By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
Northeast AHEC and PrimaryPlus partnered to host a CHASE (Careers in Health Advanced Summer Experience) camp at the PrimaryPlus location in Grayson, last Friday. The camp was designed to both educate and inspire students to consider a career in healthcare, Coordinator of Outreach Services for AHEC Katie Stumbo said. Northeast AHEC is a program through St. Claire Healthcare in Morehead, with the goal of reaching out to different schools and students throughout the region and combatting the healthcare shortage.
“We’re hoping to come out to the different areas and talk to students, and maybe help them realize a passion for healthcare,” Stumbo said.
Students met at the Grayson location at 9 a.m. and received a tour of the facility. Along the way they learned about HIPPA, and were given a ‘behind the scenes’ insight into what healthcare entails. The students, from East Carter, West Carter, and Carter Christian Academy, were also able to visit the infusion lab that PrimaryPlus offers. CHASE is available to students from freshman through senior classes. For more information, visit www.neahec.org/.
“The overall goal is to inspire these kids to pursue a career in healthcare and come back and serve their communities,” Tracy McGuire of PrimaryPlus said. “We want them to come back, which is why it’s so important for PrimaryPlus to host the event. This program is showing all of the career paths possible in healthcare. It’s not just being a physician or nurse. There are radiology services we showcase here, infusion, women’s health, and just technology. We have to have someone to run the IT department in healthcare as well.”
“The key is to realize that it’s not all ‘cut and dried,’ but that there is a very wide range of careers and interests that go into providing healthcare,” she added
As a way to highlight the perception of what healthcare is versus what it truly can be, McGuire used PrimaryPlus Infusion as an example. Most people, she said, think of oncology treatment when they think of infusion therapy. But in reality, infusion services cover any medication that is administered through an IV. PrimaryPlus does not do chemotherapy or pain management, but they do have other infusion services on site such as iron infusions or infusions for osteoporosis, with some being administered through an IV and others administered through shots.
Both McGuire and Stumbo said that the hope is to educate area students about what the healthcare field has to offer them, and that it is a career that might suit them better than they might initially believe. Whether it is in pharmacy, patient care, or what initially might seem unrelated interests such as computer software program, IT support, or a host of other medical support fields. PrimaryPlus’s one stop shop model, where many different aspects of healthcare are provided, is a perfect example to use to inspire the next generation of healthcare providers, the duo said.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
