Business AfterSchool at Deaconess Hospital
On March 8th, 20 middle school students attended a career connected learning opportunity with a Business AfterSchool workshop at Deaconess Hospital. To begin their visit, Jaime Ziebert, the Director of Robotic Surgery, welcomed the students and talked through a variety of different career and job opportunities in a typical hospital. The students were amazed to hear that there are more than 400 positions represented at any given hospital! This overview really got the students thinking about potential education and career paths they may be interested in pursuing, starting with their approaching high school classes.
Following the discussion on healthcare careers and pathways, the students changed into scrubs in preparation for the surgical teams. The students loved this part! There were multiple comments made about how they felt as though they were in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. From there, the group was escorted to the operating room (OR) where a surgery had just wrapped up, no longer than 20 minutes prior. Students were shown the two different generations of the da Vinci robot that Deaconess uses on a daily basis: the Si Robot and the Xi Robot. Each robot’s differences, evolution, and uses were discussed and then the students individually participated in a hands-on simulation game on the Xi Robot to get a taste of how the robot feels while operating. Each participant was graded by the game on different aspects such as precision, speed, efficiency, and a few additional categories to make up a percentage out of 100 for their overall score. Of course the game turned into a competition and the students tried their best to beat out their friends as the better future robotic surgeon.
This workshop was a tremendous success; the students’ eyes were opened to the future of surgery and what their opportunities could be in the medical world. Providing hands-on and physical visits to create experiences like this for students are essential to connect the classroom to the working world.
