Lipscomb Health gives grade school students hands-on health career experiences
College provides middle and high school students enriching and valuable opportunities to advance STEM knowledge.
Janel Shoun-Smith |
A Summer Scholars participant listens to the heartbeat of preemie patient simulator in the Health Simulation Lab.
This past summer, Lipscomb Health connected with hundreds of grade school students through the Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) national meeting, Lipscomb’s own Summer Scholars pre-college program and a special visit to campus for students in the local 100 Kings program.
With the nation’s acute shortage of qualified workers for the health care industry amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, Lipscomb seeks to build future generations of caring health care professionals by encouraging young students’ interest in STEM topics and pursuit of a health care profession.
School of Nursing hosts HOSA competition
HOSA is a global student-led organization whose mission is to empower future health professionals to become leaders in the global health community, through education, collaboration and experience.
This summer, Lipscomb’s School of Nursing hosted the final round of the skills competitions for the HOSA participants at the International Leadership Conference. Busses delivered 88 student finalists from Gaylord Opryland Hotel to Lipscomb’s Health Sciences Simulation Laboratory for the competition in basic health care assessment. The School of Nursing faculty engaged with the student contestants as they judged the students’ knowledge of the human body.
Lipscomb Health faculty and staff also interacted with students at the HOSA Expo held at Gaylord Opryland. Fun, games, food and prizes all helped draw students’ attention and involvement. Games were all related to medicine, as students could spin the big prize wheel and answer health care questions for a prize; they could try their hand at the game Operation to see if they had the steady hand of a future surgeon; or they could complete the skeleton worksheet listing all the bones of the body.
“The students really enjoyed the games and a chance to show their friends their health care knowledge,” said Sandra Hood, director of strategic initiatives. “We met students from all over the globe who were interested in becoming doctors, nurses, physician assistants, dietitians, physical therapists and everyone’s interest was piqued as they learned about Lipscomb’s newest health science offering: cardiovascular perfusion. Only a few had heard about the perfusion profession, and it sparked their interest.”
Summer Scholars
Lipscomb Health also participated in the Summer Scholars pre college program, an eight-day experience emphasizing experiential learning inside and outside of the classroom. This experience was designed to give high-achieving rising seniors the opportunity to earn college credit hours while still in high school.
Students were provided with the opportunity to take an introductory three-hour course designed to explore a wide variety of health science professions. This course combined active learning, laboratory experiences and lectures focusing on skills and knowledge needed across multiple health professions.
These experiences were led by professional faculty from the college’s nursing, physician assistant, nutrition, pharmacy, perfusion and exercise science programs. Students experienced pumping the heart of a simulated cardiac patient the perfusion lab and watched Life-Flight land its helicopter on the front lawn of Lipscomb’s campus.
Summer Scholars students made hand sanitizer in the pharmacy lab, learned how to administer vaccines, attended a yoga and stress management class and took a food desert tour, all activities providing an eye opening opportunities of what their future could be as health care professionals and the impact they could make in today’s world.
Learn more about the 2023 Summer Scholars Health Care Track
100 Kings
This past fall the Lipscomb Vice Provost of Health Affairs Quincy Byrdsong hosted a group of participants in the 100 Kings program, a program that aims to provide underserved male youth opportunities both academically and socially to prepare them for college and future careers.
While on campus, the students met with Lipscomb President Candice McQueen and had the opportunity enjoy various health care learning experiences, including hospital simulations, IV demonstrations, and practice using a stethoscope. They visited the labs, heard talks from faculty and participated in hands-on activities.
