 to 60 minutes to complete, just enough time to do it in class.
“By doing the experiments, they get the big picture of what’s going on, why it is important and its effect on the consumer,” Ovrebo said. “It’s about consumer confidence and safety.”
Original article copyright Owatonna People’s Press.
Gehring, Briana. “Medford students get down to the basics”
9 April 2010.
Mayo mobile lab program brings state-of-the-art tech to students
Mayo’s Mobile Science Lab— KAAL
Mobile Science Lab connects students to classroom & real world— KTTC
Mobile science lab gives Triton students hands-on experience— Rochester Post Bulletin
Instant Chemistry – Volunteer at Camp
ROCHESTER — Memories of summer camp are good. Camp has a lasting emotional impact on all who are associated with it. For many, life after camp will never be the same. Experience camp again by volunteering.
A brochure handed out at a staff meeting led Sara Paradise to a fun and fulfilling week at Scrubs Camp. “I instantly knew it was something I’d love to be a part of (and I was too old to be a camper...!), so I e-mailed the coordinator right after our meeting to see if they might need volunteers,” she said.
Part of what inspired Paradise to volunteer is her belief that “it is really important for kids who are drawn to the sciences to be aware of all the different options,” something she said she did not experience during her high school days. “After four years of intense preparation for medical school, I now realize how nice it would’ve been to have something earlier on to guide me, since early planning is so key to getting into some of the more competitive programs,” Paradise continued. “This camp gives students that broad exposure.”
Paradise noted that students seemed to especially enjoy the hands-on activities the most. Students amplified their own DNA during the DNA in Action course, they typed their blood in Clinical Laboratory Sciences, and they wore gowns and practiced suturing techniques on foam pads during the Surgical Skills workshops.
The diversity of the camp sessions may be surprising. “Students intubated dummy patients, developed slings out of cloth, made brains out of clay, toured hospitals, spoke to nurse anesthetists and so much more,” according to Paradise. “I think by allowing them to ‘do’ rather than just watch it became real and exciting.”
While most students came to the camp unsure of their career direction, Paradise was surprised that by the end of camp most students seemed to be interested in other areas of medicine besides being a physician, such as research or nursing. “I was so used to college, where everyone seems to be ‘pre-med.’ I think that is the beauty of being young; you can be driven by what you like rather than choosing something because you feel it’s a safer track or that you have no options other than a four-year degree program” she said. Paradise’s advice to students is to choose a career that fits one’s unique personality and strengths.
Scrubs Camp may influence students to pursue a career in the healthcare industry the same way that The Future Physician class impacted Paradise when she was a freshman at the University of Minnesota. That class led her on a path that continually involves new opportunities to learn and grow in the medical field. Paradise has volunteered at the children’s playroom at the University hospital, coordinated workshops in the Medical Education office and has volunteered at a Latino youth clinic. Since graduating in May 2008 with a Spanish degree, Paradise has worked as an anatomy teaching assistant, does research on trauma patients in the ER, and supports physicians and nurses in a hospital as an Electronic Medical Records trainer. Content provided by HealthForce Minnesota. For more information on Scrubs Camp, visit www.healthforceminnesota.org.
Original article copyright Rochester Post Bulletin
March 10, 2010