Davis High School students get hands-on experience with cutting-edge medical technology
Some Davis High School students are getting hands-on experience with cutting-edge medical technology.
It's part of a program to inspire more youth to become nurses and doctors.
And it comes at a time when the country is in desperate need of more health care professionals.
"The demand for doctors is just so huge," high school senior Neha Dinesh Kumar said.
"I know that it's very critical for us to have more nurses and doctors," senior Sarina Millar added.
A U.S. hospital study shows there will be a shortage of about 100,000 critical health care workers by 2028.
"We've got an aging population, there are many more people needing surgical care," Mercy Hospital surgeon Dr. Tyler Robinson said.
That's why Robinson is inviting high school students into his workplace – a surgical suite at Sacramento's Mercy General Hospital.
"I'm just hoping that that will inspire them and a couple of them will consider healthcare jobs," Robinson said.
As a student, he shadowed a surgeon at this same hospital 16 years ago.
Now he performs minimally invasive surgery using a robot — with many patients able to go home the same day.
Students like Neha, Jasmin and Sarah said they're learning a lot.
"Seeing it in real life is kind of a different experience," Neha said.
"I'm learning a lot more sciencey stuff here than my actual science classes," Sarina added.
But first comes years of college, internships, and residencies. This type of hands-on experience is just showing them how high-tech modern medicine can be.
Although for now, they're only allowed to operate on a banana instead of a real patient.
"It solidified my aspiration to go to med school," Sarina said.
"Coming here, it just makes me see how significant of an impact I can make on other people's lives," Neha said.
The program is part of an internship class at Davis High School that also allows students to observe other parts of the hospital like oncology, and the emergency department.