Illinois Hospital Association

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Facilitating Career Awareness

Brown Bag Lunch

  • St. Vincent Memorial Hospital, Taylorville
    In partnership with Lincoln Land Community College, has designated a day at the local high school for a certain modality - for example, "Radiology" day. The high school provides classrooms during the lunch hour. The hospital “staffs” the classroom with one or two staff technicians to meet and greet any interested students. The students receive information regarding the hospital, career, and a "class path" that identifies what classes he/she should take in high school/college for a career path in radiology. The hospital also provides a brown bag lunch to any interested student who visits the hospital and establishes contact with the staff.

Community Courses

  • Greenville Regional Hospital, Greenville
    - Offers a CPR program to staff and community several times throughout the year.
    - Offers eight-week Yoga classes to staff at no charge and a nominal fee to the community.
    - Hosts several monthly support groups: Diabetes Support Group, Parkinson's Disease Support Group, and a Dementia Caregivers Support Group.
    - Offers yearly babysitting classes to students age 11 and older.
    - Hosts an annual Health Fair providing health care education and screening to the community, with attendance of over 3,000 community members.
  • Hillsboro Area Hospital, Hillsboro
    - Unemployed adults are exposed to health care career presentations for potential future employment.
    -  Beginning October 2005, the onsite Fusion Fitness and Aquatics program is offered to young people.

Day Care Support

  • Hillsboro Area Hospital, Hillsboro
    - Offers onsite daycare for children through grade school years. Tours are encouraged and promoted throughout the year.
    - Supplies the hospital day care program with health profession toys, such as stethoscopes, scrub hats and boots, ambulances, medicine bags, etc.

Grade School Student Tours

  • Edward Hospital, Naperville
    Hosts hospital tours and promotes health care career opportunities to students of all ages, families, and the community by hosting a "Healthcare Career Discovery Day."
  • Hillsboro Area Hospital, Hillsboro
    Offers school age children hospital tours to various departments, also included are job shadowing in non-confidential areas, and health career fair presentations.
  • Pana Community Hospital, Pana
    Hosts annual hospital tour for 1st grade students. Upon request, tours are provided for other grade levels.

High School Careers

  • Hillsboro Area Hospital, Hillsboro
    The Director of Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation is an athletic trainer for two local high schools. His involvement with them promotes physical therapy as a career.
  • St. John's Hospital, Springfield
    Offers job shadowing to eligible high school students for careers in health care.
     

High School Counselor Brochure

  • Red Bud Regional Hospital, Red Bud
    Created a brochure for school counselors that highlight health care jobs. Also identifies career credentials, education, and skills that are necessary for a health care career.
  • St. John's Hospital, Springfield
    Created a brochure for school counselors that highlight health care jobs. Also identifies entry level career credentials, education, and skills that are necessary for a health care career.

High School Student Tours

  • Greenville Regional Hospital, Greenville
    Offers high school student tours who are interested in health care careers.
  • St. John's Hospital, Springfield
    Offers high school student tours who are interested in health care careers.

Internship

  • Condell Medical Center, Libertyville
    Penwasciz is a medical program especially designed for high school students. This yearly program, pronounced "Pen-Wah-Zee," combines items that health care workers always carry; a pen, watch, and scissors. Penwasciz students are encouraged to pursue a health care career.
  • Hamilton Memorial Hospital District, McLeansboro
    A two-week Summer Intern Program allows high school and college students an orientation opportunity that rotates through nursing, radiology, physical therapy, laboratory, and surgery.
  • Hillsboro Area Hospital, Hillsboro
    Formed a clinical agreement/educational partnership with the local school systems for a one-year CNA program. Yearly, 14 to 15 high school juniors and seniors successfully complete the CNA program.
  • Pana Community Hospital, Pana
    A student summer health care internship is provided by the Pana Community Hospital Auxiliary. This eight-week program allows students to work in multiple departments.
  • Mount Sinai Hospital, Chicago
    Partners with four local high schools to provide exposure to health care careers.
  • Southern Illinois Healthcare (Hamilton Memorial Hospital District, McLeansboro; Harrisburg Medical Center, Harrisburg; Herrin Hospital, Herrin; Memorial Hospital of Carbondale, Carbondale; St. Joseph Memorial Hospital, Murphysboro; and, St. Mary’s Good Samaritan Inc., Centralia)
    Offers a 5 to 6-week hands-on learning Summer Internship Program, working two or three days per week shadowing a medical technologist, physical therapist, occupational therapist, registered nurse, respiratory therapist, radiologic technologist, or pharmacist. All interns must complete a hospital orientation. 
  • St. John's Hospital, Springfield
    Internship positions are available for a variety of positions.
  • St. Mary’s Good Samaritan, Inc., Centralia
    Offers a 16-week critical care internship and a 20-week medical/surgical internship for both new and experienced nurses who are re-entering the workforce. Limited internship opportunities also exist in surgery.

Interviewing Skills

  • Hillsboro Area Hospital, Hillsboro
    Local Girl Scouts recently earned their "Career" badges by interviewing hospital professionals.

Mentoring/Job Shadowing

  • Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, Downers Grove
    Offers opportunities for associates and students (high school and college), to shadow employees in various job classifications and departments. Students observe the role of the health care professionals first-hand. 
  • Greenville Regional Hospital, Greenville
    Short-term experiences, not to exceed eight hours, allows an individual to observe staff in their regular job duties. Students enrolled in formal health care academic programs may be considered for clinical rotations and practicums in all areas.
  • Hamilton Memorial Hospital District, McLeansboro
    - Collaborates with local high schools and Rend Lake College to promote awareness of health care career opportunities and to increase the number of potential nursing candidates. All freshmen through seniors are required to attend.
    - Hospital representatives from Laboratory, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Physical Therapy departments visit Hamilton County Junior High School to talk with students about the importance of math and science in health care careers.
  • Pana Community Hospital, Pana
    - Collaborates with Pana Community School District and Lake Land College offers high school students a full semester to observe multiple hospital departments. If a choice is not specified, the student will be exposed to several hospital departments.
    - In conjunction with Lake Land College, offers a "Men in Nursing" health care program to junior high and high school male students.
  • Pekin Hospital, Pekin
    Encourages job shadowing for prospective employees and partners with local high schools offering students job shadow opportunities. Also participates in several "job fairs" and health care career days. An awareness program is being developed for junior high.
  • Pinckneyville Community Hospital, Pinckneyville
    Exposes students to health care careers through job shadowing in various departments.
  • Saint Anthony's Health Center, Alton
    Exposes junior high and senior high school students to health care job responsibilities, work culture, and mission of the Health Center. A pre-employment job shadowing opportunity is available to anyone who desires to learn more about a health care career.
  • St. John's Hospital, Springfield
    • Short-term experiences, not to exceed sixteen hours, allows an individual to observe staff in their regular job duties. Students who are enrolled in formal health care academic programs may be considered for clinical rotations and practicums in all areas.
    • Encourages job shadowing for prospective employees and partners with local high schools offering students job shadow opportunities. Also participates in several "job fairs" and health care career days. An awareness program is being developed for junior high.
  • Taylorville Memorial Hospital, Taylorville
    • SCRUBS I: 8th Grade Students
      Eighth-grade students attend an after school program one day a week that introduces various health care careers that focus on one medical specialty each week, such as; Physical Therapy, Nursing, Pharmacy, Radiology, and Laboratory. The students spend approximately 90 minutes each week job-shadowing in the various departments. The goal of the program is to get the word out to the community’s teenagers that health care offers very rewarding and worthwhile careers. The program is a joint collaboration between Taylorville Memorial Hospital and Lincoln Land Community College and is offered to students at no cost.
    • SCRUBS II: High School Students
      In conjunction with Lincoln Land Community College and Taylorville High School, the hospital hosts a “brown bag luncheon” for high school students each year. The hospital’s staff is available in a classroom during the lunch hour at the designated high school to provide material and information to students interested in specific health care careers. The college provides brown bag lunches to the students who participate as well as provides them with a “career path” guide to help them map out their future classes/college courses for a future in a health care career. Students are invited to the hospital soon after the brown bag luncheon to participate in a half-day job-shadowing session in departments in which they are interested.

Middle and High School Career Fair

  • OSF St. Joseph Medical Center, Bloomington
    Created a brochure identifying nursing as a career choice for junior high students, high school students, parents, and counselors.

Pre-School Student Tours

  • Greenville Regional Hospital, Greenville
    Hosts Mr. Body/Mr. Bones tours to pre-school students. The program identifies seven stations about staying healthy.
  • Hillsboro Area Hospital, Hillsboro
    Offers pre-school children annual hospital tours focusing on health awareness training including hand washing.

Summer Programs

  • Hillsboro Area Hospital, Hillsboro
    Summer youth volunteer opportunities are available offering increased awareness.
  • St. John's Hospital, Springfield
    Summer youth volunteer opportunities area available offering increase awareness.

The Other Side of the Stethoscope

  • A health care career education program, targeting seventh graders and developed by a partnership among the Chicago Tribune, Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council (MCHC), Chicago Workforce Board, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Math and Science Initiative, American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration, Illinois Hospital Association, and Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity provides a learning opportunity for middle school students. The goal is to sustain and create increased awareness of career opportunities in health care and develop mechanisms to support and monitor collaborative hospital/school programs in Chicago.

    The "Other Side of the Stethoscope" is an innovative eight-week program directed at Chicago public school 7th graders and their parents to increase junior high students' awareness of health care careers. The initiative was prompted by research revealing that career decisions are often determined by the 8th grade. Studies have shown that young people who are made aware of health care as a career opportunity at an early enough age will likely make appropriate class choices in high schools to match a health care career. The students are introduced to problem solving and creative thinking skills that are used every day by health care professionals.

    The Tribune's Health Care Career supplement is integrated into Chicago's math and science curriculum requiring students to go to Tribune materials for the answers. The program's initial effort in 2005 involved 400 schools and 43,000 students.