Huron Expositor, 2006-12-17, Page 7News
The Huron Expositor • December 27, 2006 Page 7
MedQuest camp- will give students
hands-on experience for second year
Susan Hundertmark
The MedQuest camp, which gave high school students
from throughout Huron and Perth counties a hands-on
look at a medical career, will be held for a second year
in Seaforth this summer.
"We're definitely excited to offer it again," says Laura
Overholt, project manager of HealthKick Huron, which
runs the camp.
The five-day camp is aimed at Grades 10 and 11 stu-
dents who are interested in a career in the medical
field.
Last year, students sutured stuffed animals, gave
injections to oranges, watched a birthing simulator,
applied plaster casts to each other, job shadowed local
medical professionals and participated in a mock disas-
ter at the Goderich airport.
Overholt says she's already been visiting Huron and
Perth high schools giving presentations on the camp
with the students from each school who participated
last year.
"We've gotten very supportive feedback from the kids.
They've been telling their classmates how the experi-
ence helped them figure out what career they'd like to
pursue," says Overholt.
While there was some hope that two camps could be
offered - one each in Huron and in Perth - in the coming
year, Overholt says the Schulich School of Medicine and
Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario is for
now continuing with the same number of medical stu-
dents to run the camps.
"They're not ready to expand the number of camps
yet," she says.
Ten more students
to get medical job
placements
Susan Hundertmark
MEMO
Ten more Huron County
students will be given the
experience of a work
placement in a rural
healthcare job, thanks to
the Healthkick Huron pro-
gram.
Project manager Laura
Overholt says the work
placement program will be
offered a second year after
last summer when 12 stu-
dents participated across
Huron County.
"There was quite a nice
variety of .placements last
year and we're hoping to
expand the experiences
and have a number of dif-
ferent ones this year," says
Overholt.
Work placements last
year included
dietary/nutritional sup-
port, medical office assis-
tants, chiropractic office
assistant and nursing spe-
cial projects.
Overholt says both high
school and university stu-
dents can be involved in
the job placements,
depending on the level of
experience necessary for
the job placement.
Grants up to $3,000 are
available for employers in
the healthcare sector will-
ing to offer job place-
ments.
The jobs begin around
May 1 and are completed
by Aug. 31, 2007.
Anyone interested can
access the Healthkick
website at www.health-
kickhuron.ca or call the
office at 519-527-0305.
Overholt says she is currently beginning to talk to
local health professionals to see if they want to be
involved in the camp again.
"The curriculum may change slightly depending on
the availability of health professionals. We're hoping to
have many of them come back," she says. •
The mock disaster was one of the most popular fea-
tures of last year's camp and Overholt says she's hoping
it can be offered again.
"It will be at a different location but we don't know
where yet. It's the way we expose students to a career
in the EMS (emergency medical service or ambulance)
side of it," she says.
Overholt says the Schulich School was very
impressed by the quality of the programming offered
the first time in Huron County.
"I know there will be great competition for the spots
available," she says.
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