Health Science Curriculum
On this page: Academic Job Shadowing
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Sites | Nurses, Emergency Medical
Technicians and Paramedics (EMTs), and Laboratory
Technicians
Complementary programs are available in the health
science and health education curricula. These are
nurses, emergency medical technicians, and paramedics,
which is a form of health professional job shadowing;
and job shadowing on health technology. The combination
of these three programs is the complete job shadowing
experience.
Goals: To pursue academic achievement,
dropout prevention, health career education, and discipline
and drug prevention.
Objectives:
- To expose students to health career curriculum
with emphasis upon excellence in the field of science,
math, and technology when considering careers in
health care.
- To engage students in subject areas, noting an
aging workforce (job opportunities) and the importance
of continued education, to become eligible for future
job positions.
- To develop an awareness of career opportunities
in the health professions and the health care industry
as a whole, while building (the public’s)
confidence in the health care system.
- To create individual responsibility by educating
students to the possibilities and entrance requirements
needed to become a health care professional, and
how decisions students make now will influence their
ability to enter into these fields later.
What will the students do?
Students will team up with pre-health professional
students at a technical school, junior college, community
college or four-year college or university to learn
what it is like to prepare academically after high
school for a career in the health professions.
The students will job shadow the pre-health professional
students in a variety of activities, which could include
attending classes, discussing and observing the completion
of homework assignments; and work outside of the classroom,
including work in a laboratory, health clinic, and
other field work opportunities.
Students will be asked to create and write a journal
of what they study, learn, and observe. They will
need to record what they learn about what it takes
to succeed in school to become a health professional.
After this journal is completed, the students will
make an oral presentation to their class on what they
learned and felt about succeeding in school to prepare
for a health profession.
What will the educators do?
Unlike other job shadowing programs, this
program in health careers acknowledges that academic
success in preparing for a health profession is necessary
but not sufficient for success in practicing that
profession. Aptitude and interest must match for a
person to be successful in a given health profession.
To help students determine their career aptitudes
and interests, educators may perform a career interest
inventory.
Also, the development of other skills pertinent to
the specific profession determines the amount of success
and job satisfaction. Examples of these skills include
effective communication between the health practitioner
and patient; cultural competence, etc.
Therefore, the educator will contact the technical
school, junior college, community college or 4-year
college or university in the community to arrange
for students there to be shadowed.
The educator will prepare the students for this experience
by providing background information. The educator
will guide the students on creating the journal of
this experience.
Finally, the educator will arrange for the students
to present their journal findings to their classmates.
The students who were shadowed may be invited to the
presentation(s) about them.
What information is available to educators?
Most of the information available about job shadowing
is oriented towards shadowing the health professional,
which is the related activity. But since that is the
ultimate goal of this series of activities, the educator
should access this information too.
What are the activities of Business/Adopters?
Academic Enrichment/Career Awareness: host
job shadowing opportunities; Student Incentives/Motivation:
be a mentor for a student; Cultural Enrichment: sponsor
visits by pre-health profession students; and Community
Involvement: link high school students to the health
science you are studying.
A pre-health professional student could be a guest
speaker. They would assist in the preparation and
analysis of the journals.
If the business/adopter is from a junior college,
community college, technical school, college or university,
then the speaker could be a one of their pre-health
professional students.
They could use the materials provided to the educator,
as well as their own resources.
What methods should the educator use to assess
the effectiveness of this activity?
First, as described, each student will produce a
journal of their experiences and what they learned
in shadowing a pre-health professional student. Then
the students will present their journals to their
class, via PowerPoint or display boards of particular
career fields. This teaches students presentation
skills and the use of technology.
From the field of education, three methods of assessment
are recommended, in order of effectiveness for this
activity. They are journals; oral and written expression;
and performance-based assessment.
Journals can be assessed on a continuum according
to the precision, comprehensiveness, and completeness
of the entries. Another continuum that can be used
to assess journals is the degree of thoughtfulness
the student used in writing the entries.
This activity meets National Health Care (Core) Skill
Standards for academic foundation, communication,
employability skills, and teamwork.
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Goals: To pursue academic achievement,
drop-out prevention, health career education/science/technology,
and enriching the cultural experiences of local youth.
Objectives:
- To expose students to health career curriculum
with emphasis upon excellence in the field of science,
math, and technology when considering careers in
health care.
- To engage students in subject areas, noting an
aging workforce (job opportunities) and the importance
of continued education, to become eligible for future
job positions.
- To develop an awareness of career opportunities
in the health professions and the health care industry
as a whole, while building (the public’s)
confidence in the health care system
- To create individual responsibility by educating
students to the possibilities and entrance requirements
needed to become a health care professional, and
how decisions students make now will influence their
ability to enter into these fields later.
What will the students do?
This is the information age. Students will
have the opportunity to perform health and science
research on the Internet, by accessing information
from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Before the Internet, and the “democratization
of information,” people needed to spend years
to gain access to this level of state-of-the-art research.
People used to need to go through four years of college,
four years of medical school, and then travel to Bethesda,
Maryland to perform research at the National Library
of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health.
Now, through the Internet, anyone, including American
high school students, can access this research instantly
from their own classrooms.
Students will choose a health topic from a list prepared
by their teacher, which they will research over the
Internet. They will type their reports on the computer,
and share them with their classmates and teachers
on-line via e-mail. Students will read and respond
to their classmates’ reports via e-mail.
In the course of preparing their assignments, the
students’ research will be entirely on-line.
They will be encouraged to follow related cyber links
which they will have access to in the course of their
research.
Students will be required to track the links they
have followed in this research. They will draw a map
of the links that they followed and present this to
their class, to demonstrate the scope and paths of
their research process.
What will the educators do?
Educators will communicate the importance
of students having and demonstrating health research
skills over the Internet. Educators will prepare the
list of research topics, monitor the progress in researching
and writing these reports, and schedule the process.
Educators will coordinate with the computer departments
at their schools to assure that each student has an
e-mail address.
Educators will review and evaluate the quality of
the presentations and the feedback from the classmates.
As part of the “ethics” training on Internet
usage, educators should teach what plagiarism is,
to assure that it does not take place between classmates.
The educator will arrange for the business/adopter
to come to the class, to assist in demonstrating the
on-line research process.
What information is available to educators?
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS) presents one of the richest and most reliable
sources of information on the Internet. HHS documents
on the Web include information on health and social
issues, research-related data, and access to HHS services,
including interactive sites.
For health information especially, the HHS Web sites
are a unique resource. Consumers and professionals
alike can find extensive health information, including
data that are produced or supported by HHS agencies,
as well as links to other information from sources
that have been found reliable by HHS experts. It has
been estimated that more than 10,000 health-related
sites are on the Internet. HHS Web sites and gateways
can shorten searches and produce reliable information.
More
about HHS Web sites (Acrobat/pdf)
General HHS Health Information
Topical HHS Health Information
What other resources are available to Educators?
Your school may be eligible to obtain free computers
and related equipment through the U.S. Government
Computers for Learning program. Public, private and
home schools may register their technology needs and
preferences at the Computers for Learning Web site.
Federal agencies, such as the Health Resources and
Services Administration, use the site to donate computers
based upon need, including whether your school is
within an empowerment zone or enterprise community.
Other factors include the school's student to computer
ratio, the number of students who have Internet access,
and the percentage of students participating in the
school lunch program.
What are the activities of Business/Adopters?
Academic Enrichment/Career Awareness: serve
as a resource speaker and trainer; Cultural Enrichment:
sponsor visit by a health professional; and Community
Involvement: link high school students to the health
care facility, college/university or government office
that employs the health researcher.
The business/adopter should be a local professional
who performs health research using the Internet in
the course of his or her profession. This could be
a health care provider, in practice or at a local
health care facility; an academic at a local institution
of higher education; or a local, State, or Federal
government official who works in the community.
The business/adopter would come to class and demonstrate
how health research is performed as part of their
work, using the HHS Web sites. They would demonstrate
how they often access one cyber link from another,
creating a path that takes them where they wish to
go. They would explain how this research could be
applied in the course of their work, whether in treating
patients, developing academic research or a course,
or serving the public. Depending on the professional
focus, the same information can have a variety of
applications.
If time permits, it would be beneficial for the students
if they could send their research and reports via
e-mail to the business/adopter for review and feedback.
What methods should the educator use to assess
the effectiveness of this activity?
First, students will prepare and distribute
via e-mail, a report based on Internet based research.
Students will provide a map of the cyber links and
Web sites that they accessed in the course of performing
this research. And students will provide feedback
to their classmates on their on-line reports.
From the field of education, six methods of assessment
are recommended. They are projects, pictograms and
graphic organizers, performance-based assessment;
peer review; collaborative learning; and oral and
written expression.
This activity meets the National Health Education
Standards for demonstrating the ability to access
valid health information and health-promoting products
and services; and for analyzing the influence of culture,
media, and technology and other factors on health.
This activity meets National Health Care (Core) Skill
Standards academic foundation; communications; systems;
employability; and teamwork. In addition, this activity
would also set a foundation and introduction for meeting
those National Health Care Skill Standards for postsecondary
through life-long proficiency expectations for information
services, including analysis, information systems,
documentation and operations.
| Nurses,
Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics (EMTs),
and Laboratory Technicians |
Goals: To pursue academic achievement,
drop-out prevention, and health career education/science/technology.
Objectives:
- To expose students to health career curriculum
with emphasis upon excellence in the field of science,
when considering careers in health care.
- To engage students in subject areas, noting an
aging workforce (job opportunities) and the importance
of continued education, to become eligible for future
job positions.
- To develop an awareness of career opportunities
in the health professions and the health care industry
as a whole, while building (the public’s)
confidence in the health care system.
- To create individual responsibility by educating
students to the possibilities and entrance requirements
needed to become a health care professional, and
how decisions students make now will influence their
ability to enter into these fields later.
What will the students do?
Students choose to research one of three
health professions. These are nurse, emergency medical
technician and paramedic, or laboratory technician.
Students will learn what is required to become a member
of these health professions. To prepare for the shadowing,
students will research nature of the work, working
conditions, employment, training, other qualifications
and advancement,; job outlook, and earnings.
They will work with a nurse, EMT and paramedic, or
laboratory technician in their community to observe
what they do in the course of their work day. This
involves shadowing them in their place of work. The
student will review the information they previewed,
and discuss with the nurse, EMT and paramedic, or
laboratory technician, whom they are shadowing.
Student will prepare a report about their research
and experiences, and report their findings to the
other teams in the class.
What will the educators do?
Educators will divide the students into three
teams, based on the students’ choices of one
of the three health professions. Students who have
completed the health education program and have been
certified in CPR might be particularly good candidates
for EMTs and paramedics.
Educators will communicate the national need to increase
the number of qualified nurses and the quality of
nursing services across the country. The Secretary,
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, identified
the nursing shortage as a critical national priority.
Studies have shown that the demand for nursing services
is growing faster than the number of trained nurses,
placing an increasing strain on the Nation’s
health care system.
If more people don’t choose careers in nursing,
it will become more and more difficult for patients
to get quality health care. HHS grants to address
the emerging nurse shortage “will make it easier
for many bright students to pursue a rewarding career
in nursing, where they can improve the lives of Americans,
one patient at a time.
“A shortage of nurses threatens the quality
of health care in communities across America. As the
Nation grows older – and the Census Bureau estimates
that 40 million Americans will be over age 65 in 2010,
5 million more than currently – so too, does
the nursing workforce,” said HRSA Administrator
Elizabeth James Duke, Ph.D. in a June
2002 HHS News Release. “Nurses are growing
older and leaving the profession, but today’s
entrants are too few to replace them and to meet the
growing demand. These grants will go a long way toward
ensuring that the nursing work force keeps pace with
America’s changing health care needs.”
Educators will supervise this activity in which students
learn what is necessary to become a nurse; emergency
medical technician and paramedic; or laboratory technician.
This is a form of health professional job shadowing.
The current and projected needs are so urgent and
important that this program will focus only on these
health professions. For other health professions,
and for working with a health professional on a long-term
basis, please see the program on mentoring in the
English curriculum.
Other complementary programs are available in the
health science and health education curricula. These
are job shadowing on health technology and academic
job shadowing. The combination of these three programs
comprises the complete job shadowing experience.
The educator will contact the nurses, EMTs and paramedics,
and laboratory technicians in their community, to
arrange for the students to work together with them.
In the Occupational Outlook Handbook, under Health
Services, there are eight types of private health
service establishments. These include hospitals; physician
offices and clinics; dental offices and clinics; home
health care services; other health practitioner offices
and clinics; medical and dental laboratories; and
other health and allied service offices and clinics.
Public sector facilities include hospitals; offices
and clinics; community health centers; military facilities;
and government offices, laboratories, and facilities.
The educator will coordinate the scheduling of the
three teams’ research, shadowing, and report
writing and presentations.
What information is available to educators?
Educators will also obtain the classified ad sections
of their local newspapers. This will enable students
to determine the specific current requirements for
these types of jobs in their communities.
What are the activities of Business/Adopters?
Academic Enrichment/Career Awareness: serve as a
resource speaker; trainer; Cultural Enrichment: sponsor
visit by a health professional; and Community Involvement:
link high school students to the health service facility
or public safety department or health care facility
that employs the nurse, EMT and paramedic, or laboratory
technician.
Each of the three types of health professionals should
be a guest speaker, to orient the students about their
training, state and national credentialing requirements,
and their activities in the course of a typical day
of professional practice. Students would then accompany
their assigned health professional on a tour of the
health service facility where they are employed. During
this site visit, the health professional will demonstrate
their activities; students will get to see and experience
how the health professionals’ skill and training
are applied. The health professionals would provide
the experiences and information that the students
will document in their reports and presentations.
What methods should the educator use to assess
the effectiveness of this activity?
First, as described, each team of students will produce
a report of their experiences and what they learned
in shadowing these health professionals at their health
service facilities or public safety departments. Then
the student teams will present their findings.
From the field of education, two methods of assessment
are recommended. They are oral and written expression
and performance based assessment.
This activity meets National Health Care (Core) Skill
Standards for academic foundation, communication,
employability skills, and legal responsibility.
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